13 Week EE Injured (17 wks now) ~Vet Update Not Good~ *Graphic Pics *

[Lorimary]

eWow. A baby monitor. Who'd a thunk. Great idea!

 

[California Ducken]

Emzyyy your amazing!!!
That's a wonderful idea.
Cool! A new use for my baby monitor.

 

[Tuppemor]

Perhaps keeping a bandage on her shoulder where she wipes her eye, and replace in when you check her, so that you don't risk getting the gunk back in the eye when she wipes?

Also, I think you should keep her on antibiotics until she is fully recovered from the swelling and gunk - as soon as you let up, any remaning infection will blossom.

If she swells back up under the eye and you think it's "gunk", it's a good idea to drain with a needle. You can also drain from the inside of her mouth where the swelling is causing the beak to open, I am sure that's quite painful.

Probiotics is always a good thing for reduced animals on antibiotics!

I am sure she gets alot with the yoghurt, but you can also buy it concentrated in powder or tablets at the pharmacy.

I wish you the best of luck, I really hope she pulls through after all this.

 

[Lolliegee]

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That is a great idea. Unfortunately, the baby monitor that I have is needed for my little guy. I'll have to see if I can get another one through Freecycle or something.

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I'm sure you're right about this. It's all connected I am getting all kinds of goo out of her nose every day. I wish there was something like the bulb syringe you use for a baby that could be used for a chicken. I've been kinda pressing (gently, of course) on her nose and a bunch of goo comes out. But it sure would be nice if you could just suck it out, like you do when a baby's sick.

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I had stopped using the Pen G and since I've got plenty of it, I'm going to go ahead and try using it again. I'll take Nathalie's (ThreeHorses) advice and use it for at least a week and probably until I don't smell any infection anymore.

Her swelling is much improved today. Her mouth is almost closing again. Her left eye is looking pretty good...she's still not opening it much, but the eye itself looks good...Her right eye is still pretty bad. There was obviously a lot of trauma to this eye and I'm not holding out much hope that she'll be able to see out of it. But, who knows. All I can do is wait until she can start opening it and see what happens.

Tonight, I managed to get the last of the hardened gunk out of the wound (from what was the pea-sized lump). After I had been working on it for awhile, the last of it came out in one big lump. Quite nasty really! I flushed it with saline and put a little more Neosporin in there, not enough to fill up the opening, but just to keep the tissues moist. So now, I'm wondering, how long do I keep it open? I realize that I need to keep open for awhile, in case there's any drainage happening. What do I look for that will tell me it's okay to let it close.

I looked on the right side to see if I could find the puncture that I had seen before, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I was hoping that if I could find it, it might open up the way the other side did and let everything drain that way instead of through her eyes and sinuses. Oh well.

Her balance is still not good. I put a different roost in there, lower and bigger (a piece of 2 x 2) thinking that she might be able to grip it better. She managed to stay on it for about 5 minutes before falling off. She's kinda listing to the right. It got worse when the swelling happened, so I'm hoping it'll get better when the swelling does.

I did give her a bath tonight. Man, she had so much gunk in her feathers. I have to admit, last night when I was looking at it, I was afraid that I had missed a wound and that all the gunk was really coming from some other infection on her back. Didn't seem that so much could come from just one little eye.

I like the idea of putting a bandage there, but how would I got about attaching it?

I gave her another shot tonight. But man, I wish she'd start eating on her own. It's so hard to find muscle to put the shot into. I'm not even half kidding. I don't know how much a chicken like her is supposed to weight, but she probably doesn't way much more than a pound or two. She easily half the weight of her brood-mates.

I hope I addressed all the suggestions and questions from today (okay, it's really the questions from yesterday, since it's already 2:20 in the morning, but to me it's still today). It's late and I might have easily missed something. Just know that I check early in the day but usually don't have the time to post then and I read them all and take everything into consideration. I so appreciate all the cheering section out there!!!

You guys are so great!

 

[bleu chick]

I also lost 2 ducks and 6 chicken to a one night attack by what the vet said was a raccoon. It literally ripped out the breast meat and then went on to the next one. There was blood thrown all over the wall. It looked like a horror movie. This was a sealed coup and the coon entered through squeezing through the 2X3 wire. We have since replaced it with smaller wire. I ended up having to put one duck asleep because he was badly injured but still alive. Unfortunately, his beak tendon was severed and the vet said he would never eat ot drink again. It was very upsetting.

However as others have said you must trap or shoot the preadator or he will keep coming back. Sometimes they wait a week but they always go to where there is a food supply. I have a havahart trap that I put chicken bones in. They also like cat food (wet or dry). And remember if you plan to release each female has a litter of ten more oppossums. Websites suggest that they be released at least 20 miles away becuase of how much they travel. We use the trap as a catching device but still shoot them. They arent good for anything at all. Plus we always have a never ending return of them. And I live in the city!

Setting the trap tonight becuase I caught one on the porch last night eatting the cat food.

 

[Rocky Top Chick]

I wanted to let you know that my husband and myself stayed up late last night reading your posts and are pulling for you all the way. What a great mom you are. It got me to thinking that if I had a problem like you are dealing with how in the world could I spend time with an injured chicken. I am gone 10 hours a day for work and can't imagine coming home to another 3 hours of nursing. You are amazing !!!! But on the other hand I have learned a great lesson from you and that is to make sure the coop is secure as can be. Ours is built exactly like a house so unless a predator was a builder I can't imagine how anything could get in. The problem I guess would be with "human error" and we both check with each other to make sure the girls are all locked up tight and we also go to the coop at bedtime to say goodnight. You have earned you angel wings for all the love and time spent with your girl. Hang in there, the country is pulling for you.

 

[threehorses]

Where exactly is she wiping her face? On her body? OK - this is nuts, but sometimes I'm a little nuts: have you thought about a small kid's t-shirt? She's inside anyway. They're cheap, thin, breathable, washable. You put their legs through the arm holes, cut out two spots for the wings?

On the swelling going down = YAY. I suspect because you can't find the opening, the wound has sealed on the outside and is brewing on the inside. That's very typical of an abcess, which that appeared to be (as did the other side before you got the stuff out).

To answer your question, the wound must stay open until the inside is done. Because this involves sinuses, that can be a while. Sinuses are tricky in that bacteria can get up there in pockets. The bacteria are anaerobic, and they absolutely love the absence of air, so they thrive.

I'd keep looking for the opening on the bad side. Compare it to the pictures of when it was there - see if you can open it back up.


I have to admit, I giggled in that sort of morbid fascination and relief upon hearing that you got the last of the gunk out of the left eye.

You're a trooper!

On the roost, have you tried a piece of 2x4 or 2x6? Even just scrap lumber and a couple of cinder blocks? I find that mine more easily roost on the wide boards. It allows their feet to spread out so that they keep their balance better when they're 'iffy'.

Your patience and tenacity are an inspiration to us all. Keep up the good work!

 

[GreenGoddess]

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Coons are VERY nasty animals.. When I was young we had a flock of geese.. We walked out one morning to feed them and found that one of them had the skin missing (yes, completely GONE) from the base of the neck (shoulder area).. Was the strangest thing.. The next morning, we found two more the same exact way... We realized that night it was a raccoon.. My father had a bow and arrow and I still laugh about it to this day but he went outside in his underwear, got down on the ground uat the edge of the shed and umm... Got rid of the raccoon problem...

Goddess

 

[Tuppemor]

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The idea of baby t-shirts is a good one! But perhaps bandade is cheaper? What do you call it.. Gauze? That stretchy stuff that comes in a roll... I don't know how far down on her shoulder it is, but some kind of binding around her.. If it's far up you could give her a gauze collar and attach it to her wing or around her (opposite) leg or something?

 

[Tuppemor]

double post