Wolowitz Goes to the Vet

I want to tell you all about Wolowitz going to the vet. It all started when we noticed him limping. His right foot was giving him trouble, so we cornered the poor guy to capture him and take a look. Bobbie and I knew very little about chickens at the time, so there was some googling and reverse image searching, only to find out about a common chicken ailment called bumblefoot. We tried wrapping his foot up with Vetrap and using Epsom salt poultices, to no avail for this poor dude.

After a week of trying home remedies, it was time to go see the vet. Shout out to Tucson Exotic Pet Vets for getting us in so quickly! The waiting room was a hoot. It must have been bird day, because we saw parakeets, cockatiels, and even a giant gray goose!

When it was finally our turn, we went back into the exam room and got Wolowitz out of his carrier. After playing nervous for a minute or two, he decided the exam room was his and made himself right at home. He did a few hobbly laps around the room, pooping every couple of steps to really mark his territory. He crowed loudly enough that all the other exam rooms knew that he was there.

The vet and the assistant loved him right away, but for his exam, he had to be put into “air jail” so he wouldn’t get too crazy while they felt his foot and leg. We were prescribed more daily wrapping, some rest, and some injectable antibiotics for the infection in his foot so that it would not spread to the joints.

When the vet left the room to go get his meds, things took a bit of a turn. After having limped around for almost a week at the Corral, this little guy decided that he had a little more pep left in his step after all. He hopped onto the swivel doctor chair, then straight onto the computer desk. I’m sitting there thinking, “Oh, how cute,” so I get my phone out and snap a quick picture. That’s when all hell broke loose.

As soon as I got my photo op, this silly boy decided to scamper across the keyboard, simultaneously flapping his wings and hitting the touchscreen monitor. Before I knew what was happening, the computer was on some interesting settings-looking page. Right after the commotion, the vet walked back in. “Sorry,” I told her, and explained the Wolowitz adventure. She tried to exit out of the screen and get our discharge paperwork, but nope. She called in the assistant, who also had no clue how to get out of this new screen. After some time trying to figure out what IT magic Wolowitz had summoned, they decided to print from another room and call tech support in the morning.

So, it turns out Wolowitz is a bit of a computer nerd. Too bad he’s the kind of guy who likes to take things apart to see how they work… but is incapable of putting them back together.

I got a nice crash course in intramuscular injections for chickens, and that night he got some oral pain meds in a French fry from our drive-through detour on the way home. (You know the burger joint is a crazy place to work when the employees don’t even question a rooster in the passenger seat of the car!) After over an hour of driving, we were finally back home at the Corral.

I think Wolowitz’s favorite part of bed rest was that the vet approved his favorite girl to rest with him. Bernadette and Wolowitz got the recovery box in the coop all to themselves. We worried a little about the pecking order, but even from behind the chicken wire, Wolowitz was able to keep his top command in the flock and not let Ethel, our other rooster, take over.

After a couple of weeks of rest, we went back to the vet for the all-clear, and Wolowitz was all clear! No more bumblefoot, yay! Wolowitz has been doing amazingly well since his recovery, and the flock is thrilled to have him back in the yard and back on top.

Next week, Bernadette will go to the vet for a routine checkup and some bloodwork. We sure hope she is not the aspiring computer engineer that her best buddy is.

Welcome to Colby Corral!

In the back of my mind, I knew I’d start an animal rescue someday. I used to dream that I’d go to the pound, ask who the oldest resident was, and take him home to live out his final years in warmth, love, and peace. I was the kid who cried when a baby bird fell from the nest, begging my parents to let me nurse it back to health. I was the little girl sobbing at Bambi and Finding Nemo. I was the daughter begging my parents, “Can we keep him?” whenever there was a stray anything—dog, cat, lizard, or cricket. I am still that little girl inside.

Hi Corral Crew! Amber Colby here with my first story of many to come. Thanks joining me and reading the origin story of Colby Corral.

I became a Colby by falling in love with a man who sees animals through the same lens. Bobbie and I met working at a pig sanctuary. I remember the first time I saw him interacting with pigs. His 6’4” frame kneeling (and sometimes fully laying) down to get at eye level with the animals, talking to them like he’d talk to a friend… that’s what pulled me in.

We married in May 2025, and back in April of this year, we bought a house together on 5 acres. We knew we wanted to rescue animals of our own, but we had no idea that, in a matter of months, we would be running our own animal sanctuary. Everything has fallen into place in a cosmic way that we never could have foreseen. It started with the home’s previous owners leaving their flock of 21 chickens behind. Overnight, we became chicken people. Then, on our one-year wedding anniversary, we got a call from Snouts of Sedona, a pig sanctuary we had visited on our honeymoon, asking if we could help rescue a baby farm hog.

The first thing that came to mind was: We are not ready. We have no fencing, no food, no time. But the universe thought otherwise. Everything was calling out to us to say yes, and so we did. Bobbie grabbed a tape measure. I grabbed the phone and a calculator. How much fencing would we need? How much would it all cost? When could we bring the little boy home? We talked to dozens of people and businesses, priced out hog panels and T-posts, swallowed our pride and our fears, and asked for help. Boy, oh boy, did help come!

The little baby hog, whom we decided to call Bigfoot, had a place to stay at Ironwood Pig Sanctuary in Marana. He had vet care for his neuter and injuries. He was safe and healthy while we created a GoFundMe to raise the money needed to set up his area. Ironwood donated a shelter, some of the fencing, and some shade cloth, and they let us borrow tools to build it all. Bobbie and I scavenged the property we had just bought to see if there was anything left behind that we could use. We found wooden posts, metal wire, nails, screws, and shovels. There were runs to Tractor Supply, Home Depot, Lowe's, and anywhere else we could think of. We ran hoses, poured concrete for gate posts, raked sticks, trash, and debris, and set up the shelter from the parts that were given to us. Meanwhile, the donations started pouring in from friends and family, then acquaintances, and then people we had never even met. The generosity flowed, and our gratitude overflowed in the form of tears and thankful prayers.

We decided that THIS is what we wanted our lives to be: saving animals, connecting with people, and making a difference. We were going to call our new home the Colby Corral, but we decided to make that the name of our rescue instead. We rescued the 21 chickens left behind, and have since brought in 3 more rescue chickens with 2 more on the way. Bigfoot made a friend in his time recovering at Ironwood Pig Sanctuary—a little hog-potbelly mix named Specks. Both little boys, who will someday grow to be the size of small horses, will be coming to their forever home at Colby Corral in a week! Let the sanctuary life begin!

We cannot believe the love and support we have gotten from our community and from the universe as we take on this huge, happy, unexpected chapter in our lives. From the bottom of our hearts, we say THANK YOU to the Corral Crew. I cannot wait to update you all on the new adventures coming our way.

What the Cluck?! — Blog Coming Soon

Hey Corral Crew! Soon we will be launching our blog, What the Cluck, where you can learn what the Colby Corral is up to. We’ll be sharing updates on the sanctuary, posts about daily life at the Corral, and tips and tricks for dealing with your own flocks or herd. Stay tuned for updates, and sign up for our mailing list in the Contact section to never miss a cluck or oink.

Thank you all for supporting our dream of starting this animal sanctuary. We truly cannot do it without you.