Chicken is not acting normal!

[CHICKEN CAPTAIN]

Hello,
I am fairly knew to chickens and just got my first flock about eight months ago. My four RIR's always stick together and are very alert, excited, and forage happily throughout the yard. This afternoon when I got home, my fourth chicken was no where to be found. I found her sitting in the grass with her eyes closed. When she heard me she opened her eyes but made no attempt to move. She is the most skittish of the four and normally runs off when I try to pick her up. She let me pick her up which was odd and made no attempt to move, fly, or join the others. I later learned that our new puppy had gotten ahold of her yesterday and bit her wing and possibly her neck. She has been eating and drinking, but when i tried to look at her wings she only let me touch one. There is no blood or obvious sign of injury other than a few loose feathers and her odd behavior. She managed to hop up on her roosting bar this evening so she isn't in a terrible amount of pain.Not sure if wing is broken or if she is in shock. Any advice?

 

[sylviethecochin]

If it was just a puppy, the wing is likely bruised, and unlikely to be broken. (I've had the same problem in the past. I've said it before, and I'll type it again. Beagles are meatheads.)

She was shocky. If she managed to get up onto her roosting bar, she's probably not shocky anymore. Observe for abnormal behaviour tomorrow, but she's probably over the shock and will be even more skittish during the week to come.

Put her in your lap, between your legs, and spread her wings over your knees. Inspect for greenish discoloration of the skin on the underside of the injured wing (chickens' bruises usually look green.) Feel for abnormal warmth or swelling. If you can't find any, you can probably stop worrying.

if you can find swelling/bruising, feel along the length of it, and compare to the other wing.

If there is breakage, you'll want to keep her from jumping or flapping too much. For me, that would mean she goes into the old rabbit coop for two weeks. You might have an old dog crate. Either way, she shouldn't jump onto roosts.

I doubt she's too badly injured, though.

 

[azygous]

When a dog gets hold of a chicken, there are almost always internal injuries. If you have a vet and the means, I advise having them look the hen over, and possibly take Xrays.

You need to look carefully under all the feathers for puncture wounds, wings included. If you see lacerations, look for reddening of the skin around them. This means infection and it can occur just a few hours after an animal bite. It will require an oral antibiotic. Another good reason to see a vet.

Your hen is most definitely suffering shock. She needs to be brought inside to a quiet warm place and given warm water with electrolytes.

I doubt her wing is broken if she can get up to the roost, so watch for infection and treat her shock. You might offer her some scrambled egg when she begins to act more like her old self.

 

[CHICKEN CAPTAIN]

Thank y’all for the advice. She was mostly back to her normal self this morning and drank lots of water. I think she will be fine as long we don’t let her use her wing. I’ll keep an eye out for bruises, etc. I think she was just in shock. Thank y’all for the advice!

 

[micstrachan]

Glad to hear she's on the mend!

 

[azygous]

We adore a happy ending to a thread!