Hen Chronicles: Finally, Snow flies her flag at full staff

On the face of it, the photo below shows nothing out of the ordinary. Our feisty Plymouth Rock, Snow, is in the foreground, backed by Rhode Island Reds Nellie and Hope. To Liz and me, though, this seemingly ordinary image is anything but. In fact, it's an especially welcome sight.

I’ve mentioned in this space before that Snow suffered a prolapsed oviduct back in May. More commonly (and crudely) known as a blowout, this occurs when the egg-laying process goes awry and some chicken innards are ejected with the egg. In Snow’s case, we managed to gently push the exposed tissue back in before I took Snow to a veterinarian, who recommended a course of treatment that lasted several days.

As you can see from this photo, which I took Friday morning, Snow (aka “the miracle hen”) survived her ordeal. In fact, she’s laying quite regularly again, so far without any problems. But until a few days ago, her tail seemed to signal that something was still amiss.

I never really paid too much attention to the hens’ tails before Snow had her mishap. But during her recovery, I began to notice that she was holding hers differently than the other hens did theirs. Wakeful chickens normally keep their tails in a horizontal position, or elevated. Snow had a drooping tail. Although she was behaving normally in other respects, her tail hung down, fully covering her bum as she made her rounds in the pen.

After several weeks of this, she finally began elevating her tail, occasionally at first, then more regularly, until the “new” posture, which really marked the return of her old posture, became constant.

I suppose Snow might have injured her tail in connection with her ordeal, but I have a different theory. I don’t think it’s anthropomorphizing to suggest that, for quite a while after the blowout, Snow continued to feel some pain or discomfort or tenderness near her vent (chicken lingo for anus), so she covered it with her tail because she felt vulnerable there.

Animals are adept at hiding sickness and injuries. But sometimes, despite their best efforts at concealment, instinct betrays them, and reveals the truth.