polishparents
Hatching
- Apr 23, 2020
- 1
- 7
- 3
Hey guys,
I want to share with you an incredible recovery story when we thought all hope was lost, and how we treated our 5 month polish chicken from a severe head injury. I hope this helps others as we SCOURED the net for help when our Polish chicken was injured.
4 days ago she flew from my arms towards the grass as intended, but did a complete 180 mid flight and propelled head first into the concrete footpath.
My partner and I thought she was going to die. We thought she had broken her neck, her head and neck were twisted badly, blood was seeping from above her eye, she was twitching/convulsing and generally freaking out. Her feet would stretch out and then contort and curl up. The hit to the head was so loud... it's horrible to even think about it now. She was just a shaking, convulsing, head rolling mess. She had no control over herself, pooed uncontrollably, had no control over her neck and head and could not walk. We were in tears, seriously we thought it was the end!!
I contemplated putting her down then and there, she was in clear distress and pain. Oddly though, she made no sounds. Not one single sound. No squeals, no clucking, nothing at all, just silence. This is probably what stopped me from putting her out of her misery. If she had been squealing or making horrific sounds I think we wouldn't have been able to think clearly. We put her in a box and into a warm dark room in the house.
I called a vet who told us she would probably die over night from shock as chickens do not do well with shock and often pass away from it. We honestly expected her to die in the night.
The next day, she was just convulsing and bobbing her head around uncontrollably. We fed her through a pipette, water mixed with multi vitamins from the pet shop and a tiny bit of honey for electrolytes,
We also then later in the day fed her fresh tumeric juice. The tumeric can be bought from some supermarkets, we squeezed it through a garlic crusher and got the fresh juice that way. You could use powdered tumeric but I dont know if it would be the same... I also bought B multi vitamins from the chemist in liquid capsules and mixed about 1/20th into some water and fed that to her. We put some mealworms in front of her which normally she would love, but she wasn't interested. She wouldn't even bite as them when we put the worm to her beak.
She was drinking the liquid mixtures successfully but she was otherwise like a convulsing vegetable.
The next day, she appeared to be the same. Sitting in her box, head bobbing around uncontrollably. However! We pulled her out of the box and put her on her feet. At first her feet curled up but we straightened out her toes and she stood there for a few seconds, before sitting. I put a worm on the ground and to our surprise, she pecked! This was unbelievably to us! She ate 3 worms in total! Granted she made many attempts to get it, but she did it.
That night we continued with the tumeric, B vitamins, honey and vitamin water.
The following day, more progress. She stood up on her feet and stood there on the kitchen tiles regaining balance. She didn't walk, but she stood for 10 minutes on the spot, and pecked at more worms. We were again in tears, but tears of joy and hope! Keep in mind, she still had not made a single sound since the accident.
It's now day 4, and we put her in the backyard to see if she'd walk around on the grass. We put her down, and she stood there for a while before taking STEPS! Again, tears of joy lol and we heard some clucking! Within an hour, she actually walked up the ramp to her coop, and walked back down! We are still yet to see her drink water and eat the dry chicken feed on her own, so hopefully she starts doing this ASAP!
She is not out of the woods yet, and shows clear signs of brain damage as her head still bobs around in a jerky/nerve damage type of notion, but the progress is simply unbelievably when we thought she was too far gone!
I'll probably update in a week or so
I want to share with you an incredible recovery story when we thought all hope was lost, and how we treated our 5 month polish chicken from a severe head injury. I hope this helps others as we SCOURED the net for help when our Polish chicken was injured.
4 days ago she flew from my arms towards the grass as intended, but did a complete 180 mid flight and propelled head first into the concrete footpath.
My partner and I thought she was going to die. We thought she had broken her neck, her head and neck were twisted badly, blood was seeping from above her eye, she was twitching/convulsing and generally freaking out. Her feet would stretch out and then contort and curl up. The hit to the head was so loud... it's horrible to even think about it now. She was just a shaking, convulsing, head rolling mess. She had no control over herself, pooed uncontrollably, had no control over her neck and head and could not walk. We were in tears, seriously we thought it was the end!!
I contemplated putting her down then and there, she was in clear distress and pain. Oddly though, she made no sounds. Not one single sound. No squeals, no clucking, nothing at all, just silence. This is probably what stopped me from putting her out of her misery. If she had been squealing or making horrific sounds I think we wouldn't have been able to think clearly. We put her in a box and into a warm dark room in the house.
I called a vet who told us she would probably die over night from shock as chickens do not do well with shock and often pass away from it. We honestly expected her to die in the night.
The next day, she was just convulsing and bobbing her head around uncontrollably. We fed her through a pipette, water mixed with multi vitamins from the pet shop and a tiny bit of honey for electrolytes,
We also then later in the day fed her fresh tumeric juice. The tumeric can be bought from some supermarkets, we squeezed it through a garlic crusher and got the fresh juice that way. You could use powdered tumeric but I dont know if it would be the same... I also bought B multi vitamins from the chemist in liquid capsules and mixed about 1/20th into some water and fed that to her. We put some mealworms in front of her which normally she would love, but she wasn't interested. She wouldn't even bite as them when we put the worm to her beak.
She was drinking the liquid mixtures successfully but she was otherwise like a convulsing vegetable.
The next day, she appeared to be the same. Sitting in her box, head bobbing around uncontrollably. However! We pulled her out of the box and put her on her feet. At first her feet curled up but we straightened out her toes and she stood there for a few seconds, before sitting. I put a worm on the ground and to our surprise, she pecked! This was unbelievably to us! She ate 3 worms in total! Granted she made many attempts to get it, but she did it.
That night we continued with the tumeric, B vitamins, honey and vitamin water.
The following day, more progress. She stood up on her feet and stood there on the kitchen tiles regaining balance. She didn't walk, but she stood for 10 minutes on the spot, and pecked at more worms. We were again in tears, but tears of joy and hope! Keep in mind, she still had not made a single sound since the accident.
It's now day 4, and we put her in the backyard to see if she'd walk around on the grass. We put her down, and she stood there for a while before taking STEPS! Again, tears of joy lol and we heard some clucking! Within an hour, she actually walked up the ramp to her coop, and walked back down! We are still yet to see her drink water and eat the dry chicken feed on her own, so hopefully she starts doing this ASAP!
She is not out of the woods yet, and shows clear signs of brain damage as her head still bobs around in a jerky/nerve damage type of notion, but the progress is simply unbelievably when we thought she was too far gone!
I'll probably update in a week or so
but three recovered pretty well. One of them, called arancina, 6years old, was really in very bad conditions. she had completely violet comb and had convulsions and chillies.
❤
