£1,800 for a chicken leg

A woman from Cwmbran, Torfaen took out a bank loan and lived on beans on toast for a year to pay £1,800 in vet bills after her pet chicken injured its leg.

Vicky Mills, 24, was heartbroken when Lily, a Rhode Island Red, got her leg trapped in a barbed wire fence.

Despite the costs, Mrs Mills told her vet to try to save the limb rather than have her put down. When the treatment failed, she paid for an amputation.

Lily was also diagnosed with depression but has now recovered, said Mrs Mills.

The chicken's gloominess was thought to have been brought on by being in the house alone while Mrs Mills and her husband Sam were out at work.

So the couple now leave the television on all day to keep it company and it is a "happy hen again", they said.

Mrs Mills was given Lily, now three-years-old, when it was a two-day-old chick and she now lays up to six eggs a week for her and husband Sam.