Vet fees.....how much will you pay for sick hen treatment?

[Sickdog]

Hello

I'm a relatively new hen keeper, around 15 months now. My 7 bantams are a hobby rather than essential suppliers of eggs! The start up costs were pretty substantial and I'd hoped that the monthly costs for food/wormer/tonic would be fairly low.

Unfortunately I've had two hens become sick at different times in the last six months. On both occasions the vet fees were between £100-£120 for faecal sample analysis andcrop feeding for one day. One time it was found to be coccidiosis and on the other no cause found (but hen later recovered). I now have another sick hen, so am looking at around £120 again for her to be examined and lab analysis. She's lethargic, off her food and has lost weight. All hens wormed a few weeks ago.

I'm not sure I can really keep paying hundreds of pounds a year for vet fees alone.Perhaps I was naive in thinking looking after hens would be low cost! What do you do when you have a sick hen that needs help from a vet? Do you have a budget for treatment and won't go above that if the vet suggests more investigations? Thanks.

Oh don't, we pay ridiculous amounts for ours. Despite saying we won't every time. DH paid £250 on a bank hol once.
Head says it's bonkers, heart gives in every time.
I'm down to a few old bantams now and I love the old dears, so we'll probably carry on funding the vets new range rover.

The only thing that makes me feel better is that the horse costs far more (£3k this year and counting!).