Chicken was stuck on electric fence

[besjoux]

We have broilers and with an electric fence and one of our chickens got "stuck" in the electric netting for, who knows, how long. Now she is VERY lethargic and almost dead. Has anyone had this happen before?

 

[chooks4life]

Haven't heard of it before. However, since electro-therapy causes muscular contractions, and she just went through who knows how many thousands of them, you should probably get electrolytes into her immediately.

Best course of action may be to treat her like an athlete who just ran a go-till-you-drop marathon, basically, except she probably needs treatment for shock too, and possibly burns. She will be exhausted.

Honey, if you have raw honey, is great for vitamins, electrolytes, proteins, minerals, nutrition, enzymes, probiotics, antibiotics etc, all in non-harmful form and easily digested by stressed animals. I might use rescue remedy on her if I were you, or just whatever electrolytes you have that you can safely give her... But her system will be almost ready to start short-circuiting so to speak, due to the expense of electrolytes.

Her heart is the main worry here, once you suffer that many contractions the calcium-magnesium balance is very low and the heartbeat is kept functioning correctly and regulated by magnesium as well as electrolytes. Lack of it results in cardiac arrest. Calcium magnesium is the combined two main things you need for that because the body uses both in conjunction with one another. If you have some form of cal-mag to give her, it would be a good idea.

(I called it 'electrotherapy' because if it didn't kill, it's not 'electrocution' technically... But really there was nothing therapeutic about this incident).

Best wishes with her.

 

[besjoux]

She did not make it. She's a meat bird so I was hoping to keep her until Saturday when we are heading to the processor. I tried sugar water and ACV (Braggs) but it didn't help her. She did have a ton of brown fluids coming out of her mouth upon death so maybe she has sour croup too.

 

[chooks4life]

She did not make it. She's a meat bird so I was hoping to keep her until Saturday when we are heading to the processor. I tried sugar water and ACV (Braggs) but it didn't help her. She did have a ton of brown fluids coming out of her mouth upon death so maybe she has sour croup too.

Sorry to hear it. From the sounds of it you were hoping to process her? If so, that's very unadvisable after such a (probably) prolonged traumatic experience; the lactic acid buildup in her muscles would have been severe and the meat would be ruined, all discolored and already breaking down. The flavor and composition would have been adversely affected.

She would have been one of those raw meat products you see ballooning the package with the gases from her advanced state of decay despite being culled and processed on the same day as the rest of the meat birds. At best she would have become dogfood, not human food. Such damaged meat is called 'dark cuts' and other terminology referring to the visible signs of damage, and most butchers won't even buy it from the processors to on-sell. Some processors will refuse an animal that is showing signs of serious distress because they know processing it is a waste of time, the meat is ruined and they won't make a profit on that animal.

Rather than sourcrop it may have been the results of organ damage that you saw in the discharge of brown fluids; perhaps a hemorrhage due to internal rupture caused by her struggles. If the fence was 'hot' enough to burn her it would have cooked her somewhat too,and brown fluids coming out of animals is in some cases made brown by the decaying red blood cells. Just a theory. I doubt it was sourcrop after such a frying but it may have been. Harmful bacteria and microorganisms in the body are the first to die under electrotherapy though, not beneficial bacteria and microorganisms, so in the case of sourcrop it would have taken care of the fermenting bacteria etc temporarily.

Best wishes with your flock in future.

 

[chooks4life]

Oh, and I will just add about Braggs --- for some reason does not perform as expected. I never use Bragg's. Only Melrose or other brands. They all say the same, correct things on the packets/bottles, but Braggs for some reason does not work like the others.

Best wishes.