Accidentally stepped on my chicken yesterday

[lukemower]

Yesterday, we let the chickens wander around in the yard during the day while we were there, I was walking over to the chicken coop when my polish silver lace ran under my shoe. She was flopping on her back, So I picked her up and held her. she sat on my lap with her mouth open and breathing very rapidly and could not lift her head up. it kept falling to the side so I held it for her. she is about three months old. she rolled off my sisters lap and started flopping on the ground again, we picked her up and held her she was panting like a dog, she seemed to be in pain. After a few minutes she stopped panting and could start to lift her head. we dipped her beak in water and she was able to drink some. we tried to feed her some bread but she couldn't peck at it. we were able to get a bit in her mouth when she opened it and she ate it. we set her on the ground and brought another chicken over next to her, the other chicken ran away and she got up and started to follow it. she walked sideways and couldn't jump. we put her in the coop away from the other chickens for a while. when we came back she had crawled over to the door but hadn't gone down the ramp. we put her with the other three chickens, and she would follow them around and kind of zig zag and she would run into stuff. at night she got up the ramp into the coop with the other chickens, so we left her with them. In the morning we came out and she was okay. we let her into the run with the others and she could run lopsided with her head crooked, she doesn't seem to be able to feed her self, she seems to try to peck at it but her head goes the other way, her head is constantly bobbing back and forth. she couldn't get any of the chicken food in her mouth. we had to leave, when we got back she was still walking lopsided, and she can't fold one wing dup all the way, it seems like her leg or wing may be injured along with her neck. we got lots of moist food in a medicine squirter thing and we got lots in her mouth which she ate, we also dipped her beak in water and she drank it. after we fed her we held a large piece of the moist food up to her mouth and she was able to eat some. Is something broken? what can we do? will it heal?

 

[sphinxface]

I'm no expert by any means, but you might want to consider separating her from the other chickens so they don't pick on her and so she doesn't get excited and make things worse... I'm sorry I don't have any real experience with this... I dropped a wood plank on one of my girls and she was perfectly ok, I don't know what I would do if this happened ;( good luck!

 

[sphinxface]

This fell off the front page so I'm bumping it for you (sorry to anyone if this is against the rules) I think other people need to weigh in on this!

 

[lukemower]

Thanks, for the reply, we actually found out yesterday that "she", is probably a he, he is doing better, he is still having trouble eating and drinking though, and still walks kind of lopsided, he seems to be alright otherwise though.

 

[esme13]

All I can say is it does happen. I have accidentally tripped over my polish. Thankfully non of us were hurt. They are social little birds that love people. Mine however are hens. At 3 months he possibly sustained a bad injury, could have a bit of head trauma to it too. Just see what happens and hope for the best. It does happen, if no improvement in time it might be best to cull then to let suffer. Hopefully he will improve.

 

[lukemower]

He has Improved Immensely, he can run faster than the other chickens now, and he can pretty much eat by himself now, I am very relieved, when it first happened, I thought he was done for. He has also been crowing a lot

we can't have roosters, we would like to sell him and replace him with a female, polish silver lace. he is really docile, and if you sit down next to them, sometimes he will come and sit on your lap.

 

[canadianmedic]

We've got 14 in our flock and I've stepped on one here and there! It happens. Just gotta be as careful as can be but the darn things are so quiet when they huddle next to you! Usually all 14 come running at me because they know I've got scraps for them!! Lol. Sounds like your chicken is doing well now! That's great to hear!

 

[sphinxface]

We can't have roosters either, I've thought about petitioning for one but that's like 200 houses ;0

 

[lukemower]

He is now completely back to normal and is eating and drinking just fine, and is hanging at with the other girls. We are now looking for a new home for him and we are also looking for a ready to lay polish silver lace female.

 

[sphinxface]

Aww! I'm so happy for you and little chickens!