'My Soulmate': Woman Spends $10,000 On Surgery For Pet Chicken

WELLINGTON, CO — It's not uncommon for animal lovers to dish out $10,000 or more for surgeries to keep their beloved pets alive. After all, cats and dogs are considered family members to the humans who love them.

But for one Colorado woman, it was her pet chicken that she paid big bucks to bring back to good health.

Seleta Nothnagel told People Magazine her Blue Maran chicken, named Blue, is her "soulmate."

Which meant there was no second thought about spending whatever was needed, even $10,000, on surgery for the chicken — even though the 2-year-old bird was purchased for a mere $12 at a feed store.

"I told my husband, 'If Blue doesn't make it, you might as well dig a hole big enough to put both of us in,'" she told the magazine. "I just don't know if I can't handle life without her. She's just the coolest bird."

When Blue was diagnosed with patent ductus arteriosus at the Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital last year, her chances of survival without a major surgery were slim. The ailment is a congenital heart defect that affects the surrounding blood vessels, according to the American Heart Association.

The procedure to repair the defect is common in children, cats and dogs, but veterinarians warned Nothnagel it had never before been done on a bird and her chicken was a bit of guinea pig, according to the People story. Bills from the surgery and appointments leading up to it totaled about $10,000, the report states.

In her small hometown of Wellington, just north of Fort Collins and south of Colorado's border with Wyoming, Nothnagel's friends and neighbors told her it wasn't worth it.

"You wouldn't even bat an eye if I said I spent $10,000 on my dog to have his heart repaired," Nothnagel told the magazine. "But when you say it's a chicken, people say, 'Oh my God, you spent how much on a chicken? You could just put her in a crockpot and go get another.'"

Not Nothnagel, who considers Blue a family member and her friend in the garden. The chicken even sleeps on her bedside table and loves to munch on cheese and fruit.

"I'd totally do it again," Nothnagel told People. "You want the best for your pets. She's family."

Read more via People Magazine