We love heartwarming stories like Sweetpea's incredible luck and recovery, or The Special Ones at Blackberry Creek Farm animal sanctuary. Today we are bringing Scout's story to you. It is written by our friend, Kim Kunst, who has a micro-sanctuary in Danville, CA. She has a soft spot for special needs animals.
"I adopted Scout (Ameraucana / Leghorn) knowing that he was a scissor beak chicken. He was only about 3 months old, extremely thin (0.9 kg/2lbs) and covered in lice. When I got him home, he immediately went in for an epsom salt bath and then a blow dry. He was so sweet and loved the attention. He also loves to try and eat on his own so he always has a deep bowl of food around him. But when trying to feed him, in a deep bowl, we both ended up covered in his food and his crop rarely felt full. He was seen at Medical Center for Birds in Oakley, CA, for evaluation of reconstructing his jaw but he was still too young and they felt that he wouldn’t be a good candidate. I was taught how to gavage feed him and planned on doing it twice a day while monitoring his weight weekly.
I bought a magic bullet blender, 18 french catheters, 60ml and 35 ml catheter tip syringes and cut the arms off my husbands sweat shirt to secure Scouts wings while feeding him. I blend up 4-5 spoonfuls of organic chicken pellets, 1 spoonful of avian health shake, and 1/2 cup warm water. We started with 60ml of ground up feed increasing to now 75-80 ml. And he has gained weight nicely and loves to peck at his feeding tube prior to getting fed. He has great feather growth and lives with his hens during the day and comes in to sleep at night so its easier feeding him. His scissor beak is so severe but I feel like he has a great quality of life and we absolutely love him."
Below is a video of Kim demonstrating how to prepare and feed Scout.