Attack hurt eye and neck

[katielovinlife]

1. 1) Matilda is a hen, 5 months old, and a Rhode Island.
   2) She is laying down most the time and had not been eating or drinking a ton. She has fine more today though.
   3) She was attacked, by a weasel we guess, a day and a half ago. We guess weasel because another one of her sisters were dead with just it's head missing inside the coop. And we found brown fur by a small hole to top.
   4) Thank God none of my other birds were hurt and they are living life like normal.
   5) I am not sure if her not moving that much is because of trauma or neck strain. She can move her neck on her own and lift it up, but she only keeps it up for a short time.
   7) I have been getting her to take small doses of Aspirin to help the swelling and pain. She has eaten a little yogurt and oats today. Water is harder to tell.
   8) She has not pooped.
   9) She is in a cage in our bathtub. She is comfortable and does move but not much.
   10 ) I hope to be able to treat her myself if at all possible.
   11) pictures attached. Ignore the apple in her mouth in a couple of the photos . That's how I get the Aspirin in her.
   12) I'm using newspaper to keep the eye clean. We don't want pine shavings in it. We did disinfect around the eye and cleaned with water. Put ointment on neck wound. Antibiotic spray is coming tomorrow for the eye.
2. All of this is to ask for any advice. This is my first injured chicken. I'm wondering if I should put a neck brace on her, she keeps laying weird on it but i don't want to stress her out too much either.

 

[micstrachan]

Poor sweetie is probably very sore. I personally would not use a neck brace. I think you are doing a good job with her. She might enjoy some scrambled egg and the protein might help with tissue repair. Is the bathroom nice and warm?

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry about your injured chicken. She may have wry neck (torticolis, crook neck) from her injury. I would give her some vitamin E 400 IU, some thiamine or vitamin B1, and a little bit of chopped egg or tuna for selenium that can help treat wry neck, if used daily. It is important to get her drinking, and you can mix a lot of water into a small bowl of chicken layer feed, and a bit of the egg on top. Sometimes you may have to hold them to put there beak into the food several times a day, and then offer plain water as well. Please look for any openings into your coop and run, and fix them since weasels can get through a 1 inch opening, such as from chicken wire. Sorry that you lost a chicken.

 

[katielovinlife]

Poor sweetie is probably very sore. I personally would not use a neck brace. I think you are doing a good job with her. She might enjoy some scrambled egg and the protein might help with tissue repair. Is the bathroom nice and warm?

Bathroom is nice and warm. It's one of the main reasons we have her there. Thank you for your help.

 

[katielovinlife]

Sorry about your injured chicken. She may have wry neck (torticolis, crook neck) from her injury. I would give her some vitamin E 400 IU, some thiamine or vitamin B1, and a little bit of chopped egg or tuna for selenium that can help treat wry neck, if used daily. It is important to get her drinking, and you can mix a lot of water into a small bowl of chicken layer feed, and a bit of the egg on top. Sometimes you may have to hold them to put there beak into the food several times a day, and then offer plain water as well. Please look for any openings into your coop and run, and fix them since weasels can get through a 1 inch opening, such as from chicken wire. Sorry that you lost a chicken.

The first thing we did was take care of the two chickens and the rest of the day was fixing the holes. The 3 others have been fine and I'm hoping fully secured now. I'll try the egg thing. I thought wry neck was a generic issue, but I'll look at advice for it too. Thank you.

 

[Eggcessive]

Wry neck is just a neurological symptom. It can be genetic, or caused by a head or neck injury, a vitamin E or thiamine deficiency, and sometimes occurs in certain diseases, such as Mareks and others.

 

[katielovinlife]

Thanks. I added tumeric and protien from egg and quinoa to her meal.

 

[katielovinlife]

1. 1) Matilda is a hen, 5 months old, and a Rhode Island.
   2) She is laying down most the time and had not been eating or drinking a ton. She has fine more today though.
   3) She was attacked, by a weasel we guess, a day and a half ago. We guess weasel because another one of her sisters were dead with just it's head missing inside the coop. And we found brown fur by a small hole to top.
   4) Thank God none of my other birds were hurt and they are living life like normal.
   5) I am not sure if her not moving that much is because of trauma or neck strain. She can move her neck on her own and lift it up, but she only keeps it up for a short time.
   7) I have been getting her to take small doses of Aspirin to help the swelling and pain. She has eaten a little yogurt and oats today. Water is harder to tell.
   8) She has not pooped.
   9) She is in a cage in our bathtub. She is comfortable and does move but not much.
   10 ) I hope to be able to treat her myself if at all possible.
   11) pictures attached. Ignore the apple in her mouth in a couple of the photos . That's how I get the Aspirin in her.
   12) I'm using newspaper to keep the eye clean. We don't want pine shavings in it. We did disinfect around the eye and cleaned with water. Put ointment on neck wound. Antibiotic spray is coming tomorrow for the eye.
2. All of this is to ask for any advice. This is my first injured chicken. I'm wondering if I should put a neck brace on her, she keeps laying weird on it but i don't want to stress her out too much either.

I wanted to say thank you and give you all an update. Matilda is still in our bathroom but is propping her head up more and the swelling has gone down a ton. I can we get eyeball when we clean around it and there's no puss, thank God. The bruising is also starting to go away. We're going to continue everything till she is her normal self and we can aclimate hey back in with the other girls .

 

[LittleCheepers]

Poor little thing! She has been through quite the ordeal. I will be praying for her full recovery!