7 week old Polish chick got attacked by neighbors cat--help!

[California_chickie]

Help! I need some advice until I can get my precious chick to the vet:

This morning, I let my birds out of their coop (as usual) and into their enclosure. While having breakfast, I heard a scuffling & ran outside to see my neighbors cat grab my Polish Frizzle chick in her mouth & jump the fence! Freckles, the chick, is tiny. I was hysterical. Figured she was long gone. After putting the others inside the coop & having a good cry, I thought I heard Freckles chirping (we have a lot of wild birds around) I walked around my neighborhood for 10 min, and there I saw her: two cats were "playing" with her in their mouths. I screamed & they let her go! Yay! She ran right over to me. She can walk, and is chirping her little head off-- but the cats really ripped up her right wing. You can see part of the cartilage & it's hanging lower. She can use it though.

I called the vet, and they can't get her in until 12:30-- it's 8:30am now...I'm new in town so I don't have any other resources. Her other chicken friends can hear her inside the house & she wants to go outside with them. I'm worried she's going to go into shock, since now that she is safe she will start to feel pain. I have her on my lap now as I'm writing this, and she's definitely starting to slow down & shake a little bit. Feels warm.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to scour the forums but wanted to get help right away if I could. Here is a picture of the injury.

 

[Leslieb118]

What you'd probably want to do is clean it well with some diluted betadine. You definitely don't want to put her back with the others. Chickens are attracted to blood and they would definitely peck at her, causing more problems for her. She needs to be isolated. Normally, I'd suggest putting some type of antibiotic ointment on her, like Neosporin WITHOUT pain relief. I'd also suggest spraying some Blue Kote on the wound. Those are the things I'd do if I weren't taking a chicken to the vet. There are a lot of vets that don't see chickens, so you're lucky that yours does. I'd be interested to hear what your vet suggests/does for treatment, though. Those types of injuries do heal. You'd need to keep an eye out for infection as well. Good luck!

 

[California_chickie]

What you'd probably want to do is clean it well with some diluted betadine. You definitely don't want to put her back with the others. Chickens are attracted to blood and they would definitely peck at her, causing more problems for her. She needs to be isolated. Normally, I'd suggest putting some type of antibiotic ointment on her, like Neosporin WITHOUT pain relief. I'd also suggest spraying some Blue Kote on the wound. Those are the things I'd do if I weren't taking a chicken to the vet. There are a lot of vets that don't see chickens, so you're lucky that yours does. I'd be interested to hear what your vet suggests/does for treatment, though. Those types of injuries do heal. You'd need to keep an eye out for infection as well. Good luck!

Thanks so much! I put her in a crate inside my garage, lights off, with the heater on just to calm her down. Seems to be working. She only has to hang on 3.5 more hours!

Normally I wouldn't be able to afford taking a chick to the vet, but my adorable BF heard me crying on the phone & offered to pay for a visit. I know I'm lucky that I got the bird back, and have never experienced anything like this before, I'm curious to hear the vet's recommendations & will be sure to share my info with my fellow BYCers

 

[California_chickie]

Update on "Freckles" my little Polish Frizzle chick that was attacked by neighborhood kitties this morning....Promised I would share the info that I got from the vet with my fellow BYC-ers....It was very helpful!

Obviously, the office visit was expensive-- however I think it was absolutely worth it. I am not a wealthy woman by any means, but this came out of my "rainy day chicken fund."

I decided to go through the entire process with the veterinarian so that I would be completely informed of what to do in the future. I plan on having chickens in my life forever so I'd better learn how to improve on my Poultry ICU techniques! "Freckles" got the works, and I have to say that the folks at Silverado Veterinary Hospital were amazing. So professional, kind, and sincere. I'm sure it is easy for some people to laugh at folks who bring a chick in to a vet hospital, but I never felt a smidge of condescension from them as they walked me through the process. They even took pictures!

The scoop:
Freckles had her humerus completely snapped-- you could see it protruding and her wing bled every time she moved. When the first cat grabbed Freckles, it probably initially broke her wing, then lightly pierced her chest when it jumped over the fence with her in it's mouth. Luckily, the wing wasn't totally detached by the other cat (that's when I saw them both "playing" with her in my neighbors driveway) but they pulled out some of her little crest feathers. Somehow, that was all the damage the cats did!

The vet told me that it was pretty miraculous that such a small chick was still alive, and that she would "hopefully" live through the week. If she could beat the infection, then she would more than likely be fine. Her wing will always hang lower than the other, with limited motion & she'll need to be given extra care so the other chickens won't pick on her. No biggie, I don't need a perfect chicken model, I want Freckles!

I was told that without stronger antibiotics & fluids, she probably wouldn't have recovered.

She received IV fluids, light pain killers and some stitches!
I was sent home with strong antibiotics (Cyclamen, which covers a broader spectrum of bacteria) to be administered twice a day with food, as well as pain killers, to be administered once a day. Now Freckles has a thoroughly wrapped wing, a warm cozy habitat, and doctor ordered "bed rest" for a week--- she will have to go back to the vet to get her bandages adjusted next week.

Now that she's medicated, she's very happy. Will be sleeping and being taken care of all week. Please send a good thought for Miss Freckles, she needs all the help she can get for recovery this week

Here's a photo of the adorable toughie with her new bandaged wing....she likes her meds & seems much more comfortable

 

[Leslieb118]

Wow! Poor little thing! It's a good thing you took her to the vet. It's hard to tell from pictures on here sometimes the extent of injuries.
Infection is going to be the thing to watch out for. Cats have icky mouths! And any puncture type or break in the skin is a concern. I hope all goes well for her! She's a cutie!