Need Advice On Amputation ASAP - Rooster Has Frostbitten Leg - UPDATE: Leg Has Been Amputated Succes

[GravelBeak]

Update Time!

Jonsi is doing great, and his stump is healing up nicely. New skin has grown over the injury, and the big scab probably won't stick around for that much longer. His other foot took some damage from the cold, as the pictures show, but it's healing up as well. The end of his middle toe has some thick purple blister-type thingies on it (the skin there is raised up so I call them blisters). The ends of his toes are also still a bit cracked, and can bleed if he hops around too quickly. I bandage that up some of the time, as needed, to keep it protected. Today, I put more vitamin E on his foot (I do that almost every day), and wrapped his middle toe up with some aloe on it. I change the bandage on his stump every day.

His appetite is good as ever (he's always up for food), and I try to keep his diet somewhat varied, but mostly feed him wheat and always keep fresh water nearby. He spends most of the day out on the deck, or hopping around out with the other chickens. I tend to not keep him out with them too long, as he leans on his stump and uses it to help him hop, and I don't want it to get damaged from too much of that. The other roosters, while not overly aggressive towards him, do make him move sometimes.

He's pretty good at getting around, and is getting better, though mostly he stays around the same area. A prosthetic is definitely going to do him good, but I'll get to that once his stump is totally healed. He enjoys sunbathing and watching his minions the other chickens milling about from the deck.

I have some footage of him dustbathing, and doing other stuff, and may upload it later if you guys want to see that. For now, here's some pics:


Cap'n Pogo hanging out on the poop deck.


The stump, 3 weeks after surgery. Lot of new skin there.






Hey, Six Chickies, how's your rooster doing? Been a while since you've updated us. Hope he's doing great.

 

[circesfire]

Wow! What a trooper you both are. I know I'd love to see a dust bathing video. He's a very handsome rooster!

 

[casportpony]

Amazing!

-Kathy

 

[BurchFunnyFarm]

So glad he pulled through! We had a pig bite the leg of one of our young meat chickens and we thought the humane thing todo would be to put him down. I wanted to snuggle him and make him comfortable while my husband got a knife. When I looked at the wound hours later ( after shooting and butchering our chicken eating sow) I realized it was only attached by tendons and he was hopping around pretty well. We decided to just cut the foot off since it was only on by a few tendons and see how he did. Well Skipper healed just fine and if it weren't for his odd bounce around the property he would blend right in with the flock. I think trying save an animal is always the best route. Unless it's a corn finished sow waiting to be butchered that goes on what I refer to as "a mcnugget eating spree" So skipper is saved, and Casey has been very delicious at the table.

 

[DylansMom]

Hi Gravelbeak,
I'm a newbie on here, but I do have a little personal experience to share, in regards to amputation. While I have never amputated any of my pets limbs, I have had 2 cats that needed it done and I myself am a right leg above knee amputee. My vets elected to do both cats directly thru the joint. This is called a Disarticulation, and it is a lot easier to do, it also lessens the chance of an infection developing in the bone, which can kill a person or animal very quickly. I myself was a great candidate for a disarticulation, if I had no intention of using a prosthetic leg. The only reason human legs are amputated either above or below the knee is prosthetic fitting. It is just about impossible to fit a prosthesis on a residual limb/stump if that limb/stump is wider at the end, you need a nice tapering limb for a prosthesis. That all said, I commend you on your bravery in doing all you could to save your rooster. I also would have no problem doing this to save one of my birds, I would go thru the joint though, and have no qualms about it. I was actually in with one of the cats when it was done and she barely batted an eye and was purring immediately afterward. Amazing!

 

[GravelBeak]

Quote:

Wow! What a trooper you both are. I know I'd love to see a dust bathing video. He's a very handsome rooster!

Thanks! I'll get some more footage of him and work on compiling it into a video.

Amazing!

-Kathy

He sure is...It's just lucky that he's such a chill guy, because he doesn't even mind sitting around more than he already did.

So glad he pulled through! We had a pig bite the leg of one of our young meat chickens and we thought the humane thing todo would be to put him down. I wanted to snuggle him and make him comfortable while my husband got a knife. When I looked at the wound hours later ( after shooting and butchering our chicken eating sow) I realized it was only attached by tendons and he was hopping around pretty well. We decided to just cut the foot off since it was only on by a few tendons and see how he did. Well Skipper healed just fine and if it weren't for his odd bounce around the property he would blend right in with the flock. I think trying save an animal is always the best route. Unless it's a corn finished sow waiting to be butchered that goes on what I refer to as "a mcnugget eating spree" So skipper is saved, and Casey has been very delicious at the table.

Dang...Well, just goes to show how resilient chickens are I guess! Glad to hear Skipper pulled through. My mom has some stories about pig-eating chickens...not good...not good...

Hi Gravelbeak,
I'm a newbie on here, but I do have a little personal experience to share, in regards to amputation. While I have never amputated any of my pets limbs, I have had 2 cats that needed it done and I myself am a right leg above knee amputee. My vets elected to do both cats directly thru the joint. This is called a Disarticulation, and it is a lot easier to do, it also lessens the chance of an infection developing in the bone, which can kill a person or animal very quickly. I myself was a great candidate for a disarticulation, if I had no intention of using a prosthetic leg. The only reason human legs are amputated either above or below the knee is prosthetic fitting. It is just about impossible to fit a prosthesis on a residual limb/stump if that limb/stump is wider at the end, you need a nice tapering limb for a prosthesis. That all said, I commend you on your bravery in doing all you could to save your rooster. I also would have no problem doing this to save one of my birds, I would go thru the joint though, and have no qualms about it. I was actually in with one of the cats when it was done and she barely batted an eye and was purring immediately afterward. Amazing!

Wow, sounds like you've got a whole family of amputees there! It is incredible how much easier it is on small animals than it is on humans. Can't imagine it's the easiest thing to go through yourself (although some of those prosthetics are freaking cool looking, I gotta admit).

Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge. Before I did this, I tried to do some research on amputation, but unfortunately, there just isn't a whole lot of info about amputating bird legs, unless you have vet textbooks, maybe. So what I mostly saw was a couple of vet videos with cats, where they did actually amputate at the joint, and human amputation, where they amputated above or below. A Big reason I did it below the joint wasn't just because of what I had seen, it was because I didn't know if I could make a clean cut through the joint, and was worried that I would make a mess of it. And since I didn't have any way of anesthetizing him completely, I wanted to make the cut as quick as possible. Also, the gangrene was well below the joint, and I wanted to leave the joint intact for a prosthetic.

However, it's really good to know that it can, and even should be done AT the joint. Thank you for the advice, and the kind words, although I'm certainly not the brave one here...I was shaking like a leaf on an adrenaline high when I cut his leg!

 

[Cencor]

Wow just read this thread id never thought about this before but well done for doing the right thing by you and obviously ur roo x

 

[CasadasHens]

This thread is really interesting, thank you all.

 

[DylansMom]

GravelBeak,
Bravery is doing what needs done even though you are shaking like a leaf.

 

[Six Chickies]

Leo is doing fantastic! He crows first thing in the morning, and is even trying to get friendly with one of the hens he's with! so I might get some chicks of his yet! His stump is already half grown over! I would love to let him outside, but for the fact that we have 3 1/2 feet of snow on the ground! ;D