Chicken swallowed a string! What do I do?? Help!

[stinkysneakers]

I found my three month old Dominicker a couple minutes ago with a string hanging out of his/her mouth! It was stumbling around with the end of the string wrapped around it's foot and tangled up. This has never happened before. It's a thin cotton string, thicker than thread but thinner than yarn -- the kind of string they use to sew feed bags closed. I held him in my lap and pulled it out as geeeeeeently and sloooooooowly and graaaaaadually as I could, pausing often to let him shake his head, stretch his mouth, regain his balance, etc before we finally were both relieved to see the knotted end come out. I never encountered a point of extra resistance or where the string stopped coming. I estimate the bird had between two and three feet of string inside it. My concern is, what do I do now? Withhold food? Give extra food? Put probiotics in his water? Monitor him carefully? What signs of complications should I watch for? Should I have just cut it off and waited for the rest to pass through him? He didn't make any sounds of being in pain. I'm wondering if I did the right thing.

 

[munchkin123]

Hi!
Sounds scary, a chicken eating 3 feet of string! if he seems to be fine, I would just let him go with the rest of your flock and give him the regular amount of feed. However, if he starts acting funny, I'd call the vet or someone you know who could tell you more. The way you described it, he seems to have been o.k. with you pulling it out so I guess he couldn't have started to digest parts of it. Hope this helps!

 

[stinkysneakers]

Hi!
Sounds scary, a chicken eating 3 feet of string! if he seems to be fine, I would just let him go with the rest of your flock and give him the regular amount of feed. However, if he starts acting funny, I'd call the vet or someone you know who could tell you more. The way you described it, he seems to have been o.k. with you pulling it out so I guess he couldn't have started to digest parts of it. Hope this helps!

Thank you! I was very freaked out!

 

[stinkysneakers]

Thank you! I was very freaked out!

And I think he was too!