Advice please! Broken foot + degloving injury

[StPaulieGirls]

Hey folks,

Any advice welcome!! A feral peahen raised a brood on our farm this summer and the Minnesota winter has been hard on the three 6-month-old chicks. We have a house flock of chickens, but know nothing about peafowl.

Yesterday, I found one of the male chicks with a badly broken foot. It's all but severed at the ankle joint (the tissue is damaged, the bone is exposed and the foot curled under backwards) and one of the toes was completely degloved. He was in bad enough shape that I could catch him, even though he's essentially wild.

Here's what we've done so far:
- Washed the foot in epsom salts
-Applied triple antibiotic ointment to the whole foot
- Wrapped and splinted the foot to a flat duck-foot shaped piece of cardboard in a not-perfect position, but closer to normal than it was dangling

I have this feral bird in a dog crate indoors. He was still alive this morning, but not standing up. Maybe that's fine.
Sorry I didn't take photos during the treatment. It was hard enough to get it done.

Wondering a lot of things:
- Should he be on oral antibiotics? We've got amoxicillin and doxycycline on hand.
- How often should we change the bandage and splint?
- If he can possibly heal some and live a life with one good foot, can we house him with our flock of chickens? With what adaptations?
- Should we just put him down? That would make me very sad, but I don't want a creature to suffer.

Thanks for any advice!!

 

[casportpony]

Is he eating and drinking? Can you get a baseline weight on him? Giving him amoxicillin might be a good idea if you have enough of it to give for at least 10 days.

 

[KsKingBee]

This may help as there are a few helpful links on this thread. I have posted to your inquiries on FB that are more specific to your birds injury. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/peahen-with-broken-leg.1198184/

 

[StPaulieGirls]

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies. He is alert. He pecked at the BSL larvaeI sprinkled on top of his food dish. I offered scrambled eggs, which he isn't interested in. I can't tell if he's drinking at all. He's got two water dishes, one with electrolytes and one plain water.

I'm not sure how to get his weight. I can feel his breastbone, which in my chickens I wouldn't want, but don't know how peacocks are built. If I were guessing, I'd put him at about 9 pounds.

He's got the broken foot down on the ground when standing and may be bearing some weight on it. Most of the time, he's lying down. I can see that the way we splinted it doesn't make for a well-aligned foot, but also there was just no other way we could see to set the foot.

The amoxicillin we have is in 500 mg capsule form. Can anyone advise the best way to get a proper dose into him? He's been calm most of the time, but is still a totally feral bird. Also, there's so much neck on these birds, I'm scared to use a syringe -- I'll probably break him! Ay, ay, ay.

One other complication in treating this critter is that I have asthma and having him indoors is really hard on my lungs. But it's 20 degrees outside, and it seems he would fare better if his energy went to healing rather than staying warm.

I called all kinds of animal rescue/rehab places today, but no one can take him, so I guess it's up to me.

Hope your week is off to a calmer start than mine is! Thanks again for any responses and guidance.

- Kerri

 

[KsKingBee]

Kathy will be along soon with the dosing info for you. I normally tube or syringe the medications down the throat. Kathy, would you post a link to your tube feeding thread? It is really easy if you have the right equipment.

It always bothers me to bring in a bird that is acclimated to the cold but you really do need to provide a heat source when sick or injured. I would put him in a large box in the garage with a heat lamp or better yet, a heated dog mat.

 

[casportpony]

The amoxicillin dose for a 9 pound bird be 500 mg twice day. If he is only six months old I don't think he weighs 9 pounds. Can you weigh him? I would not give amoxicillin or any other antibiotic without knowing his weight.

 

[KsKingBee]

A small kitchen scale that weighs in grams is perfect for weighing birds. They cost about $10 at Walmart.

 

[StPaulieGirls]

Thanks, friends, for this information so far.

It's looking pretty clear that the all of the tissue on the foot is dead or will be soon. The foot is a loss from the anklebone down.

We're considering three options: 1. an in-house amputation, 2. euthanasia, and 3. the wait-and-see approach,

I've been in contact with the only avian vet within a two-hour drive of us here and they would be able to schedule an amputation about 3 weeks from now, which is a long time. I'm worried he'll go septic long before that. I've read every thread and watched every video on doing an amputation ourselves. I'm terrified, of course, but the injury is right at the joint there are no bones to left manage in the removal, only sinews. I don't know how to manage his pain, as the local vets won't give us anything to help. I don't think he'll bleed much and I don't think he'll feel much, either, given the damage that's already been done. The part I'm worried about is that the distal end of the metatarsus bone is exposed and there's no tissue that can cover or heal around it. I think that exposed bone is really at high risk for both pain and infection, yes?

Until today, I wasn't sure he had much will to live left in him, but this morning I put a mirror next to the crate and he perked up. He even ate most of the food I'd offered. If he's drinking, I could start him on oral amoxicillin tomorrow. I'll get a scale and weigh him first and use the dosing instructions that casportpony provided. I'm pretty sure I can get injectable penicillin at the local feed store.

If he lives, I'm happy to keep him as a pet, maybe living with our chickens or to find him a good home. I'm not sure how to get him from today until spring, though, if he's able to heal and survive. The local high school has a whole lab full of 3D printers so I think I can get him a prosthetic.

What's really hard is that I can't foresee a good death for him. If we wait and see, he might get very sick very fast and even suffer more than he has. I can just think of his remaining time as supportive hospice care if he takes a turn for the worse. I have poultry farmer friends who are utterly committed to giving their own animals stress-free deaths, and they've said they'll come and end his life if I decide that's the best choice for him. That's hard for me to imagine and I don't think I could watch. The avian vet can euthanize him humanely, but he'd have to endure the car ride there, which seems stressful.

I'm eager for any advice you might offer, please!

Thank you!
- Kerri in Minnesota

 

[KsKingBee]

He can be saved, I brought four birds to good health after losing their toes and feet. I believe you saw the pictures I posted to you on FB. It will take a lot of bandage changes, cleaning, and applying of anti-biotic salve, (we use Fura-Zone). Can you not find a local farm vet that will work with you? That is all we have here and she is great to work with, she says she loves the distraction from cats, dogs, cows, and pigs. I found her by searching for the vet that tests the poultry at the local county fair.

Our birds were in much worse condition than yours so I know that you can save him. Don't give up on him the worst part is over if the foot is only hanging by the tendons so there should not be any bleeding. Pics of your bird's leg would be helpful but it should not take more than snipping off the foot, cleaning and applying salve and bandage.

 

[KsKingBee]

The exposed bone question. The skin on the leg will die back exposing the bone that is also dying, the bone will get brittle and break off back to where the skin is healing. The skin will eventually grow back over the end of the bone. About the pain, there is no pain in dead tissue or bone, just keep it clean and bandaged. TYC and other farm stores do have some useful supplies like antibiotics in an injectable form that can be given either orally or by injection. If you can find a cooperative vet they can issue pain medication or as I suggested before liquid children's aspirin works great.