4 month old Wyandotte with skin on leg ripped off.. please help!!!

[chickienewbie88]

I have 6 4 month old wyandotte hens that are free ranging in half of my yard and have a coop to sleep in at night. I went out this afternoon to give them treats and the hen at the top of the pecking order, Goldie, didnt come to me and showed no interest in the seed mix i was giving away (all my hens are very tame and come right up to visit whether you have treats or not). So i went to her and she was kind of standing funny, just not looking like she usually does. I went to grab her and she didnt fight me at all. The back of her neck was puffed up so i looked and it looks kind of like some minor scratching with very minimal blood. I brought her inside and investigated further. She has a small scratch on her backside, again with minimal bleeding, and then i found the major problem. Her leg, right at the bend in the joint where the leg attaches to the body, is missing probably a 2"x3" patch of skin. The muscles underneath are visible but do appear to be completely intact. Goldie is still responsible to my voice, looks around, but wont stand/walk.. shell drink with coaxing but not on her own and her crop is completely empty so i dont think shes eaten all day long. My fiance is an emergency medicine PA so he will be able to suture her up when he gets home, if thats even what we should do, but what should i do for her in the meantime? Also, at what point is she too far gone to save? I dont want her to be in unnecessary pain. I have no idea what attacked her and all the others in the flock are completely fine. ANY advice you can give would be GREATLY appreciated. I raised these girls from 1 day old chicks and its breaking my heart to see Goldie in pain.. please help!!!

 

[Eggcessive]

You can clean her wound with saline, weak betadine, hibiclens, or dishwashing liquid and water. A kitchen sprayer may work well to get it clean. Apply plain antibiotic ointment such as Neosporin or bacitracin twice a day. A raccoon, fox, dog, or hawk could have done this, so I would be on alert for predators in the next few days. Hopefully your chicken will recover, but sometimes there is shock or internal injuries that complicate things. If she is alert and eating or standing, those are good signs. Keep her away from flies as she recovers to prevent maggots in the wound. Good luck.

 

[alibabba]

I have 6 4 month old wyandotte hens that are free ranging in half of my yard and have a coop to sleep in at night. I went out this afternoon to give them treats and the hen at the top of the pecking order, Goldie, didnt come to me and showed no interest in the seed mix i was giving away (all my hens are very tame and come right up to visit whether you have treats or not). So i went to her and she was kind of standing funny, just not looking like she usually does. I went to grab her and she didnt fight me at all. The back of her neck was puffed up so i looked and it looks kind of like some minor scratching with very minimal blood. I brought her inside and investigated further. She has a small scratch on her backside, again with minimal bleeding, and then i found the major problem. Her leg, right at the bend in the joint where the leg attaches to the body, is missing probably a 2"x3" patch of skin. The muscles underneath are visible but do appear to be completely intact. Goldie is still responsible to my voice, looks around, but wont stand/walk.. shell drink with coaxing but not on her own and her crop is completely empty so i dont think shes eaten all day long. My fiance is an emergency medicine PA so he will be able to suture her up when he gets home, if thats even what we should do, but what should i do for her in the meantime? Also, at what point is she too far gone to save? I dont want her to be in unnecessary pain. I have no idea what attacked her and all the others in the flock are completely fine. ANY advice you can give would be GREATLY appreciated. I raised these girls from 1 day old chicks and its breaking my heart to see Goldie in pain.. please help!!!

great that she can get medical care at home! She is certainly not too far gone!

Let her recover from the shock. Is she in the house? Maybe cover her to keep her warm. And if she eats or drinks tomorrow that is good. I think when I had a pullet layed out, looking dead, I wrapped her up and let her just come around herself, expecting her to be dead any time. It took at least 24 hours, I may have offered her oxytetracycline water on a spoon once she was a bit more alert. I credit using the antibiotic right away as what probably saved her life. She didn't need to battle infection along with wounds.

After a couple days, I put a worm in her (oxytet water soaked food) with some scratch and she got alot more interested in living. She couldn't stand or walk for about 7 days. Back with the flock at 9 days.

Please let us know about the suturing...

ETA. Aspirin is okay. There is specific dosages for chickens on BYC somewhere. Turmeric is good for inflammation. I crushed a couple baby aspirin and mixed into about 1/2 cup of wet food The pullet did not die. You could crush and add to her water to make her more comfortable. I sprinkled turmeric (big fan of turmeric) liberally into the food mash also, chickens love it. You would have to really try to overdo the turmeric powder...it's not nearly as potent as the extract.

 

[chickienewbie88]

Thank you so much for your help but we had to put her down when my fiance got home last night. He was able to assess her wounds better than i could and in addition to her leg being ripped open, the entire left side of her breast had also been ripped completely off, leaving only the breast bone/ribs? and a few tendons/ligaments.. I tried to give her Pedialyte with a little honey to get some fluids in her but she refused to drink later in the nighy, only wanted to stand awkwardly with her eyes closed.. Wouldnt walk/move.. She seemed to get some peace from being around me so i spent hours petting and loving her, and that was the only time she would actually relax and rest. There just wasnt enough skin/meat left to even attempt a suture and my fiance said, due to the muscle damage he could see, she would probably never walk again and even if we could pull the very little remaining skin tight enough to suture the wounds closed, she would most likely always live in pain. Plus you could just see in her eyes that she had given up. She only pooped one time in 12 hours and it was chalky, white/yellow, dry, and mixed with a LOT of dark blood.. Poor girl was just too badly hurt... But she did her job, as the head of the flock, and protected her sisters. No one else has even a scratch. So we've sealed up their coop/ run with gravel around the bottom and tomorrow we are burying chicken wire in the bottom to prevent all varmit tunneling inside. I hate it but we are not going to let them free range until we can catch whatever did this to my big girl. This was my first flock and chicken loss.. I raised them from one day old and spend 6-8 hours daily playing with them, watching them grow, etc. We buried her last night near a block wall in their free range area so she can be with her sisters.. And, as miraculous as this is, i actually collected my VERY FIRST egg this afternoon.. It may sound stupid but i feel like the remaining girls are sad, missing their big sister, and can feel im sad too so they chose today to leave me the best gift they can give... <3
But again, thank you so much for all the pointers!!! She was too badly hurt in this case but if this even happens again, on a smaller scale, i feel very prepared. I appreciate you VERY much alibabba!!!

 

[alibabba]

Thank you so much for your help but we had to put her down when my fiance got home last night. He was able to assess her wounds better than i could and in addition to her leg being ripped open, the entire left side of her breast had also been ripped completely off, leaving only the breast bone/ribs? and a few tendons/ligaments.. I tried to give her Pedialyte with a little honey to get some fluids in her but she refused to drink later in the nighy, only wanted to stand awkwardly with her eyes closed.. Wouldnt walk/move.. She seemed to get some peace from being around me so i spent hours petting and loving her, and that was the only time she would actually relax and rest. There just wasnt enough skin/meat left to even attempt a suture and my fiance said, due to the muscle damage he could see, she would probably never walk again and even if we could pull the very little remaining skin tight enough to suture the wounds closed, she would most likely always live in pain. Plus you could just see in her eyes that she had given up. She only pooped one time in 12 hours and it was chalky, white/yellow, dry, and mixed with a LOT of dark blood.. Poor girl was just too badly hurt... But she did her job, as the head of the flock, and protected her sisters. No one else has even a scratch. So we've sealed up their coop/ run with gravel around the bottom and tomorrow we are burying chicken wire in the bottom to prevent all varmit tunneling inside. I hate it but we are not going to let them free range until we can catch whatever did this to my big girl. This was my first flock and chicken loss.. I raised them from one day old and spend 6-8 hours daily playing with them, watching them grow, etc. We buried her last night near a block wall in their free range area so she can be with her sisters.. And, as miraculous as this is, i actually collected my VERY FIRST egg this afternoon.. It may sound stupid but i feel like the remaining girls are sad, missing their big sister, and can feel im sad too so they chose today to leave me the best gift they can give... <3
But again, thank you so much for all the pointers!!! She was too badly hurt in this case but if this even happens again, on a smaller scale, i feel very prepared. I appreciate you VERY much alibabba!!!

Oh, I am soo sorry for the loss Don't be too hard on yourself, we all seem to have to figure this out the hard way and then not make the same mistakes. If you do try to trap, remember that the creature relocated will most likely die. And another will come to fill the gap eventually and you won't know when and have surprise losses.

If there are daytime predators, and no one home. You might not be able to safely free range. My sweetheart just couldn't at his place- just the location next to woods, and hawks. He had to put up a big nice huge run withcelectri polywire and strung rope across in a grid and hasn't lost one since.

At my place I don't have daytime predator pressure (too many people, dogs, cars... They do need electric at night though because I like light pens to move around so I don't totally destroy the whole yard and I have foxes and raccoons...and cats.

Amazing that timing that today was the first egg!!! So happy for you for that, it is momentous...like a most precious gem it is!

 

[Eggcessive]

So sorry for your loss.

 

[Sutremaine]

So we've sealed up their coop/ run with gravel around the bottom and tomorrow we are burying chicken wire in the bottom to prevent all varmit tunneling inside.

Loose gravel?

It might be easier to lay the chicken wire on the surface so that it forms an apron around the coop and run. You can also see more easily if it's starting to rust or otherwise wear.

 

[MrsBrooke]

Very sorry for your loss.

I'd go for 1/4" galvanized hardware cloth on and around the coop. A hungry raccoon or hawk will tear through chicken wire. Chicken wire is designed for chickens... not the predators that are after them.

It's well worth the investment!!

Edit to add: X2 on the apron. It's the way to go!!

MrsB