Topic of the Week - "Special Needs" Chickens

I had a bantam rooster named Buster he started life with no problems. when I was very ill he would come up on the deck and sit with me and croon to me. needless to say he had my heart. he was protecting the hens from the neighbors standard rooster and was blinded in one eye. about 6 mo later the same thing happened and he was blinded in the other eye nd his leg was also broken. I took him to the vet and the leg was put in a Thompson splint. I was feeding him on my lap several times a day. we took him with us to a poultry show since I had to feed him. While there he fell the splint look good so we waited till it was time to go back to the vet. well the leg had come unset when he fell and the leg healed crocked and he could no longer walk. I feed and watered him 4 times a day for over 2 1/2 years. He went every where with us to poultry shows, on vacations and even fishing trips. he was a joy and a comfort always I only regret that I didn't have his broken leg pinned instead of splinted.
 
We just moved to a house with a larger yard and it takes our faverolle, Dusty, a bit longer to catch up when we put out the compost or bring them treats. I've started carrying her over because I don't want her to miss out on any of the good stuff.

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I have had several leg splays that have successfully corrected. There were a couple though that had neurological and or umbilical problems that only made their start into the world just a little more challenging than others. It is awful to see a tiny organism suffering when the cards don't favor their odds, in comparison to rest of the batch.
If you breed and hatch often, then you run across more special needs chicks. That is just how it is I suppose. In the wild, only the strong survive. Survival of the fittest.
Seeing it so often, I think it has made me a better person. I try not to take things for granted.
This is very good thread Sumi. Thanks for creating the thread!
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I have a special needs hen right now. hopefully short term. About a week ago, I had let all the chickens out. that evening while doing chores, I found her hanging upside down with her leg caught in the bars of a dog pen she had flown up on and got hung up. Don't know how long she hung there when I found her. She was shocky, leg skinned up and Broken just above the foot. It was very cool to the touch. She has been locked away from the others for the whole time now. I wanted to wrap/splint her leg, but didn't know if she was going to lose her leg or not. wanted to give her a couple of days to see if the circulation had been cut off to long or not. She laid an egg the following morning, none since. The second morning her foot felt warm/hot, not chilled anymore, saw swelling and a lot of bruising and a fairly dark spot. Dead tissue or just damaged tissue? Well after a week now in the cage, she has picked up her eating and drinking, and squaking when I go to check her. This morning, her foot swelling is much less, bruising much less, and it feels like the bone is healing, not moving side to side with light pressure.. She lays down a lot of the good foot and stands quite well on one leg. I noticed she uses the bad one, but tends to put the weight on the hock joint when she moves, so that is a good thing. keeping weight off the foot is allowing the bone to heal better. She is a Buff Orpington 1 1/2 yrs old.
 
I'm a little late to the party, but we had Scout. That little stinker had a world wide fan club, and that's no exaggeration.

He was the lone chick hatched from a broody when our temps were in the upper 60s and low 70s, unusual for October in Northwestern Wyoming. But a few days after he hatched, our temps dropped from those highs down into the 20s and bottomed out at 17 below zero within a matter of 24-36 hours....um, not unusual for us. His little feet got frostbitten at the waterer, so we had to bring him in.

I had no clue what I was doing, but I did it anyway. ;) He got soaks in a hot tub made from a glass candle lid, and boy, did he love that....almost as much as he loved snuggling in his "spa towel" - a washcloth run through the dryer for a few minutes! He'd hang in that tub, suspended in the water and literally fall asleep. But in a couple of more weeks we realized that the damage was deeper than what we'd initially thought, and his feet curled up horribly. I tried the bandaid trick, and it worked a little, but his feet never recovered. He didn't know it, though. He grew and matured and did all the things all roosters do - he scratched in the dirt (which looked kinda funny because all he had were stumps on the ends of his legs) and he bred the girls. He ran, he flew up on the high roost at night and flew back down in the morning, and he was becoming an handsome dude!

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I learned so much from that rooster....and he'll forever have a spot in my heart. You can read his full story by clicking on his story link in my signature - I can't post it all here! :lau

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Update on Rosie, the Salmon Fav that spins in circles. Shes 21 weeks old now, and doesn't spin as much as she used to, but she is definitely slow. She rarely comes out of the coop and if she does its just into the run for short periods. Shes stays alone a lot. The others don't pick on her, they must know she aint right!!
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Update on my Broken leg hen. Her foot didn't rot or get infected. it has been about 3 weeks since she broke her leg from being hung up in the fence. She is still locked away from others is now putting some weight on it to move around. she is eating and drinking good. She yells at me, doesn't want me to hold her and check the leg. So I just watch her. here are some pictures of her . Seems to be healing and the swelling is nearly all gone. she tends to swing it forward and then hop and support herself on good leg, and now she is using broken leg slightly to support herself, where she couldn't use it at all for 2 weeks. It'll be a few more weeks before I put her back in the coop. don't want her jumping off perch or Roos chasing her around. Think she will be ok.:ya She is 1 1/2 yrs old. Buff Orpington.

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Runt is an Indian Runner Duck. She is more than half the size of the other runners. With 1,000 times the attitude.

The others are bald Turkeys that were rescued. My husband bought them Velcro doggie jackets to keep them warm and cozy.
We would enjoy some pictures when you can get them. velcro doggie jackets would be interesting to see on the turkeys.:D
 

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