Bad wing/Golden Comet-need advice

Hi all-We haven't posted much at all though we check the site out quite a bit. We have 3 Golden Comets. One afternoon a few weeks ago we saw one had a wing wound. Can't figure out where it came from. No wild animals. They never fight and have all been together since they were young. We bathed the wing and it seemed to be getting better. I was out of town for work and we had a neighbor kid feeding the birds. Came back and I noticed the one with the bad wing had trouble walking as the wing is dragging a little on the ground. We immediately bathed it again but it's become heavy and hard as a rock.

The bird still eats and gets around fairly well. It seems like the wing is dead as she can't flap it really. I'm waiting to hear back from a vet but looking like Monday. We think if the wing wasn't dragging she could pull through. Can we pull the feathers on the end of the wing? Can feathers be cut without hurting her? I'll post pics on here in a few minutes.

It's been a few weeks so we think it's not infected as she wouldn't live this long would she? At first it had a bad smell but that's gone away. Just shocked how bad it got in the 8 days we were gone. She's pecking at it to get it off it seems. Sorry I have no clue how to delete this cartoon chicken image from my post. Thanks for any help!!

i would try to isolate her from the others if possible, once blood is seen they will peck at it, you may also want to trim/pluck feathers (watch for blood feathers), corn starch can help stop bleeding
clean it, blu kote, vetericin spray, then neosporin/triple antibiotic
then wrap it, then wrap to her body so it isnt dragging anymore

Good Luck!!

http://www.gardenbetty.com/2015/11/chicken-first-aid-how-to-wrap-a-sprained-wing/

Thank you DNL-we've been applying Neosporin and antibiotic wash to it. Can we actually cut the end feathers? That alone will make her feel way better I think. Or can they be plucked without hurting her? Actually going to wash her again now.

Also how can we wrap it to her body? Is there a certain bandage or sling you could suggest? We think that will make her feel better too-just getting it off the ground. Again thank you! Such a great little community here on this site.

JQ127 said:

Thank you DNL-we've been applying Neosporin and antibiotic wash to it. Can we actually cut the end feathers? That alone will make her feel way better I think. Or can they be plucked without hurting her? Actually going to wash her again now.

Also how can we wrap it to her body? Is there a certain bandage or sling you could suggest? We think that will make her feel better too-just getting it off the ground. Again thank you! Such a great little community here on this site.

Click to expand...

i linked a site that has great info for wrapping the wing

Thanks again DNL. We wrapped up her wing so it's not dragging. Cleaned the wound as much as we could. It looks horrible. All black and kind of swollen. Hopefully the vet can fit us in tomorrow. She's isolated from the others. Layed an egg today actually too. Eating fine. We're worried the vet may just suggest putting her down but keeping our fingers crossed. I'll post an update once we get her to the vet. Good thing is she doesn't seem to be in any pain.

Good luck at the vets

Apologies for not posting an update sooner. Turns out she had a nasty tumor on the wing. Took her to the vet and he took off almost her whole wing. She stayed overnight one night and is now back home in her 'quarantine' pen separate from the other 2 chickens. Vet thought she might have a hard time staying in balance without most of one wing but she's walking around fine. Came home and immedately ate a good meal and is pretty spunky.

She wants to get out in the pen we can tell but the vet said 2 weeks and then the sutures come out-at which time she can rejoin the others. Cost a couple hundred dollars but we're very happy we could save her. Vet said she's spunky and has plenty of life in her so she was a great candidate for have the operation. I'll post pics tomorrow. Thanks for all the help by the way!

Great news! Too bad about the tumor but glad you were able to help her and now give her a great home for the rest of her years

Good job!!