Meet Goosie - our top Buff Orpington Pullet from last year. We purchased Goosie along with other laying pullets as a chick from McMurray Hatchery in April 2012. She was the first of the 5 BO pullets to start laying this fall, and was exceptional in regularity and size of eggs! Her name was given because early on she would make a loud "honk" when trying to get our attention and she would yank on our clothes.
Late in December (I think it was the 20th), when feeding in the morning my brother and I noticed a large patch of reasonably fresh blood on the main roost! We thought maybe someone had cut their foot or pulled off a toenail, and we tried to scan all the chickens in the coop, but could not see any injured feet. Two days later, on the 22nd, we saw a few more small drips of blood on the roost, but still could not find the culprit, until that evening when my brother was closing up the chickens and he checked all of them in a row on the roost with a flashlight (what we should have done the first night!) and he finally found it was Goosie and brought her in. She had a large gash/scrape on her left thigh, but because of where it was, her side "poofs" of feathers completely covered it to any casual glance. Do YOU see anything wrong in the picture above? That was just taken last night when my brother brought her in for treatment before bed-time. How about in this picture? (her tail is down because she was sleeping and just woke up)
We could not think of what could have caused this injury. We didn't see anything in or around the coop that was obvious, nor were we sure that it could have been caused by the rooster. But it had completely ripped the skin and feather upward for about an inch or so. At that point I wish we had taken more time to treat it better, or even take a picture, but it was late, and it was not bleeding anymore, so we just did our standard healing treatment of Young Living Therapeutic grade Lavender Oil, and some Animal Scents ointment, and sent her back out to the coop. I am thinking we were pretty busy the next few days, and other than checking her occasionally to make sure she had not bumped it again, we left Goosie alone. But then I noticed it oozing a little, so I though we should put some more oils on it, and we brought her back in. Because it was so well covered by her feathers, we had not noticed that her thigh had swelled up to a huge size!
The following pictures are from the same time as the ones above, so you can see how well she hides it...
Nasty, isn't it? We put some antibacterial oils on it, and wrapped it with muslin strips for a few nights, but then decided it was better for her to stay out with the others instead of the extreme temp changes (we had been keeping her in at night. So now we are just bringing her in twice a day to treat her leg.
She walks normally, is rather picky about her food, but will eagerly gobble her favorites, and she drinks water fine. Her poo is slightly watery, mainly because she hasn't been eating as much as usual. She has been kind of moping about a bit more in the coop, and is not as energetic or act like she used to. But she doesn't act in pain or anything. She is very sweet and calm about us handling her or putting things on her leg. I don't know what else to do! It almost looks like an abscess, or something, but if we even slightly poke it it bleeds a lot! Should we just keep putting the essential oils on, or do you think we need to do something more drastic?
Grateful for any help or advice!
~Joy
