An unlucky woman whose pet cockerel swallowed her diamond
earring will have to wait until it dies to retrieve her precious
jewellery.
Claire Lennon from Berkshire lost her earring when cockerel
Sarah pecked it off while perched on her shoulder.
She will have to wait eight years to get her hands on the
£300 present that her partner Adam, 38, gave her again.
Vets say it is trapped inside the stomach of six-month-old
Sarah and will not come out.
Claire, also 38, said 'The vet said he could operate to
recover the earring, but that might kill Sarah, which would
devastate our six-year-old daughter Mia'.
'So we’ll have to wait till Sarah gets old and dies, but they
live to a ripe old age - we are probably looking at another eight
years before I get my earring back.'
Sarah, who is in fact a cockerel despite having a hen's name,
is a family pet who loves sitting on Claire’s shoulder at home near
Newbury.
Claire explained: 'I felt this sudden sharp pain in my ear
lobe and realised Sarah had gobbled down the earring'.
She and Adam, an IT specialist, put the chicken in a cage and
spent the next few days searching the floor in case the earring had
passed through the chicken.
'But there was sign of it and Mia’s friend’s father, who’s a
vet, said it might have got stuck in the gizzard.'
'We spoke to another vet, Carl Gorman, who said he would do
an X ray.
'The X ray showed it was stuck firmly in the gizzard so Carl
gave Sarah some laxatives, hoping it would pass.
'But it didn’t work, it’s still stuck fast and we have
accepted it is trapped inside and won’t come out.
'The vet said he could operate and go in through Sarah’s
stomach but it could prove fatal.
'We couldn’t face that - Mia adores Sarah and would be
heart-broken.
“The vet said over the weeks and months, the platinum white
gold would disintegrate and be ground down by the grit and stuff
that hens eat to aid their digestion.
'But the diamond is so hard it will not be damaged and will
just stay there in the until Sarah dies and then of course we can
get it back.'
Claire explained why Sarah is in fact a cockerel.
She said: 'He’s called Sarah because when we got him as a
chick, we thought he was a she.
'When he got older and we realised it was a cockerel, we
decided to stick with the name.
'We’re keeping as close eye on him to make sure he doesn’t
get caught, carried off and eaten by a fox or the diamond will be
gone forever.
'It’s a shame I have lost the earring because it was one of a
matching pair that Adam bought for me so they’re really sentimental
and mean a lot.
'But we can’t risk anything that might mean we lose
Sarah.
'At least we know where the earring is - and one day I will
get it back, even if it means waiting for a few years!'
