Animal Attack/Hen Injury

[emmaie892000]

I'm glad she's doing better.
If her body is producing eggs you can't really stop her from laying them, but you can provide calcium sources to make sure that her body replaces the nutrients that she's using to make the eggs. Switch her to a layer feed if she isn't on one now.
It sounds like she has a great family and good chances for a normal life eventually.

 

[boskelli1571]

Update: About a week after Little Red Hen's first vet visit, we found and took her to a farm vet an hour away. It was worth it. For $20 less than my other vet visit, they kept her from Tuesday until Friday and gave her daily steroid shots to help with inflammation. He believes the damage to be nerve damage and showed me how to help her build up strength in her leg and right side. It can take up to a year for nerves to heal. :-( btw - the vet office has called to check in on her 3 times since we brought her home 2 weeks ago. They are really great!

So on to her: she still can't stand on her own, but she is making little improvements and getting stronger as time goes on. This week's milestones were 1. being able to stay in 'perching position' on the bottom of her box all night without flopping over on her side and 2. able to stand for several seconds on 2 legs while propped against a rock. We take her outside near the other birds and keep her under a guinea pig cage top so they don't pick on her. We also carry her around the yard and help her 'stand' at the feeder and waterer. We gave up on her sling for now because she kept flipping herself out of it and ending up in an uncomfortable position on her head. I think a redesign is in order.

She kept trying to groom herself, but still has limited mobility of her neck. So we started using our fingernails to pick dead skin off the new feather growth. She seems to like it and makes cooing/purring noises. Today we had her around our 5 week old chicks (supervised) and a couple of them were grooming her. So cute!

As for diet, we did use probiotic and electrolyte sav-a-chick for a few days. Her poops returned to normal so we stopped offering it. She didn't seem to like it after a couple of days anyway. We also stopped all the special foods and just kept her on starter feed/crumbles. She has gotten some watermelon treats when the weather has been really hot. She started putting on weight and now she finally seems to be close to where she was before the "Animal Attack."

Our new coop keeps getting things added to it, but we hope to soon have an area in it for her to be outside with the other birds. She doesn't like it when we bring her in at night or when it is raining. btw- The 2 roosters who survived the attack still refuse to go into the old coop, which has been reinforced until we finish our new one. They keep 'bedding down' next to the house in the bushes, and then we have to pick them up and take them to the coop. Hope they go into the new one once we put it in service.

She will be 5 months old next week, so now I am worried that she will have problems if her body starts to produce eggs before she is healed. . . so I guess it's time to do more reading.

So glad to hear she is on the mend! Sounds like you found a great vet too! She may not start laying for a while - her body has put up with a lot of trauma, but if she does just keep close watch on her to ensure she doesn't have any problems with the process.
Sounds like you have done a great job, she's lucky to have such a dedicated family!

 

[Gremalkin]

Final update:

We had a bad week last week as we experienced flystrike on her butt. Ewwww, but pretty easy to 'fix' once we figured out what we were dealing with. . . We also think there were some lice, so she also got dusted with DE.

In an attempt to keep poop off her feathers, in addition to clipping feathers around her vent, we put her back in the sling. Also to help her build those muscles back up so she could maybe start to stand on her own.

Yesterday, as I was giving her a bath, she struggled when I was clearing stuck poop away from her vent and her head went under the water for a brief moment. She must have gotten some water in her lungs: She started coughing and shaking her head. I held her way forward to help her and some water dripped out of her mouth. I brought her inside to her box, but she had labored breathing the whole afternoon and it was getting worse by nighttime. She did not drink and only tried to eat once. Around 1 AM she started coughing/squawking every once in a while, and brought up some slightly yellow runny mucus. I sat with her and tried to keep her comfortable until the vet opened at 7, but she took her last breath around 5 AM this morning.

I feel so bad right now thinking of everything she had gone through in her short 5 1/2 months of life, and right now I can't stop blaming myself for not being more careful during her bath. Feeling like I should not keep chickens anymore. :-( I know I'm in the guilt stage of grief. Yes, I know it's a chicken, but I've grown very attached to her. DH had been talking of culling her, as she didn't seem to be improving the past 2-3 weeks, but I couldn't bring myself to give up on her. The vet said it can take a year for nerve damage to heal, so that's how long I was willing to care for her.

This site has been a wealth of information for anything related to our chickens and the members here are very supportive. Thank you for allowing me to use this thread as therapy. Now I'm going outside to be with our chicks in an attempt to cheer myself up.

-Sad chicken mommy in PA

 

[chickmomma03]

I'm so sorry for your loss, but you did an AMAZING job with her, do NOT, for even ONE second beat yourself up. Allow yourself time to grieve, but find peace and comfort in the fact that you did an amazing job caring for her.

 

[Bridebeliever]

You are exactly the kind of person who should be raising chickens! So much care and compassion! So sorry for your loss.

 

[boskelli1571]

So sorry! I think you did everything you could for her - it just wasn't meant to be. You have done amazingly well with her care, many others would have given her up long ago.

 

[Gremalkin]

Thank you all for your kind words. I am feeling much better now. I am realizing how much time I spent caring for her and now have that time to work on the coop, socialize my younger chicks (EE straight run) and get ready for winter. Not to mention I am able to do more research and reading on this site. With her death we now have to wait until around Christmas for the girls we have to be old enough to start laying. Our two remaining roosters from the first flock have been doing a fabulous job watching over the chicks. They also have the help of our very protective dog as seen in my newly uploaded profile pic.