Give others hope: post your chicken (or other pet) survival story

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

For those who are interested, both hens are still alive on the 5th morning since their attack. One of them paces impatiently, and we intend to integrate he into the teenageer pen today, provided she looks like she no longer risks infection. The 12 little ones are much smaller than her, so she won't be picked on, and she was recently broody and has previously egg-sat for other broodies so I think she will do ok with them. Had her little one survived, it would be the same age they are.
The other one was more seriously injured and although we know she MUST be drinking since she is still alive, we are unsure if she is eating and I doubt she is drinking enough. But she is alive, alert, and we won't give up on her. She will stay in our recovery ward till she gets her attitude back, then we will try integrating her into the little chickens too.
It is sad to have gone from so many big, free-ranging birds to having now only 4 who sleep on perches and roam the yard. Since we move in here we have 3 dead, 2 rehomed, 2 injured, 3 broodies, and 12 babies. More than 2/3 of our original flock is absent from the yard right now. Its hard to see so few out there. I hope the broodies do well and hatch us out some babies!

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

It has been 3 whole weeks to the day since I discovered my two wounded hens had survived the night. I thought for sure they were doomed, but both are alive!
The silver penciled wyandotte, who was missing a patch of skin on her neck, now needs only to finish growing back her feathers to look normal. The skin healed up, the pin feathers emerged, and the little tufts of feather have begun to appear. The last 2 days, she has flown our of the nursery/hospital run to join the free ranging crowd (but always wants back in when I get home) and will be released as soon as she has real feathers covering the wound site.
The columbian, who was missing all the skin on the back of her neck and was wounded enough we could see her spine and veins, is still alive too. She is alert, active, feisty, and surprizingly cooperative when we need her to be. We had to bring her in yesterday for another cleaning. When we first found her, we thought she'd die so we didn't spend much time trying to piece the wound back together. Had we known she'd make it, I would have, but the next morning it was dried and stiff around the edges. When we looked at her this week, we found some sharp grass seeds were imbedded in the wound, disguised as pin feathers, and lots of nasty looking dead skin. We put her in the tub and ran warm water over her till it was soft enough to examine. My room mate held her and I carefully removed the seeds and trimmed some of the dead skin flaps/ridges. It is difficult to say how much of the center of the wound is still living tissue. It looked like the dead skin (thick, leathery, brown, and wrinkled like a walnut) but it has encased the worst part of the wound. Around it the skin has grown back and looked pretty normal. The ugly scar tissue patch is about 1/3 the size of the original wound. She might always have that ugly patch, but better that than be dead!
Had I known how well they would heal, I would have taken pics every few days. It is truly remarkable!

 

[MysticScorpio82]

I am so glad to hear your chickens are doing better Tamra! I love the idea of having this thread to give other hope! I always enjoy a story with a happy ending

 

[CMV]

I'm glad to hear they made it. I had a hen get flayed by a hawk last spring and had an injury similar to your Columbian except that my hen was missing her entire back down to the muscle. It took several months to completely heal, but she did heal eventually. She never really did get feathers back to the area, but frankly I never expected her to even get skin back to the area, so what are a few feathers? Chickens are amazing. Their ability to withstand injury is phenomenal. I am continuously re-amazed every time I read a posting about horrific injuries that chickens not only fully recover from, but usually seem unfazed by when it occurs.

We have some tough pets, ladies and gentlemen. Chickens are the best.

 

[silkiechicken]

Glad they made it!

They are tough animals.

Had a 6 week old silkie girl disappear from the brooder yard. Gave up looking after a few days because free raining comes with losses. Well, almost a week later, a guy from the wrecking yard comes over with the bird in a box. Said a cat was chasing it under cars and he knows we have chickens so brought it over! So this 6 week old bird survived almost a week in the lot next door. There is no way the bird could have made it there on her own over two fences, over a thick tree line, and into the wrecking yard lot on her own. With minor feather damage, our best bet was a hawk got her and dropped her. And she lived to lay eggs despite so many days with coons, yard dogs, and many other preds who would have loved to eat the chick.

 

[dawg53]

My full grown adult Buff Orpington hen was dragged off her roost in the hen house around midnight about 2 years ago, out into the pen by a 5 foot long yellow rat snake. My BO is a screamer. I was in the living room in the house and heard her screaming bloody murder. I ran outside to the pen with my flashlight and saw the snake trying to constrict her with the hen screaming her lungs out. I just about tore the gate off the hinges to get in the pen and get the snake off her which I did. The snake bit me several times til I took the shovel to it and killed it. I took my BO in the house and thoroughly examined her and didnt see any bite marks or wounds. I returned her to the hen house and gently put her on her roost. The next day she layed me a nice brown egg as she still does to this day.

 

[bantyshanty]

My silkie pullet has survived Marek's --so far. She was showing symptoms from 8 weeks on. She slept a lot most of the day, and perked up in the afternoons. I thought she was just sleepy

, until one day she fell down on her side and couldn't walk anymore. This was early April She was paralyzed in both legs --couldn't feel them, and she had no appetite. SHe got rail thin right away. I hand-fed her with a syringe, since she couldn't see much, for 5 days, and then with a condiment bowl in front of her, propped up, for about 6 weeks, twice a day. I've vaccinated her twice, at a 6-week interval, for Marek's to slow progression of the disease. Besides paralysis, her mental function was way down.

This past month, she's much better, and she can walk, feed herself, groom herself, and think a little. There was an intermediate time when she stood but didn't walk, eat or drink by herself, and she acte3d much like an ALzheimer's patient --forgot what she was doing one second to the next, whether eating, grooming, or practicing walking. I "free-ranged" her meaning carried her from place to place while I did yard work. Her brain seemed vacant and she was blind in one eye (?), so I thought she wouldn't leave. Suddenly, 5 minutes later, a car honked. My silkie had walked over an acre away to cross the road! Why? Exactly

The next day, my daughter left her for a minute on the deck after her feeding, and she tumbled down the 25-ft cliff into the creek! We rescued her, as the current was slow.
After we dried her off, she jumped out of the towel, went to the food bowl, and fed herself for the first time in a month.

Her Marek's booster was about 3 weeks ago, and for the past 2 weeks, she's put on weight, chased the smaller pullets, and generally been more herself. She can see again as well, and can run a bit. She even seeks shelter from rain, which she hasn't done since early spring.

Four months after she became paralyzed she's come around to being "normal". Though she's 9 months old, she's not laying.
Hopefully she's done with the virus