When I first noticed Roxy, she was sticking her neck through the bars of her cage like all of the thousands of other hens. But something was different—I couldn’t see her eye. She had a large mass growing on her face. It was so large, in fact, that it had taken over the entire side of her face, including her eye. I slowly opened the door to the tiny cage. There were so many other hens living in the same cage as her and they were all trying to get out of the opened door. It was so hard to just take her out and close the door on all of the other suffering animals with their sad little eyes looking up at me. She cried out in fear, her voice muffled by all of the other sounds of fear in this hot, loud factory. She began to calm down as I caressed her. This was the first she had ever been treated with compassion by a human. I felt that she was beginning to trust me.

We rescued her that night and took her to a vet for treatment. The abscess on her face had started as a sinus infection, but had continued to grow and take over her face due to the filthy living conditions found in “modern” factory farms.

Her story is not an uncommon one. We encountered numerous hens with raging sinus infections, all of which will continue to get worse, the vet informed us, if left untreated. As the egg factories do not offer veterinary care to the hens confined there, we had no choice but to take her with us and get her help.

The following day, she was put under general anesthesia and the avian specialist performed surgery to remove the mass. She was put on antibiotics and brought home with me to heal.

Her recovery was amazing. When she was first placed in the soft straw she stretched her wings and the sunlight coming in from the window covered her featherless body. This was probably the first time that she had ever fully stretched her wings or had left the sun’s warmth. She was finally free. She began to eat well and especially enjoyed snacking on grapes. We gave her a nice warm bath to remove the dried manure and filth attached to her few remaining brittle feathers. Afterward, she began to preen herself.

Roxy is now living at a fabulous farm sanctuary where she will able to live out the rest of her life free and happy in the company of her fellow rescued friends.