NoodleBird

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Hey everyone, my chicken (5yo RIR) Fern ended up falling off the roost the other day (I heard the crash but wasn't able to see how she fell), and has been doing pretty ok except for not moving around at all and not drinking any water. Her leg is not flopping, and there's no rotation, so I'm thinking its a tissue injury. Similarly, there's no noticeable bruising. She can not seem to put weight on it, and she doesn't seem comfortable walking on either of her legs honestly without wobbling and trying to use her wings. For some past history, she's been struggling with Ecoli, and I have been giving her antibiotics. They've been working well, but she has lost a lot of weight and muscle that we were trying to rebuild. As of now, she's comfortable sitting down, and hasn't really been doing anything but eating and sleeping. She's still very alert when she's awake, and I've been giving her pain medication/anti inflammation medication that I got from the vet. I've been syringe feeding her water and Nutridrench, as well as liquid vitamins. I'm wondering about what I should do for her considering I'm about to be traveling in a week, and won't be able to look after her. She's indoors currently with some of her flock, and we have her sleeping on the floor with a stack of folded towels for comfort.
 
Welcome. Does the vet say she has E.coli and salpingits or egg yolk peritonitis? If it is advanced and she is not able to walk because of that, it might be time to consider euthanizing her. But if she has a leg injury or sprain, it might take several weeks of resting the leg, not doing anything like jumping down or running around. A chicken sling chair could be good for that with food and water placed in front of her, with periods of rest out of the sling. That might be hard for a pet setter to handle. I would mix water with her chicken feed and some scrambled watery egg for getting more fluids into her. Here are some examples of chicken slings with the general design in the first 14 posts nd a good video:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/versions-of-chick-chairs-please.1166308/
 

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