Chicken door fell on pullet need advice asap!!

[MThree]

My daughter was trying to close the coop door and it fell on one of our pullets. I didn’t see it happen so not sure if hit beak or neck. She was bleeding from her nostrils it appeared and we cleaned with warm water and a tiny bit of peroxide and a tooth pick to removed the clots because she was having trouble breathing through her nostrils. She is breathing better now and no longer bleeding but still swallowing hard and almost wheezing sometimes it sounds like. I put neosporin on the area it seemed may be cracked but it almost looks like a blood clot at the top of her beak underneath of it. She is walking around fine and in shock and I’m sure some pain. We are new to chickens and worried she may not make it. We keep checking on her in the coop periodically and she jumped up on the roost and is trying to sleep but still swallowing hard periodically. Anyone have any similar type of injury that their hen recovered from?! We only have 2 other hens and they are not picking on her at all so we didn’t separate her since it’s time for sleep now.

 

[dawg53]

Welcome to BYC.
You've done all that you can do for your hen. Her trachea and esophagus might've sustained injury, thus the breathing hard and difficulty swallowing. They will heal in time.
If her beak is cracked, just put a dab of Neosporin on it. A new beak will eventually grow under it.

Due to the cracked beak, she may have difficulty eating and drinking. She wont be able to pick up feed and eat it normally.
I recommend that you provide her a deep bowl and put feed in it and add lukewarm water to it. You want the feed to be on the watery side, like a gruel. Do not add cold water nor water that is too warm, it will be painful due to the exposed nerve endings from the cracked beak.

The reason you need to use a deep bowl is so she wont be able to peck the bottom of the bowl to cause further injury and excessive pain.
You'll have to add water to the gruel during the day because the feed soaks up a lot of water. Make a fresh batch of gruel once a day. It will take about 2-3 weeks for a new beak to grow under the old beak.

In two weeks, put some dry food or treats in front of her to pick up with her beak and eat. If she cant pick up the food or treats, that means she needs more healing time. Once she is able to pick up feed or treats without dropping either, she is good to go, the new beak has grown in place and you wont need the deep bowl no longer.
Good luck.

 

[MThree]

It seems it's always a favorite that gets into some sort of trouble or predicament.
Good job putting Neosporin on the crack using a q-tip. I've done that as well.
To encourage her to eat the gruel, you can put a small amount of treats in the bowl, dried meal worms for example.
It's good news that she's breathing almost normal. Time heals and she'll be just fine.

I checked on her first thing this morning and she is still alive and seems ok. I put the gruel in the coop with her and I did put some meal worms in but the two other hens wouldn’t let her eat so I put them in the run for the day and left my injured hen in the coop by herself for the day so they don’t pick on her and she will hopefully have a chance to eat. She tried pecking at a meal worm I put down for other girls and then her nostrils started bleeding a tiny bit so I cleaned them again with warm water and a Qtip to ensure she can breath ok. I hope in a few weeks she will be back to normal like you guys have said. I feel so awful for her.

 

[MThree]

Welcome to BYC.
You've done all that you can do for your hen. Her trachea and esophagus might've sustained injury, thus the breathing hard and difficulty swallowing. They will heal in time.
If her beak is cracked, just put a dab of Neosporin on it. A new beak will eventually grow under it.

Due to the cracked beak, she may have difficulty eating and drinking. She wont be able to pick up feed and eat it normally.
I recommend that you provide her a deep bowl and put feed in it and add lukewarm water to it. You want the feed to be on the watery side, like a gruel. Do not add cold water nor water that is too warm, it will be painful due to the exposed nerve endings from the cracked beak.

The reason you need to use a deep bowl is so she wont be able to peck the bottom of the bowl to cause further injury and excessive pain.
You'll have to add water to the gruel during the day because the feed soaks up a lot of water. Make a fresh batch of gruel once a day. It will take about 2-3 weeks for a new beak to grow under the old beak.

In two weeks, put some dry food or treats in front of her to pick up with her beak and eat. If she cant pick up the food or treats, that means she needs more healing time. Once she is able to pick up feed or treats without dropping either, she is good to go, the new beak has grown in place and you wont need the deep bowl no longer.
Good luck.

Thank you so much for the advice! I truly appreciate it. We did put a little neosporin on the area that looked slightly cracked with a Qtip. The blood was just concerning and wasn’t sure where it was coming from and praying no internal injury. We will do the gruel tomorrow in a deep bowl and hopefully she can eat some. We keep checking on her and she jumped up on the roost and is sleeping and breathing mostly normal now. We haven’t had these ladies but a week so this is pretty traumatic introduction to backyard chickens. Praying she will heal in time. She is my fave chicken too. She is so sweet and would always eat right out of my hand if I offered.

 

[Eggcessive]

You may need to take her aside 2-3 times a day, and offer the wet mash feed up to her beak from a small cup or scoop. I put extra water on the feed, any scrambled egg, or canned cat food. I hope that your chicken gets better. Look around for any other possible hazards in your coop and run. I secure all door with hooks so they don’t get blown open or closed and injure chickens. The chickens are very prone to accidents, turning buckets over on themselves, or getting stuck behind objects in the coop. They can get causght on handles of waterers and hang themselves, and will eat any hardware, glass, plastic, or string that gets left lying around.

 

[dawg53]

Thank you so much for the advice! I truly appreciate it. We did put a little neosporin on the area that looked slightly cracked with a Qtip. The blood was just concerning and wasn’t sure where it was coming from and praying no internal injury. We will do the gruel tomorrow in a deep bowl and hopefully she can eat some. We keep checking on her and she jumped up on the roost and is sleeping and breathing mostly normal now. We haven’t had these ladies but a week so this is pretty traumatic introduction to backyard chickens. Praying she will heal in time. She is my fave chicken too. She is so sweet and would always eat right out of my hand if I offered.

It seems it's always a favorite that gets into some sort of trouble or predicament.
Good job putting Neosporin on the crack using a q-tip. I've done that as well.
To encourage her to eat the gruel, you can put a small amount of treats in the bowl, dried meal worms for example.
It's good news that she's breathing almost normal. Time heals and she'll be just fine.