Advice for an injured bird! Help!!

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dragonfly chick

dragonfly chick

Chirping
10 Years
May 19, 2014
18
1
82
California
After a full day of Internet searches for advice to take care of my injured 14 week red sex link, I decided to set up an account to ask you backyard chicken folks!! I have read lots of advice here and have decided that this is the best resource for a new chicken owner like me!

Now for my dilemma.... I live in a suburban area we decided this year that we wanted to raise chickens for many reasons. They have a coop and a run on the side of the house, but we let them run around the yard when we are outside. Yesterday the chickens were in the scrap yard when we heard one "screaming". When we found her she was bleeding out of her eyeball. I picked her up and cleaned it up and she sat on my lap for a few hours while my husband made a temp coop for her. We put food and water in there as well as a 5 gallon bucket with pine shavings and a little scratch on the ground ( it's on the grass). This morning when I came out she still hadnt come out of the bucket and was panting, so I took her out and put her beak in the water a few times until she took a little drink and she pecked a few crumbles of food out of my hand, but not nearly enough. She hasn't eaten since she got hurt last night.
Anyway, my questions are:
How long can she not eat like this before it becomes more serious, and how can I get her to eat?
When will she be able to go back into the coop with the other birds?
Will she be ok with only 1 eye?

Please, any advice will be appreciated! I feel so terrible. Thank you.
 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! Sorry about your hen, you will want to post on the Emergencies forum about her https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/10/emergencies-diseases-injuries-and-cures
Do you know how she got her injury, did you check her over really well if you can see anything else wrong? You might take pictures of the injury and post it also. Depending on what the weather is where you are, you may want to bring her inside and keep her warm.
If she doesn't start to eat pretty soon you can tube feed her https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...h-my-bird-pics-for-visuals-very-detailed-post
I would not put her back until she is entirely healed up and acting normally again, if you can keep her close to them (her cage inside the coop etc) so they can see and interact with each other so they don't forget her you shouldn't have trouble putting her back.
Chickens do fine with only one eye.
 
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The best pics I can get. I don't know what happened. We looked around for a while but couldn't figure it out. Whatever it was it looks like it just ruptured her eyeball and doesn't seem to be any other wounds on her. She seem warm, temps here now are 78 the high is low todo 80s
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
frow.gif


How is the bird today? Did she survive? They can survive with just one eye and do quite well in life. If she is back to eating and there are no open wounds, she can go back into the flock. Make sure you set out more than one water and feed station so she does not have to compete. It may take her a while to deal with just one eye. I wouldn't let her free range either much without supervision as she is at a definite disadvantage. If she can not cope with living in the flock, you might consider making her a house pet. Lots of members have house chickens and they do extremely well.

I hope she is doing ok and keep us posted!
 
The accident happened Sunday and this is Wednesday and so far so good! Thanks for asking! She is not eating of drinking on her own yet, so I had started hand feeding her with a syringe every couple of hours. I just blended up a bananna, oats, corn, yogurt, and a little water. She seems to have perked up today. I will post a couple of pics of what it looks like today. Thank you for the great advice!
 

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