Buff Orpington pullet with huge swollen thigh on Left leg- Help/advice needed!

[JoyfulPromise]

Final Update:

Goosie died peacefully in her sleep last night. For the past two weeks she had been happily living out with the other hens. She acted pretty normal if a little less energetic than usual, though she would dive for treats eagerly with the rest of the hens. I kept an eye on her and brought her in a couple of times to check her leg and put some oils on it. It seemed to go down a good bit in size, but never totally. Even though I saw her eat food, she seemed to lose a lot of weight, and last night we brought her back in to try and give her more special care, but apparently it was too late. She was lying calmly on the floor of her cage this morning, dead. I am glad she had those last weeks out where she was happier with the other chickens, and because of the thaw, she actually had a last day of happy free ranging in our yard. I am glad she went so peacefully. She will be missed.

Thank you again for all of your well meaning advice and thoughts and prayers.

~Joy

 

[PoultryPedia]

I am sorry for your loss.

I am glad she got to have some pleasant times, too.

 

[rollkeeg877]

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

you need to go to the vet if that chicken is actually worth something to you cause thats bad and a salt bath might do something to her feathers other then that if you can get a new hen put her out of her misery no offence to you guys or the chicken cause that would be painful

 

[rollkeeg877]

didn't see that sorry she died

 

[kacklinkelly]

Thank you for the update Joyful Promise. Sorry for your loss. Goosie had many of us hoping she would
pull through. The way you described her final days was so touching. I'm thinking
you may have some author in you. All the best to you and yours.

 

[kristenmister]

So sorry for your loss, you did a great job caring for her. Just thought I'd mention that the injury looked strikingly like a tumor to me. I'm not sure what cancer rates are like in chickens. However, I am also a rat owner, and I've lost one to cancer. Her tumors were ulcerated due to rapid growth that caused the skin to tear, very similar in appearance to the pictures you posted of Goosie's leg. I know I'm talking about mammal vs. bird here, but maybe...

 

[cowcreekgeek]

I'm sorry she didn't overcome the infection, but that was a lot to overcome. I'm of the belief that open wounds can be cleaned from the outside in, but that closed wounds, esp. when swollen so badly, require fightin' the battle from the inside out.

It's hard to find any good from such a loss, but ... in the hopes of learning from it, I was wondering if you had tried any of the internal natural antibiotics discussed earlier? I still suspect staph, and that the infection entered her bloodstream, and that it ultimately attacked her internal organs.

I apologize if asking questions seems unsympathetic, but determining what didn't work this time around may help to improve the chances for many others, next time around.

 

[allured1]

I hate to bring this up but see no one has talked That this Tumor might be Cancer as they Bleed and will not go away or have any discharge. I think you have treated it as best you can for infection and I think if that's what it was you would see some discharge and feel heat or when you lance it see more then just blood. I would put her back with the other chickens and let her live out her life! I am not a Vet but have had lots of Animals with lots of different diseases and to me it says Cancer

 

[allured1]

Oh so sorry she passed but you did the right thing by letting her be back with her flock and she went peacefully in her sleep.