When I got home today we found one of my beautiful chickens was laying injured amongst the leaves in the goat pen. She was limping on her good leg and then burrowing into the leaves. It was nice to see that one of her sisters refused to leave her side.
We brought her inside and examined her, it looked like she had a puncture wound and a possible broken leg. I put some neo-sporin on the open wound and gave her some chicken electrolytes with a bit of aspirin mixed in.
I didn't have any tongue depressors to use as a splint so I substituted some card stock as a replacement.
The card stock was covered with some vet wrap to hold it in place.
The chicken has been moved inside to Sara's kennel to see how she does. I read that injured chickens are attacked by their coop mates, I'm not sure if that is true but I don't want to take any chances.
I'm not sure if a chicken can survive a broken/injured leg, but I hope so.
Sara wants her kennel back and Patch, Mocha, and Chai Chai are very interested in our visitor, but they had better get used to it as the kennel may have to house kids and/or lambs this Spring.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI have had chickens survive leg injuries. Some have healed and others haven't but the chickens hopped around OK. I had one rooster that went to another farm so he would not have to compete with the other roosters here and he did quite well.
Thank you for the encouragement, it is nice to know that there is hope!
ReplyDeleteDog kennels are definitely not just for dogs - I have my chicks in one right now - and we used portable kennels to get the sheep home from Waikoloa a month ago.
ReplyDeleteI have had injured hens attacked by their coop mates. I think you are right to keep her separate. It looks like you did a good job on her leg.
Great job! Chickens like to peck. They are curious things and will peck at anything to investigate. So any injuries are usually in need of protection. Then when they establish a pecking order, many of them just don't know when to quit, so life can be very difficult on a bird that can't get away.
ReplyDeleteWe butchered one of the hens that was a perpetual target. Her life was so miserable, having been rejected by all. I felt awful that, in order to save her, we had to kill her. Life just isn't fair much of the time.
Your hen looks like she is well cared for and I'm sure she'll be just fine after a little bit of healing. :o)
~Faith
We have one hen, Danni, who broke one of her toes when she was young. It somehow got hooked in the feeder when she tried to scratch at the food in the feeder. Then, once it got hooked, she flopped around and really broke the toe. She refused to walk after it happened. she wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink, would have died if we didn't take care of her. We put her in a pen inside, fed her veggies and water from a dropper, taped her toe straight, and most importantly, gave her aspirin water. the aspirin water seem to help the pain. After a day on the aspirin water she seemed alot better. We kept Danni inside for a while, until she started walking again. She went thru a depression, and I even brought in another pullet to keep her company. The other bird encouraged her to walk and eat on her own. Danni is now fine, but her one toe still points in the wrong direction. The things we do for our animals!
ReplyDelete~Lynn
Nancy, The kennel is really coming in handy. We have put some table leaf's on it and a lamp with a few knickknack's and a lamp so it doubles as furniture.
ReplyDeleteFaith, We definately won't put her back with the others until she can hold her own.
Lynn, I wasn't sure about the aspirin water so it is nice to get conformation. I remembered your post about putting company in with an injured hen and I will do that once she gets a bit better.
Thanks all for your advice!
One of my GLW's has a busted leg as well. She dislocated her knee almost a year ago and it never healed correctly. She hobbled around surprisingly well, although she no longer lays (she's only 14 months) and she has a difficult time keeping her weight up because of all the extra effort, but she doesn't seem unhappy or in pain.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of the big chickens gave her a terribly hard time, especially the boys, so she lives with the silkies now. Hansel, my head silkie roo, will bug her every now and then in a "romantic' way, but he's not aggressive or rough with her. The other silkies mostly ignore her.
So, it can be done! She might heal up just fine and then you'd only have the temporary reintroduction troubles, but if she doesn't, all hope isn't lost.
BYBW, That is good news. I am hoping that if/once she gets better the reintroduction won't be too bad because of the guineas being in the mix. I think they have prevented the "pecking" order from being established as it normally would.
ReplyDelete