HELP- i think my chicken's back was ripped off

[Sunshine Flock]

Large open wounds can be treated with honey. Apply honey (raw organic preferred as it has the most good stuff in it) to a non-stick gauze pad, cover the wound. Change bandage daily. The honey has good antimicrobial properties and helps prevent bad stuff from growing and helps promote good tissue growth. It also keeps things from drying out too much. It's often used on burn patients etc. where there are no edges of the wound that can be pulled/stitched back together.

This is not just an old wives tail. Feel free to do some online reading if you are skeptical. This was treatment my vet gave to my dog when she nearly lost her leg due to infection (she had lost all of her pads and her flesh down to the bone, it all grew back and the infection did not go systemic). I was skeptical at first but did my homework, trusted the vet, and witnessed a miracle. Good luck. I hope she heals with whatever course of treatment you choose. As long as she is eating and drinking and pooping all on her own you are on the right track.

That's wonderful to hear that your vet recommended honey. I often say that using honey as a medicinal healer for serious wounds is not an old housewife's tail. Those same words!

 

[PirateGirl]

That's wonderful to hear that your vet recommended honey. I often say that using honey as a medicinal healer for serious wounds is not an old housewife's tail. Those same words!

Yeah, I love my vet. He occasionallly does a spinal adjustment for my old dog too and it unpinches the nerve in her back and she will go from walking on 3 legs to 4, no steroid shots, rarely medication. He knows his stuff and isn't all about pushing meds or unnecessary tests

 

[Ruralhideaway]

To the OP, good luck with your chicken.

After watching this thread I'm reminded how much I love this forum and it's contributors. Despite my rather diverse animal interests this is the only one I participate in and I lurked a long time before I joined to avoid getting involved with extremists.

Yes my chickens are pets plus eggs(eventually), but here we can find equally passionate breeders for profit, growers for meat, and every use in between. I think that's what keeps BYC from becoming a public way for keyboard warriors and really bored people from treating each other poorly in the name of doing right by their animals. People here still know how to mind their own business at a certain polite point. So refreshing.

Strong dissenting opinions were expressed yet that awful "my way or I'm calling the SPCA" line didn't get crossed.

Kudos BYCers for continuing to keep it real. I'm grateful to have a place to enjoy a little sanity and too rare reasonableness in a world where anything is justified in the name of helping an animal, including those that require no assistance at all and have caring owners.

 

[Latestarter]

Just for clarification, avian vets are NOT a common thing here in the US in my experience. Most vets prefer to limit their practice to dogs & cats as that covers the broadest range of pet care for most people. They are the 2 most common pets and their care can generate a more than adequate income/living. Not every town has a Dr. Pol who has gained TV fame for seeing anything that breathes. 90% of vets will not see or treat a chicken and most will not see or care for livestock. I live in a rural area and it's very difficult to find a vet who will see goats. Here it's either pets (see above) or cows... maybe sometimes sheep, anything else, good luck.

With the price of veterinary care being what it is, it's very difficult to justify on a bird worth at most $10, that can be replaced for a fraction of that. Perhaps a person CAN afford a vet for routine care but when you start talking acute care, and costs ranging into the thousands, at what point do you stop? Saying that one must be able to afford a vet to have a pet... OK, and what amount constitutes "affording" a $9 blood test? The annual cost of a rabies shot? occasional worming and fecal checks? And what about when vets become no longer affordable? Should we maybe legislate pet ownership?

Hell, human care is no longer affordable. Should we perhaps say no more babies if you can't afford the $10,000 cost of birthing in a hospital? or maybe expand it to $100,000. just in case the baby is born and needs care for something? How about the half million dollars it takes to raise a child to adulthood? Only millionaires should be allowed to have kids?

Gosh, I wonder how folks survived having animals back in the 18th and early 19th centuries when there weren't vets? IMHO this thread went way beyond the scope of what the OP wanted/needed. I hope she will keep us posted on future results & hope the outcome is good for her and the bird, one way or the other.

 

[LoveChooks9000]

Just for clarification, avian vets are NOT a common thing here in the US in my experience. Most vets prefer to limit their practice to dogs & cats as that covers the broadest range of pet care for most people. They are the 2 most common pets and their care can generate a more than adequate income/living. Not every town has a Dr. Pol who has gained TV fame for seeing anything that breathes. 90% of vets will not see or treat a chicken and most will not see or care for livestock. I live in a rural area and it's very difficult to find a vet who will see goats. Here it's either pets (see above) or cows... maybe sometimes sheep, anything else, good luck.

With the price of veterinary care being what it is, it's very difficult to justify on a bird worth at most $10, that can be replaced for a fraction of that. Perhaps a person CAN afford a vet for routine care but when you start talking acute care, and costs ranging into the thousands, at what point do you stop? Saying that one must be able to afford a vet to have a pet... OK, and what amount constitutes "affording" a $9 blood test? The annual cost of a rabies shot? occasional worming and fecal checks? And what about when vets become no longer affordable? Should we maybe legislate pet ownership?

Hell, human care is no longer affordable. Should we perhaps say no more babies if you can't afford the $10,000 cost of birthing in a hospital? or maybe expand it to $100,000. just in case the baby is born and needs care for something? How about the half million dollars it takes to raise a child to adulthood? Only millionaires should be allowed to have kids?

Gosh, I wonder how folks survived having animals back in the 18th and early 19th centuries when there weren't vets? IMHO this thread went way beyond the scope of what the OP wanted/needed. I hope she will keep us posted on future results & hope the outcome is good for her and the bird, one way or the other.

Hi Latestarter,
Avian vets are not common here in Aust. either, and no cheaper than any other vet, however as I said, they are here for people who bother to look for them. Even if a person can't live near one of them, it is invaluable to be in contact with one of them, esp. to get info. and advice in emergencies. As for how people got by in the old days, they euthanized their animals that were suffering, much as many people do now.
I noticed that you believe paying for a vet visit for a $10 fowl isn't worth it, and I think that is a good part of where this whole sort of issue starts. It's a fact that people undervalue things that they don't pay a lot for. My point was that, many people here claim to "love" their chooks and want them to live through every illness and injury. That being the case, people EITHER have to go to the vet in the case of serious illness or serious injury, OR be willing to euthanize the animal if they can't go to a vet for whatever reason, inc. financial. Allowing an animal to suffer on and on just because the owner wants it to live is not appropriate, legal, or moral.
You may have missed what I said about three times in my other posts. The proviso was...if you can't afford a vet, you can't afford a pet, BUT if you do have a pet and it needs a vet which you can not take it to, you need to be willing to euthanize it quickly and painlessly yourself. Common sense and logical, I would have thought.
As for not having children if people can't afford to take care of them...I would have again thought that was common sense just as much as this is. It's not a question of being allowed to have them....anyone is allowed to have kids, but it would take a very irresponsible person to have kids if they already knew they wouldn't be able to take care of them for any reason, financial or otherwise. I would surely not like to be the child of someone who just wanted kids for their own sake, but knew they couldn't take care of me.
Anyway, I just thought I'd drop in and see how this thread was getting along. If everyone gave the right advice, we'd see less threads like this here, and rightly so...i.e. people coming here with problems that are well beyond the scope of this board to fix. The only appropriate advice in such situations is to get to a vet or euthanise the animal yourself if you're not willing/able to get to a vet - not encourage people to believe they can play vet to an animal that is suffering beyond belief. That is the reason I care about this....because advising people to treat their own animals who are suffering terribly is causing a lot of unnecessary suffering for these animals. It's not about the owners. It's about the animal.
If anyone would care to read the stickies at the start of this thread, (which I just did after finding my posts had been removed. lol), you will find that, very responsibly, this site advises not to try to replace vet treatment with advice from this site when vet treatment appears to be needed.
In any case, I am very glad there is an actual vet around here now. I am also going to speak to my own avian vet and get him to keep an eye on this site now too, so hopefully he will give advice at times when needed.
Cheers all.

 

[khemo]

so we just got back from the vet. i was prepared to have her euthanized, but he thinks she will be fine. he said i've been doing everything i can correctly, with the exception of he prefers chlorohexadine. so he gave me some of that to use 2-3 times a day.

he said the fact that she's eating, pooing, and drinking are all good signs. we still don't smell anything and he doesn't think we have any infection. he spritzed her with CHx(?) and she stood up and flapped her wings (it was cold i guess) and he said she's got spunk- and the fact that she's upright and can flap her wings shows no nerve/muscle damage, especially from the vertebrae.
he didn't even seem phased when he saw her. he just went to work checking her out and listening to me tell him what happened/has been happening.

he used his laser on her to promote cellular healing and to blunt the pain- i love that thing- he used it on my ear once when my cat clawed me inside it- she didn't like it at first, but then when the pain lessened, she settled down.

he said to keep the wound open- no gauze on it because it can stick and cause pain changing it, as well as potentially heal inside when it starts to close up, and inhibit the scab from forming- as long as we don't have a dirt issue- she's on puppy pee pads rather than bedding so that's easy. he didn't see any other wounds- just her back is missing so no worries about hidden injuries under her.
so basically keep doing what i'm doing which is cleaning the wound, using the EMT gel (which i like so much better than triple antibiotic ointment- or should i use the triple ointment too? i used the gel on the sides where the skin still was, and triple ointment in the center, but then she took the gauze off herself at some point) and keeping her quiet and warm. and well fed.

so thank you again to everyone who could help me and has offered advice/rooted for us and spoke the truth in a non judgmental way- which was pretty much everyone

i will probably start a new post about her updates next week, rather than keep this one going with them.

thank all of you guys again.

 

[LoveChooks9000]

so we just got back from the vet. i was prepared to have her euthanized, but he thinks she will be fine. he said i've been doing everything i can correctly, with the exception of he prefers chlorohexadine. so he gave me some of that to use 2-3 times a day.

he said the fact that she's eating, pooing, and drinking are all good signs. we still don't smell anything and he doesn't think we have any infection. he spritzed her with CHx(?) and she stood up and flapped her wings (it was cold i guess) and he said she's got spunk- and the fact that she's upright and can flap her wings shows no nerve/muscle damage, especially from the vertebrae.
he didn't even seem phased when he saw her. he just went to work checking her out and listening to me tell him what happened/has been happening.

he used his laser on her to promote cellular healing and to blunt the pain- i love that thing- he used it on my ear once when my cat clawed me inside it- she didn't like it at first, but then when the pain lessened, she settled down.

he said to keep the wound open- no gauze on it because it can stick and cause pain changing it, as well as potentially heal inside when it starts to close up, and inhibit the scab from forming- as long as we don't have a dirt issue- she's on puppy pee pads rather than bedding so that's easy. he didn't see any other wounds- just her back is missing so no worries about hidden injuries under her.
so basically keep doing what i'm doing which is cleaning the wound, using the EMT gel (which i like so much better than triple antibiotic ointment- or should i use the triple ointment too? i used the gel on the sides where the skin still was, and triple ointment in the center, but then she took the gauze off herself at some point) and keeping her quiet and warm. and well fed.

so thank you again to everyone who could help me and has offered advice/rooted for us and spoke the truth in a non judgmental way- which was pretty much everyone

i will probably start a new post about her updates next week, rather than keep this one going with them.

thank all of you guys again.

Hi khemo,
Great that your bird has been seen by a vet. Better late than never, as they say.
Best of luck to your hen.

 

[khemo]

your post that was deleted (not by me) was straight up nasty. and judgmental. so since apparently you missed the point of the first post i made and in that deleted post, assumed a lot, let me reiterate my facts:

it was saturday night. i found consuela at 5:15 pm. dec. 23rd. no vets open, and even tho we do have one avian vet, i assumed it was just pet birds like parrots and conures, NOT livestock/chickens. but i knew if anyone knew about birds, it'd be him and he'd have the best idea what to do.
i just found out today that he does treat a lot of chickens- not just the two i have brought him. good to know. i haven't had any issues with my chickens that required a vet- lucky me- because they were killed outright. other than death, they've been pretty healthy.

we have an emergency vet an hour away- who charges $1000 to walk in the door and then tell you he can't do anything. and that's with dogs and cats. so i'm not going to bother with that a-hole. even the receptionist at my vet said she won't go there, and the lady in the waiting room who works with a local cat rescue told us she won't see that guy.

so yes, on a saturday night over the holiday weekend, we have NO avian vets available.

oh also, we have one vehicle right now. that my husband took to work that night. and i lost my job due to my own health issues. so yeah, finances are a little strapped right now. at christmas. but thank you for assuming you know all about my situation and that i'm just being irresponsible. thank you.

as far as knowing my limitations- yes, i know myself well. no, i don't know avian anatomy like i probably should. and that makes me a horrible, irresponsible person. also, i know i cannot bring myself to kill my own pet. i do not know how to snap a chickens neck because i don't plan on having pets i'll "harvest" and eat, and i'm not going to practice on my injured bird in case i screw that up. and i don't know how to inject euthanization meds because i cannot stand needles. i understand that makes me a horrible, irresponsible person.
heaven forbid i go online and see what i can do in an emergency on a holiday weekend after business hours on a forum with 1000s of years of experience at my fingertips. totally irresponsible to want to know how to clean a wound and what i should expect!

i'm a really really rotten, horrible, irresponsible person for daring to ask for advice, AND for not having the ability to see into the future that something like this would happen.

if only i had kept from getting cancer, having to quit my job, and trying to keep our bills down by having one vehicle/insurance since i'm not going anywhere while my husband works overnight, i could have rushed my bird to a vet that's going to charge me an obscene amount of money over the holiday weekend to tell me there was nothing he could do. man, i am irresponsible!

and thank you for bringing it to my attention. #sorrynotsorry

Hi Latestarter,
Avian vets are not common here in Aust. either, and no cheaper than any other vet, however as I said, they are here for people who bother to look for them. Even if a person can't live near one of them, it is invaluable to be in contact with one of them, esp. to get info. and advice in emergencies. As for how people got by in the old days, they euthanized their animals that were suffering, much as many people do now.
I noticed that you believe paying for a vet visit for a $10 fowl isn't worth it, and I think that is a good part of where this whole sort of issue starts. It's a fact that people undervalue things that they don't pay a lot for. My point was that, many people here claim to "love" their chooks and want them to live through every illness and injury. That being the case, people EITHER have to go to the vet in the case of serious illness or serious injury, OR be willing to euthanize the animal if they can't go to a vet for whatever reason, inc. financial. Allowing an animal to suffer on and on just because the owner wants it to live is not appropriate, legal, or moral.
You may have missed what I said about three times in my other posts. The proviso was...if you can't afford a vet, you can't afford a pet, BUT if you do have a pet and it needs a vet which you can not take it to, you need to be willing to euthanize it quickly and painlessly yourself. Common sense and logical, I would have thought.
As for not having children if people can't afford to take care of them...I would have again thought that was common sense just as much as this is. It's not a question of being allowed to have them....anyone is allowed to have kids, but it would take a very irresponsible person to have kids if they already knew they wouldn't be able to take care of them for any reason, financial or otherwise. I would surely not like to be the child of someone who just wanted kids for their own sake, but knew they couldn't take care of me.
Anyway, I just thought I'd drop in and see how this thread was getting along. If everyone gave the right advice, we'd see less threads like this here, and rightly so...i.e. people coming here with problems that are well beyond the scope of this board to fix. The only appropriate advice in such situations is to get to a vet or euthanise the animal yourself if you're not willing/able to get to a vet - not encourage people to believe they can play vet to an animal that is suffering beyond belief. That is the reason I care about this....because advising people to treat their own animals who are suffering terribly is causing a lot of unnecessary suffering for these animals. It's not about the owners. It's about the animal.
If anyone would care to read the stickies at the start of this thread, (which I just did after finding my posts had been removed. lol), you will find that, very responsibly, this site advises not to try to replace vet treatment with advice from this site when vet treatment appears to be needed.
In any case, I am very glad there is an actual vet around here now. I am also going to speak to my own avian vet and get him to keep an eye on this site now too, so hopefully he will give advice at times when needed.
Cheers all.

 

[21hens-incharge]

@khemo
I have to say that you seem to be handling all this very well.

I second not using gauze. The doc kept it on my thumb after a horrible accident. The pain when changing it was the make you pee yourself level for months. It stuck horribly even with gobs and gobs of ointment.

So very glad she is able to move around well. It will take a long time to heal which is a bummer.

Eventually I even got a new thumbprint. 1/3rd of my thumb was removed by industrial equipment.

Your bird has been in my thoughts. Very glad she is on the mend.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

your post that was deleted (not by me) was straight up nasty. and judgmental. so since apparently you missed the point of the first post i made and in that deleted post, assumed a lot, let me reiterate my facts:

it was saturday night. i found consuela at 5:15 pm. dec. 23rd. no vets open, and even tho we do have one avian vet, i assumed it was just pet birds like parrots and conures, NOT livestock/chickens. but i knew if anyone knew about birds, it'd be him and he'd have the best idea what to do.
i just found out today that he does treat a lot of chickens- not just the two i have brought him. good to know. i haven't had any issues with my chickens that required a vet- lucky me- because they were killed outright. other than death, they've been pretty healthy.

we have an emergency vet an hour away- who charges $1000 to walk in the door and then tell you he can't do anything. and that's with dogs and cats. so i'm not going to bother with that a-hole. even the receptionist at my vet said she won't go there, and the lady in the waiting room who works with a local cat rescue told us she won't see that guy.

so yes, on a saturday night over the holiday weekend, we have NO avian vets available.

oh also, we have one vehicle right now. that my husband took to work that night. and i lost my job due to my own health issues. so yeah, finances are a little strapped right now. at christmas. but thank you for assuming you know all about my situation and that i'm just being irresponsible. thank you.

as far as knowing my limitations- yes, i know myself well. no, i don't know avian anatomy like i probably should. and that makes me a horrible, irresponsible person. also, i know i cannot bring myself to kill my own pet. i do not know how to snap a chickens neck because i don't plan on having pets i'll "harvest" and eat, and i'm not going to practice on my injured bird in case i screw that up. and i don't know how to inject euthanization meds because i cannot stand needles. i understand that makes me a horrible, irresponsible person.
heaven forbid i go online and see what i can do in an emergency on a holiday weekend after business hours on a forum with 1000s of years of experience at my fingertips. totally irresponsible to want to know how to clean a wound and what i should expect!

i'm a really really rotten, horrible, irresponsible person for daring to ask for advice, AND for not having the ability to see into the future that something like this would happen.

if only i had kept from getting cancer, having to quit my job, and trying to keep our bills down by having one vehicle/insurance since i'm not going anywhere while my husband works overnight, i could have rushed my bird to a vet that's going to charge me an obscene amount of money over the holiday weekend to tell me there was nothing he could do. man, i am irresponsible!
and thank you for bringing it to my attention. #sorrynotsorry

@khemo you are not an irresponsible pet owner in fact you have done a great job helping your hen heal. You are doing a great job and you should not be discouraged by others who don’t agree with what you are doing. Your hen is healing, it doesn’t matter if a vet prescribed the painkillers or you got the advice on BYC. I know that emergency vets can be expensive. My guinea pug had a cyst pop twice and each time I had to pay a $150 wall in fee, not to mention the $400 I paid out of my pocket for stitches and medicine. When Eleanor my rescued Cornish cross pullet was pecked so bad that I could see her neck bones I wanted to take her to a vet. I thought she would need stitches or have to be put down. My dad had recently lost his job and money was tight. I called a few vets and it was going to cost me at least $200 just to get her looked at. I couldn’t afford that. So my dad went on BYC and read through what people had done to help their birds and he found that flushing the wound with hydrogen peroxide and applying neosporin would help. I did that and the next day went to Tractor Supply Co. and got Blue Kote. I sprayed it on Eleanor’s wound and after 2-4 weeks she healed perfectly. All that was left from her wound was a small patch of missing feathers. All your hen needs is your love and care. She’ll make a full recovery, just keep doing what you’re doing. We’re rooting for you