Hi. So I am helping a friend nurse a very injured chicken well. She was attacked by a hawk but managed to live through it but with severe injuries. They spooked the hawk away mid-attack but she was wounded and had a leg caught under the fence. So here's the information.
Chicken is a smaller bird, almost but not quite bantam sized. No precise weight. Only a couple years old. Responsive.
Injuries are a few minor looking nicks around the face, an eye that she doesn't want to open all the way (though she can) and a leg she won't put weight on with no obvious injuries. The leg was caught under the fence during the attack. Her back has been stripped of a lot of skin from shoulders to tail in two BIG open wounds, a few inches across and a couple inches wide with about an inch of skin between them, plus a few other minor puncture wounds. Almost all of it seems to be dermal tissue, no muscle damage, but they're big wounds.
We isolated her in the bathtub on towels, trimmed all the feathers away from the wounds, washed it and removed all debris. We rinsed them with watered down peroxide, applied iodine, then triple antibiotic ointment. She's hesitant to eat so we're feeding her electrolyte water and whisked eggs cooked into a custard (so just whisked eggs, cooked but still liquid). She ate nothing for the first day and a half, but today took electrolyte water and 1/3rd cup egg custard.
We're gently washing the wound with warm water and re-applying the iodine and ointment twice a day.
Now that she's eating a little we're giving her 1/8th tablet adult asprin twice a day for pain relief and about 180mg amoxicillin twice a day for 7 days all ground into the eggs for her food. She has access to layer pellets and water which she isn't taking right now.
We're concerned about her leg, since she's not putting weight on it and we're not sure what to do as there's nothing obviously wrong with it, no obviously bruising or swelling. If her eye gets worse we have terramycin for her eye. We also have probiotics for when her antibiotics are done.
Any thoughts on anything else we should be doing? Suggestions for her leg? Thanks!
Chicken is a smaller bird, almost but not quite bantam sized. No precise weight. Only a couple years old. Responsive.
Injuries are a few minor looking nicks around the face, an eye that she doesn't want to open all the way (though she can) and a leg she won't put weight on with no obvious injuries. The leg was caught under the fence during the attack. Her back has been stripped of a lot of skin from shoulders to tail in two BIG open wounds, a few inches across and a couple inches wide with about an inch of skin between them, plus a few other minor puncture wounds. Almost all of it seems to be dermal tissue, no muscle damage, but they're big wounds.
We isolated her in the bathtub on towels, trimmed all the feathers away from the wounds, washed it and removed all debris. We rinsed them with watered down peroxide, applied iodine, then triple antibiotic ointment. She's hesitant to eat so we're feeding her electrolyte water and whisked eggs cooked into a custard (so just whisked eggs, cooked but still liquid). She ate nothing for the first day and a half, but today took electrolyte water and 1/3rd cup egg custard.
We're gently washing the wound with warm water and re-applying the iodine and ointment twice a day.
Now that she's eating a little we're giving her 1/8th tablet adult asprin twice a day for pain relief and about 180mg amoxicillin twice a day for 7 days all ground into the eggs for her food. She has access to layer pellets and water which she isn't taking right now.
We're concerned about her leg, since she's not putting weight on it and we're not sure what to do as there's nothing obviously wrong with it, no obviously bruising or swelling. If her eye gets worse we have terramycin for her eye. We also have probiotics for when her antibiotics are done.
Any thoughts on anything else we should be doing? Suggestions for her leg? Thanks!
