What a bit of TLC can do

In September we went through the 12 month barrier with Mary.  They say if an ex bat survives a year with you you've done well.  Unfortunately her counterpart Tess only made 10 days but Mary was much stronger when we got them.  She did have a week were I thought we were going to loose her - coughing, difficulty breathing, listless etc.  We brought her inside and treated her with antibiotics, anti-inflamatories and we de-wormed her.  She pulled through and hadsn't shown any signs of illness since.  Here she is tucking into some apple that Polly also had her eye on.

When December comes we'll have had Helen and Joan for a year.  It was heartbreaking to see the condition they were in.  Dirty, featherless (apart from their heads) and their combs (red bit on top of their heads) were enlarged, floppy and pale.

Joan is on the left with her foot in the food bowl and Helen is on the right with just a few more feathers down her front.  It was months before they resembled anything like a proper chicken.  You can hardly tell with Helen now, her body is covered in beautiful honey gold plumage.  Joan still looks a bit scrawny,  her tail feathers never grew back properly and she is tiny but there has been a wonderful change in her face.  You see on the photo above that both of them are very pale, they look absolutely washed out.

Look at how she's changed.  It's a total transformation.  A lovely bright red healthy comb standing upright and lots of colour in her other features.  Whenever food is put out she grabs some and runs away to eat it by herself because the others just grab it off her if she doesn't.  She's happy to be picked up but has never been one for a cuddle.  She used to climb frantically onto my shoulder and then jump off but now she grudgingly lets me hang onto her for a while and is even starting to relax and take in the moment.

And here is Helen.  Look at that beautiful feathered body.  The only evidence of her harsh treatment are those two bottom feathers on her wing which simply refuse to grow. 

How they have flourished with a little bit of tender loving care.