Chicken with broken wing and broken leg - need to splint

[tenbensel]

Chicken was attacked by a fox. Our dogs responded quickly and the fox dropped the chicken or failed at the attempt all together. Chicken was left with what appears to be a broken wing and leg. She is eating and drinking fine and we have her separated from the others but within the same pen. When she does stand on the one leg she is using the wing I thought to be broken for support so the ends of the remaining feathers are getting frayed looking, need to know how to wrap or splint the leg? and wing if necessary.There is no obvious break in the leg but she is just not using it and keeps it drawn up against her. There are no tears in the skin either only where the wing was bitten. Any advise?? Not sure we have avian vets in our area. And this is the chicken my daughter was planning on showing for 4H this year too, we really would like her to get better and be reintroduced to the flock soon.

 

[Keggen]

You should use something for the broken skin to prevent infection. There is an over the counter antibiotic that is safe for chickens but I'm sorry I can't recall the name. You can't use just any kind though, it can't have the pain killer ingredient in it.

I'm sorry I don't know how to wrap broken limbs but just wanted to tell you one of my experiences. Over the winter one of my hens appeared to badly injure her leg, possibly a break based on how she couldn't use it but nothing visible. We separated get for a short while and I allowed her to "roost" in a nesting box because she couldn't get up and down from the roost. After a few months of special treatment (getting special treats, etc) she has recovered almost completely! She has a little bit of a limp and loses her balance once in a while but she can also run once again! So in our case we didn't do anything major and she recovered fairly well. We do not have any poultry vets in our vicinity so treatments are limited unfortunately.

Just watch your hen for infection. Maybe see if there is something you can safely give her for pain, then give her accommodations until she starts healing on her own. Good luck!

 

[ChickieG'ma]

How is your hen doing?

 

[tenbensel]

"Chirpy" our hen that got attacked by the fox is doing very well. She will stand for short periods of time, not sure still if I am supposed to splint the leg? Yesterday I took her out to an area where they all like to dust while the chickens were out and put her down. The rooster came over to check her out but NO pecking...some of the other girls came over to check her out but NO pecking. I was relieved. Then moved her to another spot to dust, she wasn't interested but saw all the other chickens eating some fallen bird seed and she ran or hopped very quickly over to them and hung out without being pecked or hurt by the others, then she hopped over to the water and drank. After this I went ahead and put her away in her separated pen, she seems to be doing well but hoping she recovers quickly.

 

[ChickieG'ma]

That's really good to hear. I always feel that if an animal is still interested in doing it's normal animal things that is a good sign. If they have just checked out of life there's not much you can do to change their minds.

As for the leg, I'm not sure either. If you have someone to hold her to keep her from struggling you might be able to give it a really good feel up and down to see if there is a spot that seems off-kilter or broken feeling, that is if you haven't already done that. Of course it may have begun to heal already, in which case it will just heal "as is" and she will work it out however she can.

It may just be that she is still awfully sore from the attack and time is what it will take to get better. If you have a vet that will give you some without seeing her Metacam is an NSAID that can be used on chickens to relieve pain and inflammation. Or maybe there are other chicken people close by who may have some on hand. One thing you could do is go to the local thread here on BYC (most of the states have their own threads on here) and see if you can find some members who live close to you then contact them in the thread or PM them to see if they have some.

Do you still think the wing is broken or does she seem to be just using it as a crutch? I had a chick with a slipped tendon once that did that. It looked really weird and a little sad but eventually, with physical therapy she got over it and is running around now like a normal chick. That makes me wonder, maybe you could check and see if her tendon is slipped. I've only heard of it in chicks but she had a bad attack and my chick did the same think with her bad leg, kept it folded up against her and couldn't or wouldn't put it down. When you are checking her try pulling the injured leg gently back like you have seen chickens stretch normally. Then feel the hock joint to see if the achilles tendon is where it should be (between the two ridges of the hock) or out of place, probably on the inside of the joint. If it is the latter then the tendon is slipped. You can gently try to put it back in place but if you do the leg will probably need to be splinted straight for a few days or so to keep it in. Like I said, I haven't read anywhere about adults having this problem but you never know!

Sorry to be soooooo wordy. I do go on sometimes.

Keep us posted and I hope you and your girl do just fine.