Found Chicken - Need Advice - Vet wants to amputate leg with gangrene

[stormylady]

I'm so glad to hear Rocky came through everything great!

. But I too believe that Rocky is a fella, a very pretty one but a boy all the same.

I know that aligators and the like have claocas (sp) but inside they do have real boy parts , that chickens just don't have! LOL So not sure how she checked the sex that way? Anyway I'm so glad that he came through everything like he did, and that he had you there for him.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Yay for Rocky! Sounds like he is getting around pretty well without the foot-- which BTW, was all broke and nearly falling off anyway from the picture. Glad you got that taken off. What a great chicken parent you are! Really, chickens are super easy to care for and keep.

I have a rooster that is much more friendly than my hens! He loves attention. You could get him a dog house off of CraigsList for him to bed down in at night and call it good. Or buy a large wire dog crate (off CraigsList) and keep him in your garage at night and let him out during the day in your backyard. I keep a few like that in my garage at night, and i use the kennel cups for the cages to keep food and water in. Some of the cups come with 3 hooks and won't fit on the dog kennels-- just hack off one of the hooks and they fit great.

Anyway, love that you are taking care of him. Post a pic of him!

 

[ETphonehome]

Well, Rocky had surgery yesterday and did very well. Dr. Sattler said she was up only 5 minutes later, and we brought her home shortly after. It looks like she managed to keep most of the leg, which is great. I was afraid a lot of the leg had to come off due to the gangrene, but it appears that the vet was able to take off to just above the foot (unless the bandage is making the limb look a lot longer than it actually is - but I doubt it). I had forgotten to write before that the vet said a broken foot was what started all the damage. Rocky has only been standing on the one good leg since the amputation, and getting around by hopping, as far as I've seen. She seems to know the other foot is gone, and doesn't try to step with it at all, which surprised me.

The vet said Rocky appears to be a hen, since she didn't see any male parts when she averted the cloaca. We talked about changing the name, but I'm kind of used to Rocky, so I thought it could be a nickname for "Roxanne."

Rocky has had a little diarrhea, possibly due to the anesthesia or stress of surgery, or something she ate that didn't agree with her. A little got on the bandage on the stump, so I'm going to call the vet to ask if we need to change it sooner than we'd planned (at the 1-week recheck).

We're still talking about whether to commit to keeping her ourselves, or try to find a good home for her. So again if anyone in the central Florida area might be interested, please let me know. I love animals, and we'd love to have fresh eggs, but we're a bit intimidated by the extra work of caring for chickens right now. I'd read they're social animals, so we figured we should get at least another bird or two if we do keep Rocky. I'm going to do some more reading about the equipment and care required to see if we want to tackle the chicken project.

Thanks again everyone for all your helpful and supportive comments, and sharing of knowledge! This is such an awesome forum!!!!

Hi could you tell me please how much did you paid for the surgery ?