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The pink is the fire, the yellow used to be evacuated but they shrunk the evacuation zone.

So the fire is still huge and still burning, but they announced last night that it was "holding", meaning that unless something changes, the fire is staying put. It's still "out of control" because they don't have enough controls in place yet to contain it if the conditions do change... but it's a step in the right direction.

We are so lucky that we didn't have to evacuate and all our stuff and critters are safe here... But we are both so very tired. As if the looming evacuation order and job hunt weren't enough to keep up occupied, we also have a sick chicken. 

On June 1st I found Henrietta lethargic in the nest box and brought her indoors for a good look. She was dehydrated and her butt was caked in poop. She was also having trouble breathing. She's on the road to recovery now but it was and is scary.

June 1

To save the long nasty descriptions, she has a yeast infection throughout her digestive system. The back end got bad enough to mess with egg production(which is a separate but connected system) and the front end got bad enough to make it harder to breathe(again separate but connected system). 

She's being treated and has slowly started drinking on her own, preening, and even started eating again but only soft or super tasty foods, and so far only a small amount. Once she's back eating her normal food for a day or two she can go back with the rest. 

Today (June 7)

So it turns out the pale and infrequent eggs were coming from this lil lady. I didn't recognize it as a symptom of a problem because I was checking the wrong chicken. I kept checking on Kelly assuming she was the one with the poor eggs, but Henrietta here has had a poopy butt pretty much since we got her. Since I thought it was just that, I figured she was fine... But it seems she's been kind of sick this whole time and the stress of the smoke, ashes possibly making their water alkaline for a day, and then to top it all off I threw them some apple as a "treat" to make up for all the stress. Adding sugar to a yeast infection is like adding cotton balls to a match flame.

These were my best guesses in April.

Same photo but these are the new best guesses

The hospital cage in the living room works great for keeping an eye on her but certainly smells. I have to swap out the cage liner 3 or 4 times a day on top of meds and encouraging her to eat and drink so I am very tired.... and our electricity bill will likely show the spike from all the loads of laundry. I'll be happy when Henrietta is back out with her flock but I know I'll miss the little good morning chirps she does the first time she sees me each day. Poor girl must be lonely between 5 and 7 am.

Okie dokie... that's all for now. Have a good week.