Chicken mauled. Still alive

aje127

Chirping
10 Years
May 22, 2013
24
13
91
Found one of my girls on my deck. Thought she was dead but she's still breathing. Lots of missing feathers. What should I do? She doesn't move. Eyes closed but breathing. I've got her wrapped in a towel holding her. I don't see any injuries other than she's wet and a lot of missing feathers
 
Treat for shock first. Get her warm, in a quiet, low light place. Give fluids, slightly warmed electrolites, or gatorade or sugar water if that's all you have. Give her some time to become less shocky. Once that is resolved it will be easier to assess her condition. I would recheck thoroughly for injuries, punctures in particular can hide in feathers. Look for broken bones. Depending on what happened she may have been squeezed or shaken.
 
Here's what you do in the event of a predator attack to treat the survivor.

1. Treat for shock as the number one step. Give warm Gatoraid or mix a half teaspoon of sugar into a fourth of a cup of warm water with a pinch of salt and baking soda. Have the patient drink it all or syringe it into the beak.

2. Flush the wound well with saline. This is better than soap and water as it maintains the PH of the tissues. But warm soap and water will do. You need to wash away the bacteria from the wound.

3. Inspect the wound carefully. If it has a skin flap dangling, keep that. Do not cut it off. Look for bite, tear or puncture marks indicating a puncture wound. If you see this, the patient will need an oral antibiotic such as amoxicillin. Bacteria from the predator’s mouth can be injected deep into tissue and can kill in as little as 24 to 48 hours. You can order this https://www.kvsupply.com/item/aqua-mox-250mg-capsules-100-count/P06184/250mg once a day for ten days. Or you may be able to find this or something similar at TSC or a pet store.

4. Spray with Vetericyn wound treament and let dry. Use a topical antibiotic ointment such as Neosporin or a generic without pain killer in it to coat the wound. If there's a skin flap, lay it across the wound that has just been coated with the ointment. Then smooth on a generous amount over the top of the skin flap to hold it in place.

5. It's useless to try to stitch a wound on a chicken. Don't even try. It's also useless to try to bandage a wound other than on the feet. The chicken will not tolerate it. It will be pulled off faster than you can blink an eye.

6. Clean the wound every day following the above steps. Keep the wound covered with the ointment. Never allow the wound to get dried out or it will not heal.
 

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