Does she have a snowball's chance? *Update-Poofy passed away*

[chickintexas]

Had a puppy incident this morning. My hen is alive but bare of all feathers down her back and most of her wings. There is a small open wound on the back of her head that I had put Neosporin on right away. She's been inside all day in a laundry basket under a heat lamp. I've been offering her water on a regular basis and she finally started to drink on her own while I held the bowl out to her. I didn't discover the more serious injury on her until this evening. She is missing about a 1 1/2" square of skin from her right thigh. I can see her thigh muscle. I cleaned it up as best as I could and put Neosporin on that as well. Is there anything else that I can do for her? Will she even make it?
Thanks.

 

[Celtic Chick]

You're doing everything right. Keep her warm, in a quiet spot, keep her hydrated. Get some protein into her in addition to her regular food.
It sounds like it is just skin & feathers, both of which will grow back. Don't panic or beat yourself up about it. Accidents will happen.
Do you have any chicken vitamins you can put in her water? TSC has these packets they sell in threes called Sav-A-Chik. It has vitamins & electrolytes that you give to them in their water in times of heat or stress. Maybe you could try that.
Good luck with her. Please keep us updated on her progress.

 

[WriterofWords]

She will be fine, just keep her segregated from all the others so they can't peck her and make it worse. There are two threads going on right one of mine about Show Off and another about being scalped:
Show Off
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=473304
This one has more advice, I didn't post when it happened to Show Off, I'm just catching up folks on her.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=474095

 

[chickintexas]

Thanks for the info and links, Writer. I do happen to have Sav-a-Chick so I'll go ahead and mix some of that here in a bit and offer that to her. I had given her some water which had a bit of Karo in it and that's what she started getting after. Must have been tasty.
I have lost way too many birds over the last year and I don't plan on losing another one. At least I'm going to try my best not to lose Poofy.

 

[WriterofWords]

I wanted to give Show Off the best chance possible because she survived quite a massacre.

 

[ChickenPox]

Sorry to hear about your baby! I had a similar thing happen to one of mine, but it was the other chickens! By the time I found her, cold and almost comatose, I figured it was too late. Her ear skin was perforated and she had large chunks of meat ripped off of her (and eaten, I suppose.....they never did that before or since.) Anyway, she made it just fine! I thought for sure I was going to lose her, but she proved to be a tough cookie. And I don't even think she's deaf. Good luck!

 

[sweeterdeeter42]

As long as she doesn't have any internal damage she should pull through! We had one that had a hole deep enough in her back that you could see her organs and she made it. Chickens are amazingly resilient.

 

[chickintexas]

Morning update before I head off to work.
She's still drinking the water I offer her. So far, she still has not eaten anything. I offered her hard boiled egg but she didn't seem interested. I left some in the basket with her in case she decides to eat. She had a huge poo last night and her butt happened to be pointing at the holes of the laundry basket so most of it is on the floor.

Thank goodness for hardwood floors! I've left instructions with dh on what to do with her. I work long shifts so I'm hoping she'll still be with us when I get home this evening.

 

[chickintexas]

Poofy did not make it. She had passed on a couple of hours after I had left for work. I think it was due to internal damages. My husband and a friend of mine said that shortly after she died, she started passing some horrible smelling substance. I wasn't here so I couldn't say what it might have been.
My children are saddened by this because she was from the first batch of chicks we had purchased. They were the ones that named her. They were also thrilled that she could lay green eggs. No more green eggs for them.

 

[mariel37]

Oh, I am so sorry.

You did the best you could.