Amputated a chicken's leg today

BelladonnaB said:

What happened to the exposed bone after you cut it? Or does that heal by itself?

Click to expand...

ruth said:

I've had a Barred Rock that has had a twisted deformed leg since she hatched Feb. 14th. When she was just a tiny chick I tried everything such as bandaids, rubber bands, string, etc. to try and fix the little leg that just kept going straight out from her side. Nothing worked. As she aged she lost more and more control of the leg and the toes were always all twisted up together. The "knee" joint was fused together and just kept getting bigger. I named her Sweetie and she has been freeranging with everyone else all this time. No one has picked on her.

However lately she has been staying in the coop and losing mobility more and more. The leg sticks straight out from her side, sometimes over her head, and has been catching in everything - cages, wires, feeders. I go and check on her several times a day and often would find her caught up in something because the curled, knarly toes were caught in something and she could not get free. She has been flopping around and using her wings to help get free and has worn all feathers off the right wing. She was looking pretty pitiful and could no longer get to food so I would always take some to her.

Today I decided I either had to put her down or amputate the leg. I chose amputation. I've often examined her leg and she seems to have no feeling or blood flow to the foot, or not much.

I shaved the area above the deformed "knee", boiled a large pair of wire cutters on the stove, tied off the area above the cutting point with a rubber band, and asked DH to help me. While I held her I asked him to make the cut because I didn't know if I would have enough hand strength to make a cut, hard, first attempt clean cut. He did a great job and she didn't even squirm. In fact she was so still I had to look to see that the leg was gone. There were only three drops of blood from the bone and I held a gauze to her leg and that's all there was to it. I've wrapped her up with vet wrap, wrapped her bare wing also so she can use it for support, and have given her Penicillin as a preventative.

She will probably have to learn to walk again now that the bad leg isn't swinging out beside her throwing her balance off and snagging on everything. But I think she will do much better now.

It's always interesting around here with all these chickens. Yesterday I had to do some massive sewing up on the back of a hen that the roosters ripped to shreds.

Guess I'm posting this so others will know that these birds are amazingly resislent and that if you have to, you can do anything and everything to try and save them.

Wish Sweetie the best.

And, before anyone asks, yes I tried many times to get our one and only vet to do this. She would not. One time I just took the chicken in without asking hoping she would see her and change her mind. She would not. Her reason was that she knew nothing about chickens and could not administer anesthetic to them.

Here's pics of Sweetie and her deformed leg.

This is before she lost the ability to get around and she still had her wing feathers.

Here's a close up of the leg.

And here she is minutes after amputation enjoying bread on my kitchen floor. I may make her an inside chicken - just what we need around here - a house chicken.

Click to expand...