Amputated a chicken's leg today

Hope all had a Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for all the well wishes for Sweetie. I'm changing her bandages every other day and so far it looks as if it is healing well. There has been no sign of infection and the skin where I closed it together at the end of the stump seems to be healing and holding. I'm continuing to keep her isolated so that she can eat and drink all that she wants. That was always part of the problem, that she couldn't get to food and water. She and the hen whose back I sewed up are now in a hutch together. I put them together last night after cleaning out the coop. I figured both must be lonely and so far they aren't fighting. The hen with the sewn up back has her feathers already growing back. I'm hoping Sweetie's wing and tail feathers will grow back. She had worn them down to knubs using them as balance. So far the only thing that concerns me is that she still doesn't seem to be able to get up on one leg like she used to be able to do. She still struggles a lot before she can get her balance and get up on that one leg. I'm hoping it's mostly because she is in a cage and can't get the space she would need and that she will get better once released and can learn to walk without the wayward leg and claw that grabbed onto everything.

Again, this was a last attempt to save her life. If she can't learn to walk or get around I will have to cull her. I just can't stand to see her flopping around and tangled up in something. One night, before the amputation, it was dark and cold and pouring down rain and Sweetie wasn't in the coop. I made several attempts in the dark, in the rain, with a flashlight, looking for her. I knew she couldn't have gone far. After making what I called my final search I found her with her bad foot tangled up in some vines, in a flooded mud puddle under some bushes, just about to drown. That's how I knew I had to do something one way or the other. I pray that this works and I can later post pictures of Sweetie back out freeranging with the rest like she did when she was younger.
 
Any update on Sweetie's condition? I have a chicken in a similar situation and DH thinks we should amputate so I am looking for a long term prognosis. Not infected yet , but bent. It is still a young chick- maybe a month/ 6 weeks old...
 
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Hi, I sent you a PM.

Though Sweetie did recover from her amputation and it healed just fine, we had to put her down a few months later. She injured a toe on the only foot she had left.

She had been getting around just fine on it (hopping) and was back with the flock. But one day I noticed she didn't seem to be able to get around. I examined her foot and saw that she had a deep gash under one of the toes in the joint and it was badly infected. It never healed. The toe kept curling backwards. I think she severed the tendon and possibly broke the bone at the joint. I had treated the infection and gotten it "cured" but the whole foot started curling and turning red and black and blood accumulated in it and the leg. We made the sad decision to put our brave little Sweetie out of her crippled state. Somewhere in chicken heaven she's running around on two good feet.
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Awh, so sorry... but she had a great life with you while she was here. She is waiting for you at the Rainbow Bridge.

You did your best and prolonged her life. Good job.

BTW I have Dark Shadows paperbacks I need to sell. Here's a line from Barnabus to Dr. Julia Hoffman: I may have loved you, I may have spared you but now you must die! I think it was Julia. I had the music box but it broke.
 
That took guts and a lot of love to do something like that. I hope she recovers quickly.
 
Such a brave thing to do !
Amazing what we will do for those we love, isn't it ?
I had to trim my CT's ( crooked toe) claws,( Barred Rock ) and she was so sweet & gentle, loved her dearly 'til she passed away.
I pray she recovers quickly !
T
 
Ruth, thank you for posting your info on Sweetie. I have a half-grown Barred Rock chick named Gabby who developed twisted leg about a month ago. Attempts at making some kind of splint failed. She can sort of get around, but her floppy hanging leg really gets in her way. I did put some vet-wrap around it and it seems to help a tiny bit at keeping it from flopping so much, but it sure isn't a fix. I've been wondering about amputation but wasn't sure if she'd be able to learn to get around on one leg since she's going to be a big girl, but I feel better now that you said that Sweetie learned to hop around just fine. I'm sure that she'll always be at higher risk for injury to her remaining leg/foot like Sweetie, but it would certainly be a better life than she has now. I'm sorry about Sweetie, but it sounds like she had a very good life for several months before her injury.
Thanks again!
Jamie
 
Jamie if you attempt this please let us know how it turns out. Good luck

Hey lady we haven't heard how you are doing in a long time. Keeping you and yours in my prayers
 
We have a silkie with that same problem and now fear it's both legs now as she can no longer walk where she used to hobble on the one good one...I KNOW neither me or the wife could do that, you're very brave and am lost at what we can do to help her...Neither us could put her down either...I posted a thread in this section today, if anyone has any thoughts, we're all eyes...
 
So ironic. My mother decided to hatch some chickens on her own and she had one that had a bunk leg like yours. She gave me one of her roos cause she was having problems keeping the others off him and I decided to build a chicken coop for him and take in a few more of moms chickens. Since she was scared to turn the criple one loose with the others free range birds and she had no coop, she gave her to me. I named her sweetie cause she is just a doll and loves people. I'm not brave enough to do what you did, but I'm wondering if it would just cost me an absolute fortune to fix her. I don't think I have any more heart to put her down than my mom did. This is the whole reason I joined this site so that I could see if others had this problem. This was the first post I have read asl well, which doubles the irony...
 
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