wild animal ate my chickens leg

[junglecoop]

She is a young rhode island red hen about 3 months old. I didn't expect her to be alive in the morning of July 21 but she was. I had to cut off the yellow part of her foot , there was no drumstick bone and the leg was dangling. I fed her banana and gave her antibiotic water, yellow powder. I soaked her in betadine at first but now the wound is dry and scabbed over, no infection, but it seems to be drawing up and shrinking and the bone is sticking out about half inch from what is left of the thigh, also a small tendon and an even smaller one sticking out a bit. The bone is dry and hollow, broken on a diagonal. She is eating and pooping a lot. At first she sat down but now she balances on the good leg and seems to be getting stronger, few days ago she started hopping about 2 or 3 times to get to the food. She is in my bathtub with lots of newspaper. I think this chicken diaper would make things cleaner. She is getting somewhat dirty, should I give her a bath? Do they really work? Where and what to get? Will she heal or do I need to somehow cut or snip the bone off?? The humane society told me that she is suffering and will get a massive infection from the bone and use her wing for balance and it will get maggots. She makes sweet happy chicken sounds and stands up almost every time I go in the bathroom, and starts eating. It seems to me that she is going to make it, so what to do next? Does she need to go to a vet and have the leg removed completely or can she heal with a stump? The vet wants $75 just to see her and the humane society thinks I should surrender the chicken to them. I have invested a lot of time to care for her and hope for a decent quality of life for her. I appreciate your advice as this has been a huge ordeal.

 

[CapricornFarm]

She might survive. I had one a coon grabbed through a small gap near the door. It chewed the lower part of her leg off, so she had no foot. She healed up ok, just hopped on one leg. Eventually she died, not sure why because she had a good appetite. Chickens can survive amazing injuries.
You have to do what you think is right. It would be a whole lot of money for a vet. And her quality of life would not be very good with one leg. The other chickens will likely pick on her. But it's your chicken and if you want to try to save her, it is up to you.

 

[PtldChick]

The bone sticking out is an issue. The humane society is right, she can't fully heal that way and will be prone to infection. Have you ever noticed that amputation is usually at a joint? The only way to save her would be to have the broken bone removed. Even cutting it back leaves the end exposed inside to infection, etc. That isn't something you can really do yourself.

I think, unless you are willing to spend a lot of $$ and baby this chicken it's entire life, like a house pet, you should find a good time and way to let her go.

I'm sorry this happened to you and your girl.

Sometimes it is so hard to say goodbye, especially when we've invested so much of ourselves into it.

 

[Redcatcher]

I had a Madagascar hen that lost her feet and at least half of her legs from the hock down from frostbite over the winter. I had to cut away all of the dead tissue and bone. She did amazingly well with no legs. Chickens quickly learn to walk on their hocks and they can still eat and function. I was in the process of fitting her with prosthetic legs, and she was using them, when a fox carried her off.

 

[junglecoop]

Thanks for the reply, wondering what tool did you use to cut the bone? Did the flesh finally cover the bone?

 

[nurse_turtle]

Please don't perform surgery on your chicken. Can you imagine having your leg bone nipped or sawed off? Just please don't do it. The exposed bone would have to be cut away with enough healthy muscle and skin tissue to suture around the stump. This would be followed by long term antibiotics. Bacteria would get in at the incision site and the baby would get osteomyelitis and die a slow painful death. Please just put the baby down. It's the best love you can give her at this point.

 

[foxypoproxy]

Ya please don't try and preform any sort of surgery.
That would be extremely painful, don't make her go through that.
If you love this chicken either bring it to the vet, hand it over to the humane society, or put it down.
i payed $82 on a sick chicken i just found, and that's because i want to keep it, i think its worth it, but thats just my opinion.
Leave the surgery kinda stuff to the professionals otherwise you might make her worse :[.

 

[Redcatcher]

Bird's legs are not at all like a human's so you can't compare it to your own leg being cut off. I wish I had photos of the Madagascar hen to show you how well the stumps healed but a @#$% fox came right up onto my porch and carried her off. I trimmed the bone back and the bleeding was very minimal. The skin formed over the bone and the wounds closed all on its own. No sutures were needed and the slight infection that she had was due to frostbite. Chickens tolerate pain really well and it's only temporary.

 

[nurse_turtle]

And all bleeding stops eventually...

I don't pretend to know how another living being experiences pain. I simply encourage one not to perform major orthopaedic surgery on an animal without proper anesthetic and training.

 

[Redcatcher]

Quote:
I don't either but if the alternative is death, I will think long and hard about it. I spent an hour suturing a nondescript cross breed chick that was missing its scalp. I had no anesthesia but I just couldn't being myself to euthanize it. It turned out to be a rare gynandromorph. Not that every chick will end up being a gynandropmorph but it gave me a new respect for life no matter how small or relatively insignificant.