compound wing fracture(graphic)

[alirehn]

Hoping that someone can help me!

Our 10 month old Golden Comet was badly injured by our super-bad jack russell. She had puncture wounds on her neck and both wings were chewed to the bone. This was bad in Nov. Thought she wasn't going to make it, we've named her "MC" (miracle chicken).

Brought her to an avain vet used oral antibiotics for a month and used topical antibiotic cream for 2 months. Have just started using manuka honey. Vet thought wings were not broken, they both hang normally.

Within 2.5 weeks she started laying again and eats and drinks normally opens her wings. We had to put a top on the enclosure (which is 4.5' tall) b/c she was roosting on it.

If it wasn't for the open wound on her wing you'd never know anything was wrong.

Here's my dilemma: she had a large wound with exposed tendons and bone. The humorus part of the wing was one big scab and as the skin has healed the circular area in the middle of the wing has been getting smaller. Lately, healing seems to have slowed, and she has been picking at it. Just yesterday, I've noticed it looking like it was red from blood and felt it and it seems there's a broken end of a bone there. She moves her wing and hold it normally. Here's a picture the honey makes it look worse. The pink skin is where it's healed. Picture show bone piece.

Any thoughts and/or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank You!!!

 

[ReikiStar]

You've done such a great job with her! What about something like an Elizabethan-cone collar like for dogs? But instead of something stiff, how about a polar fleece poncho so it might stress her less than a plastic cone. Just something to keep her from pecking at it. Could it be she recently broke that bone flapping and whacking the wing on something?

Also wonder if the end of the bone is irritating the skin hence she's messing with it.Can you brace it? Again, always trying not to stress them out. But maybe where the break is it's poking the skin, bracing it would keep it aligned?

Wishing you guys luck.

You've gotten her through so much, hoping this has a simple solution for you both.

 

[alirehn]

Thanks for the response!!!! I'll try to figure something out to keep her from picking at it. Polar fleece is a good idea!

What are your thoughts about the compound fracture? I had no idea it was broken until I saw the bone. Will it ever heal over? It's been a really long time.

 

[buttonhead]

Is there any update on your miracle chicken? I'm dealing with a similar issue with an open fracture.

 

[alirehn]

Hi! Boo-boo chicken or MC is doing really well! She was in quarantine for a total of 6 months, poor thing. Her feathers never grew back and the other chicken will peck just a little every once in a while, if they're stuck in. We had some trouble reintroducing her to the others, it definitely took a while and she was in a wire pen amongst the others for a little while, and I kept close eye on her. I gave one chicken away because she was relentless with her. After putting so much time into her I wasn't going to let one hurt her. She runs around and is a super friendly girl

Once she pecked the the bone out it began to heal really quickly.

What happened to your chicken?

Alison

 

[buttonhead]

Wow, 6 months! That is a long time, poor thing!

I have no idea what happened to my chicken (my thread is Silkie with open wing fracture)... I noticed that she had what looked like poop on her feathers (she's a white silkie, so it really stood out), but then it turned out to be poop and blood.

Then end of her humerus is exposed. I need to look more closely at it, but the angle of the injury is kind of awkward. I think I'm going to have to trim the feathers around the injury so that I can see it better.

I'm guessing what happened is that she fell off of her roost (she's my klutz chicken) and fell backwards, probably hitting a lower roost on the way down. Some of the others may have picked at her a little bit, too.

I'm considering amputating the wing, but would like to cause her the least pain possible. I figure as long as she seems happy and keeps eating and drinking, I'll see how things heal on their own.