JustSarahThanks
Songster
First off, I apologize for the garbage quality of this photo, I'll try and get a better one later when my husband gets home and can give me a hand with holding the little lady.
I noticed Thursday morning when I went in to tend to everyone that one of my chickens (my most accident prone one, of freaking course) had what looked like a little bit of blood around the margins of a couple scales on her right leg. Nothing the previous day, and no other birds had anything like that. I figured it probably was the result of maybe getting pecked or bitten while up on the roost because there's been a little pecking order upheaval recently and this darling bird is the bottom of the pecking order and had previously been roosting by herself lower down, but recently decided to join everyone else up at the top. I gently cleaned the leg with chlorhexidine and tried to apply a little vet wrap bandage with some neosporin but she promptly removed it so I left it open. I didn't see any overt open wounds while I was treating it. She seemed to mostly be moving around without any discomfort so I figured I'd do another treatment in the evening and then check it again the next day.
Of course, my spouse has been busy with work so he's had to go into the office a bit this week (despite COVID and everything else) so I've been on my own and my little buddy here isn't terribly thrilled about these things so it's just easier to tend to when I have my husband's help, so I am sure I haven't administered the cutting edge of chicken leg first aid. But I did a couple wound treatments in this manner (and a couple times when she had a big glob of poop stuck to that foot soaked wound with a warm, moist washcloth before spritzing with chlorhexidine and applying neosporin). And it seemed like she was slightly favoring it, but not in a way that was unambiguous and as I had some leftover meloxicam from a previous injury (see also: this is my accident prone chicken) so I started twice daily dosing for a couple days.
Now, admittedly I haven't done anything with the wound in a couple days because of not having an easy time doing it on my own and she's not been behaving overtly uncomfortable, has been eating and drinking and scratching around as always (and she hasn't started laying eggs yet so no changes there), but it seems like the area has gotten rather dark and I don't know if what I'm seeing is bruising, scabbing, necrotic tissue or mud caked in there because we've had a lot of rain in the past few days.
What do you all think? Should I buck up and resume treating topically/giving oral meloxicam for discomfort? Should I seek vet care? Let it run its course because even if I clean it obsessively she's still probably going to get mud and bedding and stuff stuck to whatever topicals I apply, etc? Other recommendations?
View attachment 2371910
I noticed Thursday morning when I went in to tend to everyone that one of my chickens (my most accident prone one, of freaking course) had what looked like a little bit of blood around the margins of a couple scales on her right leg. Nothing the previous day, and no other birds had anything like that. I figured it probably was the result of maybe getting pecked or bitten while up on the roost because there's been a little pecking order upheaval recently and this darling bird is the bottom of the pecking order and had previously been roosting by herself lower down, but recently decided to join everyone else up at the top. I gently cleaned the leg with chlorhexidine and tried to apply a little vet wrap bandage with some neosporin but she promptly removed it so I left it open. I didn't see any overt open wounds while I was treating it. She seemed to mostly be moving around without any discomfort so I figured I'd do another treatment in the evening and then check it again the next day.
Of course, my spouse has been busy with work so he's had to go into the office a bit this week (despite COVID and everything else) so I've been on my own and my little buddy here isn't terribly thrilled about these things so it's just easier to tend to when I have my husband's help, so I am sure I haven't administered the cutting edge of chicken leg first aid. But I did a couple wound treatments in this manner (and a couple times when she had a big glob of poop stuck to that foot soaked wound with a warm, moist washcloth before spritzing with chlorhexidine and applying neosporin). And it seemed like she was slightly favoring it, but not in a way that was unambiguous and as I had some leftover meloxicam from a previous injury (see also: this is my accident prone chicken) so I started twice daily dosing for a couple days.
Now, admittedly I haven't done anything with the wound in a couple days because of not having an easy time doing it on my own and she's not been behaving overtly uncomfortable, has been eating and drinking and scratching around as always (and she hasn't started laying eggs yet so no changes there), but it seems like the area has gotten rather dark and I don't know if what I'm seeing is bruising, scabbing, necrotic tissue or mud caked in there because we've had a lot of rain in the past few days.
What do you all think? Should I buck up and resume treating topically/giving oral meloxicam for discomfort? Should I seek vet care? Let it run its course because even if I clean it obsessively she's still probably going to get mud and bedding and stuff stuck to whatever topicals I apply, etc? Other recommendations?
View attachment 2371910
