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The most chill chicken

Easter Egger is newest member of therapy team

Staff photo / R. Michael Semple Rehab therapy coordinator Meghan Miller, left, and rehab therapist Katie Maunz, discuss the newest member of the team, Stella, an Easter Egger chicken. Stella lays blue eggs. A very docile bird, she has been subbing for therapy dogs at Generations Behavioral Hospital-Youngstown.

YOUNGSTOWN — The newest member of the therapy team at Generations Behavioral Health-Youngstown is a chicken from Bazetta who lays blue eggs.

Stella — a breed known as an Easter Egger for laying blue, green and pink eggs — was drafted onto the team after COVID-19 restrictions closed the door on therapy dogs.

The 3-year-old hen with amber eyes, black-highlighted reddish-brown feathers and fuzzy “chipmunk cheeks” tufts rides on shoulders like a four-pound parakeet or snuggles into laps like a softly clucking cat.

“The use of animals in a mental health setting has shown a positive impact on the patients’ well-being both physically and emotionally,” Meghan Miller, rehab therapy coordinator at Generations and Stella’s owner, said.

Time with pets has a way of reducing bad behavior, soothing stress and offering acceptance. Even a day later, patients who had been aggressive tended to remain more calm and responsive to healing treatment.

THE ‘FARM’

An animal lover from way back to her days growing up in Wadsworth with pet goats and rabbits, Miller and her brood have two dogs, two cats, a rabbit and nine chickens on a couple of acres in Bazetta.

One of the dogs is a retired therapy dog. Miller wanted to bring in her dog when the therapy visits ended. But the retired dog’s animal therapy certification also had expired and the hospital CEO said no.

Miller considered asking about the bunny, but rabbits have claws and tend to bite.

Then she thought about the most chill chicken she knows — Stella.

“I realized my girls (ages 5 and 3) hold her constantly, dress her up and go down the slide with her,” Miller said. “Each chicken has an individual personality,” Miller said. She noted that two of her chickens, Bonnie and Clyde, are “terrible” — definitely not therapy animal candidates. But Stella…

“Meghan is very creative,” Katie Maunz, a rehabilitation therapist from Sharpsville, Pa., said. “She’s always throwing out ideas. She said, ‘What if I bring in my chicken?’ I said, ‘Let’s go for it.'”

Plus, while there are therapy animal certifications for many other critters — dogs, cats, pigs, horses, rabbits and guinea pigs among them — chickens are not regulated.

“I begged and pleaded with my boss, ‘Can I bring in my chicken?'” Miller said.

The CEO finally consented and Stella debuted shortly before Thanksgiving.

CHICKEN WALK

“We take them into the activity room, walking around with the chicken,” said Maunz, who’s still a little leery of the bird. She doesn’t like it when Stella does that rapid-fire chicken flapping of wings, scattering feathers, fluff and chicken dust. But the patients love it, she said.

“Most of our patients see therapy dogs. It was different to see a chicken,” Maunz said. “We had people who would share stories with us. A lot of them grew up on farms.”

Others were just surprised to see a barnyard fowl on the hospital premises. “One of the geriatric patients said, ‘We had chickens. But I would never let them in the house,” Miller said.

The adult and dual diagnosis units also enjoyed visits from Stella. “Most patients wanted to hold her on their lap or have her perch on their shoulder. The adult and dual diagnosis patients were eager to pet her and hold her.

“We discussed the different types of birds and what color eggs different birds can lay,” Miller said. “We also discussed the care for chickens and what it entails. A lot of the patients were shocked to know that chickens can lay colored eggs from pink, blue, brown to white.”

THERAPY FOWL

Miller said she became the “crazy chicken lady” about four years ago when her sister-in-law needed to find a new home for her chickens. The sister-in-law’s dogs weren’t behaving around the birds.

So over that Labor Day weekend, a coop was built in the Millers’ yard in Bazetta and 17 chickens moved in.

At the moment, the shifting population includes Easter Eggers Stella and her sister Helen, plus some Australorps, Marans, Barred Rock and Olive Eggers (which lay olive-colored eggs, the result of crossing brown egg layers with blue egg layers).

“Chickens have been known to be used for therapy animals, as the birds can be docile and kind-natured,” Miller said.

Before a hospital session, Stella is bathed and her feet cleaned. Even though the hen is clean, patients must take the precaution of using hand sanitizer after handling the chicken.

For the time being, Stella will continue to make hospital visits to provide therapy and comfort for mental health patients, Miller said.

She’s also trying to line up a horse or two for parking lot visits in the spring.

“They won’t let me bring a horse into the hospital,” Miller said.

Perhaps if Stella was in the saddle…?

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