Drowned chicken

EweSheep

Flock Mistress
14 Years
Jan 12, 2007
21,914
209
541
Land of Lincoln
Well DD decided to give her SSH bantam, Gretl her bath. She dunked her repeatly in very cold water in a deep tub and put her in the cage. I found her outside talking to Gretl and she was cold but very much standing and alive. I brought her in, gave her a warm bath with some Ivory soap to get rid of the mess, and wrapped her in a towel to take most of the water off. After that I dried her off with low heat of hair dryer and let her almost completely dry. Then I set her downstairs in the brooder cage with red infrared light and laid her down in it with a layer of newspaper. She seems to be bright eyed but she was often closing her eyes, gasping softly.

I am not sure what else I can do for her now and hope for the best she will survive. Her crop is pretty full and soft (she ate some bread earlier).

So anyone can give suggestions? I will keep an eye out on her hourly or every two hours to make sure she is comfortable. I only have water in a shallow waterer (used for chicks), no food.

I am so mad! Now a lock will be in the coop door and run so DD wont do this again. This lovely girl is my favorite out of the flock and if she passes away, at least she had a good home and family that loves her. I know my DD is attached to her.
 
Pneumonia often happens to downed victims that actually survive the dunking but the irritation of water in the lungs sets off an inflamation of the tissue = pneumonia. Imagine abraiding your eyes....even after the trama the sclera and cornea would be irritated and inflammed.
Some people even die up to 12 hours after a near drowning incident due to water that remains in the lungs and causes irritation to set in, swelling and edema.

Does anyone know if you can give a chicken a antihistamine?
 
I dont know, but I think you are doing about all you can...
Im praying for her!!
Good Luck!!
smile.png
 
She is doing ok now around 9:15 pm. Bright eyed but looking very cautiously at my DD LOL!

It was a HOT day today with all chickens are panting and I am certain Gretl did too. It may have shocked her hot system into cold water.

I will keep her under the heat lamp for a ffew more hours before I turn it off to keep it from her being over stressed.

I hope she will continue to lay those eggs for me but with this shock, I dont think she would in the next few days. Poor girl!
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom