Broken leg, help!

[cstrick23]

I'm new to raising chickens. We have 5 Rhode Island Red hens and 1 bantam hen. We got them from TSC in March. Yesterday we found 1 of the Rhode Island Reds had an injured leg. The bone is not sticking out but there is bruising and slight swelling. It looks like there maybe an open wound under a couple of the scales (I have cleaned with wound wash and wrapped with gauze). It's the lower part of her leg. She can grasp my finger with her foot but does not put weight on the leg. I have brought her inside my house in a large plastic tub and have splinted the leg with a Popsicle stick and gauze wrap. I am feeding her usual mix of layer and wheat and am adding oyster shell now. I have given her half of a low dose aspirin for pain once. She is eating and drinking well. She has had a mix of normal formed stools and very loose/ watery stools. She layed an egg tonight. She is beginning to sound hoarse and is panting at times. Otherwise she seems to be acting like her normal self. I have been taking her outside to visit her sisters and have some fresh air and she really enjoys it. I would love to get any advice and suggestions. I just want to know if I'm doing the right things. Thanks in advance!!

 

[cstrick23]

 

[Buster2nz]

Hi cstrick23,

Relax you are doing very well.

I've had 2 Chook's break legs, neither had broken skin, i applied Arnica Cream all over the leg, took a Sanitary Pad with the sticky strip down the middle of the outside. ( I didn't have Popsicle Stick's but 2 of them i would think would be fine,) i got 2 thick handled plastic spoons, broke the spoon off and filed the end of the handle with a fingernail file. I then started to wrap the Sanitary Pad around the leg, the neat thing is as it goes round the leg it sticks to it's self as you wrap it round. Once i had finished wrapping the whole Sanitary Pad around the leg, i then applied the 2 spoon handles to each side of the leg, they stick to the sticky part of the Sanitary Pad, and don't fall off. I then used a sticky elastic Horse bandage, the sort they wrap around the Horse's ankles. I wrapped quite a bit around to create a cast.

Seeing as you have an open wound, i suggest instead of the Horse bandage, i would use a nice wide soft elastic crape bandage over the Sanitary Pad and Popsicles, so that you can check on the wound either in a few days or a week? to apply more ointment, and make sure it's not infecting. Once satisfied that the open wound is no longer a problem re do all of the above and leave alone.

Each time you unwrap to look at the wound, you can't un-peel the Sanitary Pad, it just shreds so gently cut the pad off the leg. The Popsicle's will peel off, and you can re-use them.

As the swelling goes down on the leg, the cast will become a fraction lose, don't worry about that it will be fine. the cast may slip down a little to the top of her foot, so keeping her in a dry place it is most important so that the cast doesn't get wet.

You could be looking at about 10 weeks before you want to take the cast off. Humans they suggest 3 months, before taking casts off, but you will see change in the way she use's the leg.
Once you do decide to take the cast off, still keep her where you can keep an eye on her, and see how she goes.

Note:- the Sanitary Pad i used, is called a Panty Liner for light flow, so they are not very thick, just right for what you need.

All the best buster2nz

 

[cstrick23]

Thank you for the advice! I'll definitely try that!