So my friends have a cockerel that has an injury on his left wing. They have been struggling with it for weeks, trying to get the bleeding to stop, but eventually it starts bleeding again as soon as the wrappings come off. The owners of this bird have gone on a trip, so I am the one taking care of their animals at the moment.
The day before yesterday (the day after they left) I noticed that his wing was bleeding again, so we brought him home and patched him up. When we got him home I cleaned the wound as best as I could, and tried to locate the source of the bleeding. This was kind of difficult, because as soon as I dabbed away the blood a river of fresh blood replaced it. Eventually I got the old, clotted strings of blood cleared from the feathers enough to see that there was a puncture wound. At this point the bleeding had strangely stopped, so I cleaned around it and started examining it. The blood was now pooling beneath the skin and creating a blood bubble. Little did I know that as soon as I would poke it, the blood would squirt out and hit the edge of the tub two feet away!
I also felt the bones in the wing and wondered if a small bone had been broken and might be preventing the wound from sealing. Throughout all of this, the crazy guy was trying to drink the blood and peck at the bandages. Gross! So that's why it won't heal... He won't leave it alone!
We wrapped up the wing and put him in a crate for the night. I checked on him occasionally, but he stopped picking at it for the night.
All of this happened the night before last (Saturday night). Yesterday (Sunday) morning the bleeding had stopped, but the bandage had dried to his feathers and sealed it shut. We decided that it'd be best to just replace the bloody outer wrapping and leave this temporary scab in the hope that the skin underneath might begin to heal. Today I noticed that the bleeding had resumed, and he was dripping blood all over the place.
Any suggestions on what to do next? The next thing I think I should do is rewrap the wing, as well as just wrap his whole body to keep him from moving it and touching it. The next options are that I could use superglue or stitches, but those are my last-resort, especially for someone who has never performed first-aid on a chicken aside from the odd neck plucking from a rooster or force-feeding a chick that won't eat.
Also, one of the girls in the family has three meat chicks that she is planning to sell at the spring Junior Show (people will pay like $300 for those to support the 4-H kids!). One of the chicks previously fell out of the cage and hurt his leg, and hasn't been able to walk since. His behavior used to be completely fine aside from not being able to walk, but now it seems he has given up on life. He refuses to eat, and only drinks because I force him to. Today I mixed up some egg yolk, honey, and water, and syringe-fed it to him a drop at a time. He didn't really seem to care, and the look in his eyes said that he didn't want to live any more.
I've managed to keep him alive, but I don't know if he'll make it to the end of the week. Has anyone had success getting a chick to live past this stage? We have had mixed results, but most often chicks like this decide not to live any longer and we can't do anything about it.
Thanks for any help!
Feel free to ask questions if you need more info. Unfortunately I didn't have time to take pictures during all of this, aside from a four-inch diameter blood spot on my jeans.
The day before yesterday (the day after they left) I noticed that his wing was bleeding again, so we brought him home and patched him up. When we got him home I cleaned the wound as best as I could, and tried to locate the source of the bleeding. This was kind of difficult, because as soon as I dabbed away the blood a river of fresh blood replaced it. Eventually I got the old, clotted strings of blood cleared from the feathers enough to see that there was a puncture wound. At this point the bleeding had strangely stopped, so I cleaned around it and started examining it. The blood was now pooling beneath the skin and creating a blood bubble. Little did I know that as soon as I would poke it, the blood would squirt out and hit the edge of the tub two feet away!
I also felt the bones in the wing and wondered if a small bone had been broken and might be preventing the wound from sealing. Throughout all of this, the crazy guy was trying to drink the blood and peck at the bandages. Gross! So that's why it won't heal... He won't leave it alone!We wrapped up the wing and put him in a crate for the night. I checked on him occasionally, but he stopped picking at it for the night.
All of this happened the night before last (Saturday night). Yesterday (Sunday) morning the bleeding had stopped, but the bandage had dried to his feathers and sealed it shut. We decided that it'd be best to just replace the bloody outer wrapping and leave this temporary scab in the hope that the skin underneath might begin to heal. Today I noticed that the bleeding had resumed, and he was dripping blood all over the place.
Any suggestions on what to do next? The next thing I think I should do is rewrap the wing, as well as just wrap his whole body to keep him from moving it and touching it. The next options are that I could use superglue or stitches, but those are my last-resort, especially for someone who has never performed first-aid on a chicken aside from the odd neck plucking from a rooster or force-feeding a chick that won't eat.
Also, one of the girls in the family has three meat chicks that she is planning to sell at the spring Junior Show (people will pay like $300 for those to support the 4-H kids!). One of the chicks previously fell out of the cage and hurt his leg, and hasn't been able to walk since. His behavior used to be completely fine aside from not being able to walk, but now it seems he has given up on life. He refuses to eat, and only drinks because I force him to. Today I mixed up some egg yolk, honey, and water, and syringe-fed it to him a drop at a time. He didn't really seem to care, and the look in his eyes said that he didn't want to live any more.
I've managed to keep him alive, but I don't know if he'll make it to the end of the week. Has anyone had success getting a chick to live past this stage? We have had mixed results, but most often chicks like this decide not to live any longer and we can't do anything about it.Thanks for any help!
Feel free to ask questions if you need more info. Unfortunately I didn't have time to take pictures during all of this, aside from a four-inch diameter blood spot on my jeans. 
