Chickens for almost a year.. first massacre yesterday. :(

[TaraBellaBirds]

That is awesome!

 

[carcar80]

Whew! All settled in for the night. Here's today's update:

Well, I decided to start our treatment off today with a nice soothing saltwater soak. Ha! Miss Sassy Pants was MOST unappreciative of her sitz bath. LOL. Which is a very good thing. I grab her around the body/wings and catch her legs upward between my fingers and dunk only her butt in. She would be still as could be for about twenty seconds, then she wanted a break and by gosh, she was having a break!

She had some unpleasant words for me, but I took them in stride. Repeated the dunking maybe five times. After that I took the bulb syringe and jetted some more HP in, as there was still a good bit of goo in the wound beds. I *think* this will likely be the last time I'll need the HP.. will see what tomorrow looks like. It hardly bubbled at all today.

Then I patted her dry and pulled out a few feathers (as if she needs to lose any more, she says!!), sloughed off what slimy stuff I could on my own and checked the pockets in the two deeper wounds. I am amazed, like you guys have said, at how quickly things are closing in. I think by tomorrow or the next day, there will BE no pockets! So I just finished off with a slathering of ointment, making sure to get in every nook & cranny with the QTip.

Oh, and not a HINT of a maggot, and she doesn't feel hot anymore when I pick her up.. so I was thrilled!!

And best of all, she allowed me to do ALL of this on my own, without hubby's help! (he had run to the store so I figured I would give it a shot).

So, here are a few pics:

Here is today's close-up. Notice that the vent is becoming visible again now that some swelling is going down.

And then I took a backed-out shot, so that you guys can get a better idea of how MUCH feathering this baby lost!!



I also got a shot of the wound on her back. "Merely a flesh wound" as we say at work, lol. (In our best English accent of course.)



And last but not least, I have to share the video I was making so that you guys could see her walking around the back porch after all of this.. while I was filming the BR roo got a visual of her and came RUNNING over to see her, followed by the rest of the flock. It was so cute, lol.

Thanks for following along, everyone. Makes me feel good to have other "chicken crazy" people who understand!

 

[Alaskan]

Wow! How fantastic!! I am super thrilled e that you have no maggots!!

 

[Lorraine436]

I'm so glad she is doing better. I watched the video - adorable chickens!!!

 

[hokankai]

Oh yay! So glad to see another happy update. My last suggestion would be to make sure she's almost entirely healed before putting her back with the boys. That BR roos intention was to mate her, and that would not be the best thing for her at this point . I'd wait until she's just about totally healed before putting her in with the boys again

 

[carcar80]

Absolutely, that's the plan. What about feathers though? I mean those will take forever, right? Won't they pick at her for that too?

And I didn't figure his intentions were totally pure- LOL! I didn't tell her that though.

 

[hokankai]

They shouldn't peck at her because of her feathers, but I would definitely spray some Blu-Kote on her back end before putting her back there just to make it more difficult for them to see the wounds and make them not as intriguing

 

[carcar80]

Okay thanks. Will do.

 

[carcar80]

Evening everyone.

Not much to update this evening, Rhoda is still great. I let her out of the kennel to roam the back porch when I get home, and I joke that she's "porch trained" as she never leaves a mess while she's out.. LOL!

Gave her some meat/cheese sandwich crust leftovers which she of course loved.. Them changed her papers and put her back up.

I have actually decided at this point- as long as things continue as they are- to stop "treating" her and just continue "supporting" her. She is staying remarkably clean (remembering how MESSY chicks are, I DREADED keeping a big bird caged, but wow it's not near as bad!!), and is healing very nicely. I think at this point Mother Nature is doing well on her own, I will just keep a watchful eye and be sure that continues.

I will use this thread to update on "big" stuff, like if she lays an egg (lol), or when she heals up enough to go back to the coop. Otherwise, no news is good news unless someone has a specific question. Sound good?

Thanks again, everyone!

***Edit to add***

Well she has now gotten on her little "hay nest" that I had put in.. So I guess this means her hiney feels well enough now, and/or she's feeling more relaxed b

 

[Lisaa]

Thanks for the update. SO glad this story sounds like it's going to have a happy ending!