In January, California resident Michelle Davignon went to pick up some new homes for her guinea pigs and walked away with a unique new companion. It turns out that the woman from whom she was getting the guinea pig homes was moving and had a chicken named Nubz that she couldn’t take with her. Davignon agreed to add the chicken to the family and went to work welcoming the bird. That’s when she discovered the origin of Nubz's name. The chicken had lost her toes due to a case of scaly leg mites — microscopic insects that can live underneath the scales that cover a chicken’s feet. To help prevent the situation from worsening, Davignon used different sprays on the bird and her feet. Along with the treatments, Davignon discovered that a good way to treat the mites is to suffocate them with Vaseline and then wrap up the bird’s greased-up feet. Nubz responded well to the treatment, but it tended to cause quite a mess. Davignon then came up with an alternative treatment that would work for both her and Nubz. She decided to put boots on the chicken to keep her feet clean. The first pair were a set of reindeer dog shoes. Davignon was amazed at how well Nubz navigated in the shoes, and her feet showed immediate improvement. Now, Nubz has around 30 pairs of shoes and has become quite the fashion queen.
