HELP - I don’t want her to lose her leg!

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Your story of how Trash got her name is hilarious, and had me laughing out loud throughout the entire tale. And I loved her adorable baby pictures too.

I truly am sorry you are going through this. Unfortunately, due to the appearance of her left shank, it will literally take a miracle (from God) for the foot to not detach. With Matilda, her left foot was obviously extremely damaged (and dead) within a month after the frostbite ocurred. But I continued to hold out hope for her right foot. Weeks after the left foot detached, the right foot held on. It took a full 13 weeks after frostbite injury, and 7 weeks after the left foot detached, before the right foot did too. I stared down crestfallen at the separated dead right foot, & thought "Wow. It's really happened. Matilda has lost Both her feet."

But Matilda didn't feel sorry for herself, & Trash won't either. I unwrap, examine, and rewrap her stumps weekly, & sometimes I still feel sad if I stare too long at her stumps. But Matilda doesn't feel sad; she just patiently waits until I get the stumps rewrapped so she can carry on with her day.

 

[korpse]

Your welcome. Her little mullet looks similar to my pixie when she went through a weird growth stage. only I can say the birdy mullet looks better on trash than it did pixie she was a hot mess.

Thank you, I gotta say, Trash always has a perfectly funky little hairdo going, I love it I bet Pixie was adorable though!

And @Allsfairinloveandbugs - thank you, it does make me feel better to hear all that :c
I’m just so scared for her. I think she might end up needing to be a house chicken after all is said and done. Even with haircuts, her hairdo limits her vision, and when she has the missing leg and toes, I think she’d be just too susceptible to predators.
And also, I was thinking about the sling, and I’m not quite sure if it’ll work for Trash or not because she still can walk and she’s been pretty spunky the last few days, I wonder if she’d try to get out?? Although she fell asleep while I was soaking her yesterday, so maybe she’d like the sling too

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

I was thinking about the sling, and I’m not quite sure if it’ll work for Trash or not because she still can walk and she’s been pretty spunky the last few days, I wonder if she’d try to get out?? Although she fell asleep while I was soaking her yesterday, so maybe she’d like the sling too

It is true many chickens try to escape their slings. I only mentioned that idea if you think her breast bone is becoming irritated due to her resting on the ground too often. Keep the sling idea on the backburner in case you think she needs it, either now or later.

I’m just so scared for her. I think she might end up needing to be a house chicken after all is said and done. Even with haircuts, her hairdo limits her vision, and when she has the missing leg and toes, I think she’d be just too susceptible to predators.

You may very well decide she is safer and more comfortable living in your house. (And don't be surprised when you find yourself greatly enjoying her company.) But it will always be good for her to go outside for fresh air and sunshine, dust bathing and other enjoyable chicken activities.

If you separate Trash from her flock, they may be merciless in attacking her even more than if she was simply a new flock addition, because they will sense her handicap & vulnerability. There are ways to work around that issue so everyone feels secure and content, including building her a separate day pen safe from predators, but where she can still see and interact with her flock. If she has one docile chicken friend that can spend days outside with her in Their separate pen, that will be ideal.

It's good to plan ahead, but not Too far ahead. Take each day one at a time, and enjoy your time with Trash. Your bond with her will grow even stronger in the days, weeks, months and hopefully years ahead; I can guarantee you that.

 

[korpse]

It is true many chickens try to escape their slings. I only mentioned that idea if you think her breast bone is becoming irritated due to her resting on the ground too often. Keep the sling idea on the backburner in case you think she needs it, either now or later.


You may very well decide she is safer and more comfortable living in your house. (And don't be surprised when you find yourself greatly enjoying her company.) But it will always be good for her to go outside for fresh air and sunshine, dust bathing and other enjoyable chicken activities.

If you separate Trash from her flock, they may be merciless in attacking her even more than if she was simply a new flock addition, because they will sense her handicap & vulnerability. There are ways to work around that issue so everyone feels secure and content, including building her a separate day pen safe from predators, but where she can still see and interact with her flock. If she has one docile chicken friend that can spend days outside with her in Their separate pen, that will be ideal.

It's good to plan ahead, but not Too far ahead. Take each day one at a time, and enjoy your time with Trash. Your bond with her will grow even stronger in the days, weeks, months and hopefully years ahead; I can guarantee you that.

I will definitely keep the sling in mind!
And I’m sort of thinking the flock won’t be nice to her again if reintroduced. They already were bullying her by pecking out her head feathers, so she was moved into our bantam coop(this was about a week before the frostbite).
She was moved there along with the other polish hen Angel, and then my sister said not even Angel seemed to like Trash :c my poor little Trashbird, making friends seems to be difficult for her. She’s always been a loner. All summer we had to move her into the coop with everyone else just about every night because she wanted to roost on top of the coop instead. A few times I even found her in a tree!

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Yeahhhhh, like in my head I know it’ll auto-amputate, but I just keep hoping for a very unlikely miracle. I just feel so bad for her! And I can’t figure out how it even happened, she must have played in her water or something. I’ve seen plenty of very smart chickens, but my poor Trash is not one of them

And her name! Well, my sister had ordered a polish surprise group of chicks, and even at 3 days old, little Trash has stolen my heart(and at this point, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with me) Her downy fluff was grey with lighter grey at the tips. At first we called her lots of things referring to the color - chinchilla, wolfy, wolf-chinchilla. But as her feathers grew in, she had the most ridiculous mullet, like I’m talking Joe Dirt
None of our other polish chicks looked like that, it was hysterical! I’d pick her up and show everyone and say “Look, this is the most whitetrash of all the chickens”. Eventually, White Trash Chicken just became Trash. And even now when I give her haircuts so she can see, I only cut the sides so she can rock her mullet again
Nothing against mullets of course, I’m a hairstylist, so I can appreciate a good mullet. But this was ridiculous

Baby Trash and her mullet:
View attachment 3013450View attachment 3013451

Oh my gosh! You've got your very own Joan Jett! I flipping LOVE her mullet! I'll be cheering you and your beautiful Trash on. I agree with Allsfair, her keel is worrisome. I've got a rooster with a breast blister and it takes forever to heal. Trash doesn't need any other infections for her body to have to deal with, especially now. Wishing you and Trash the best

 

[Weeg]

Following! You've gotten great advice so far, nice work getting her inside and preparing you both for what is yet to come. I'll be here cheering you both on! I LOVE those photos! So freaking cute! That mullet is the best thing ever!

 

[korpse]

Thank you @HeatherKellyB and @Weeg !
And you’re right omg, she is a tiny Joan Jett, I love that
Maybe I’ll try to rig up a sling, I know the vet mentioned slight bruising on her breast bone, and although I’m trying to get her to gain weight, she’s always been a pretty skinny bird, so I’m sure it’s not super comfortable

 

[korpse]

UPDATE:
So I’ve definitely given up on my sliver of hope that she wouldn’t lose her leg. At this point she’d need a Lazarus level miracle from God to save that leg.
I’ve still been soaking her for 30 minutes daily and injecting her enrofloxacin. Also I’m still wrapping the…. Wounds? I’m not quite sure what to call the swollen demarcation areas
On her right foot, the dead skin is peeling up quite a bit on the bottom. One day after I was done soaking her, I thought there was a piece of her bedding stuck on her foot, so I went to pull it off…. NOPE that’s attached
Walking seems to be getting a little more difficult, I’m guessing because she’s going to lose that leg soon.

And although I’ve been wrapping her knee/elbow, I’m still worried about the wound on it. Does anyone have pictures of a sling they rigged up? I’m trying to figure out how to go about making one.

 

[Weeg]

UPDATE:
So I’ve definitely given up on my sliver of hope that she wouldn’t lose her leg. At this point she’d need a Lazarus level miracle from God to save that leg.
I’ve still been soaking her for 30 minutes daily and injecting her enrofloxacin. Also I’m still wrapping the…. Wounds? I’m not quite sure what to call the swollen demarcation areas
On her right foot, the dead skin is peeling up quite a bit on the bottom. One day after I was done soaking her, I thought there was a piece of her bedding stuck on her foot, so I went to pull it off…. NOPE that’s attached
Walking seems to be getting a little more difficult, I’m guessing because she’s going to lose that leg soon.

And although I’ve been wrapping her knee/elbow, I’m still worried about the wound on it. Does anyone have pictures of a sling they rigged up? I’m trying to figure out how to go about making one.View attachment 3022163View attachment 3022164View attachment 3022166View attachment 3022165

Aww, poor girl. Sounds like your doing everything right, nice work! I don't have a photo of a sling, but I'll link a few Youtube videos that I have bookmarked encase I ever needed to use them.
I think you'll also want to looking a prothetic for leg that will come off. Theres an Etsy seller who makes custom ones, I think someone already linked that in an earlier post.

 

[korpse]

Warning: Gross pictures
UPDATE:

WHAT A WHIRLWIND THESE PAST COUPLE DAYS HAVE BEEN.
So on Monday, Trash seemed to be feeling pretty good - so good she flew out of her tote box. Which is fine, there was a cage around it. She wasn’t putting any pressure on the dead leg, and the days prior she hasn’t been walking as well, so I knew the leg would come off soon. I got everything ready to soak her legs as usual and started cutting off her bandages when I realized her leg seemed a little floppy.

Me: Trash, your leg isn’t attached is it?

And then I saw some blood on the gauze, which didn’t surprise me too much, but I could tell the leg was still partially somehow. I was terrified to finish cutting the layers of bandages because I had no idea what I’d see. So I called the vet and asked if I should cut the bandages off fully or if I should leave them on and wait for the leg to fully detach. The vet was out on call (and the poor tech wasn’t sure either, I’m sure legs falling off is not an everyday thing for them), so when they eventually got back to me, they said I needed to cut the bandages off.

Well
It took me awhile to get the courage to do that

So when I finally do, I was not prepared for what I saw.
The leg was still attached by a TENDON.
As those of you who have butchered animals may know, the tendon tends to be pretty rubbery, my changes of it drying up and breaking off in the next week seemed not great.
So I called the vet - I had waited too long to get the courage to cut off the bandages and the vet office was closed.
Luckily, I’ve been chatting with a girl in Facebook whose bantam roo just lost both legs to frostbite, and so she was giving me tips the whole time, and I also called my sister who is decently knowledgeable when it comes to animals. But when I told them about the tendon, they both told me the same thing -
I needed to cut it.

How horrifying, I needed to sever my poor little Trash’s tendon. We sanitized some wire cutters and I did it.

I sprayed it with my chicken healing spray and loosely put non-stick gauze over it.
She was a trooper the whole time!

She just laid there and let me do what we needed to do. She’s such a good girl!

Her balance is terribly off now and she’s figuring out how to get around. I put her in a kiddie pool with bedding and a kennel/fence thing around it so she can safely get the hang of walking. She will DEFINITELY be getting a prosthetic as soon as this heals.
We’re waiting for the toes on the other foot too come off now. I’m waiting to hear from the vet if I should still be wrapping or not. They had said not to soak the nub leg unless something looks off, which is hard for me to tell. There appears to be some yellow, but I’m not sure if it’s infection or if it’s lymph fluid that helps heal? I have no idea, all my healing knowledge comes from the healing process of my piercings
And currently both are unwrapped so she can get around easier. We have a few more days of antibiotic injections and plenty more antibiotics for her water!

She’s been being so good though. She even “purrs” now when spending time with me oh how I love my little Trash bird.