Hen found alive laying on back, half of body not working!!!

[serhenity]

I came back from a 4 day long trip and found one of my hens laying on her back with a swollen leaky eye and limp body! She was acting perfectly normal on the day that I left, she’s one of my sweetest girls. I asked my friend left in charge of the girls if he saw anything and he mentioned she had a droopy wing but was getting better. I assumed it was injury but this is so heartbreaking…. my country does not really have exotic vets so i will be taking her to a regular vet tomorrow. I’m really worried and need suggestions on to what this might be and how to treat her

 

[RadEggs]

Definitely keep her eating her food. I would also give her some egg, and watch her.

 

[RadEggs]

Also give her electrolytes and vitamins.

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC.Sorry about your injured hen. How old is she?Was she with other chickens? Do you think she may have been attacked by her flock? If a chicken acts off or is walking strangely, the others might be frightened and attack the chicken. Place her in a dog crate with food and water, and try to get her taking some sips of water with a tsp of sugar per cupful. Clean her eye with saline or water to get the blood off. Look into her eye. If it is injured, Terramycin or plain Neosporin can be applied to the eye twice a day. Keep her warm.

 

[serhenity]

She was with my 3 others! I have separated her into a small bathroom and i really don’t think she was attacked but she’s limp with a droopy wing and it’s just so sad to see her suffer.

 

[Cascadia]

I had a quail like that before. It had a bad foot, and it was basically disabled its whole life. If it starts flipping over, try to give it food and water, since it probably can't on its back. Separate it and keep an eye on it. Our quail sadly died, since we couldn't check on it regularly, but if you check like every half an hour at most, you can save it from flipping over too much. I think your chicken is like that since it is weak and does not have enough energy.

 

[BDutch]

I have no experience with this with chickens, but it reminds me of a stroke.
I know chickens can have a stroke.

If that is the problem there is not much you can do except for letting her exercise a bit and give easy to swallow food (wet pellet food).

 

[GirlsHuntToo]

Maybe a stroke. This terribly reminds me about what happened to my beautiful Black Copper Maran rooster that died just like this. He sadly died the next day. Sometimes there is nothing you can do.

Keep feeding her some food and make sure she is drinking plenty of water. Also electrolytes.
Hope she gets better soon.

 

[Eggcessive]

The bloody eye looks more like she was pecked. Does she have any other wounds on her head, neck or elsewhere? Since she cannot see out of that eye now, you will need to feed and water her. Was she vaccinated for Mareks? A chicken sling might be helpful to get her upright and in front of food and water while she is healing. Right now though, I would just get her drinking, and prop her on rolled towels, while offering fluids. Here is a thread with many examples of chicken slings:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/versions-of-chick-chairs-please.1166308/

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She was with my 3 others! I have separated her into a small bathroom and i really don’t think she was attacked but she’s limp with a droopy wing and it’s just so sad to see her suffer.

@serhenity Welcome To BYC

I'm sorry about your hen.

You have received good advice about caring for her.

Ime, she is injured. Very likely beat up by another hen but perhaps attacked by a predator. But again, Ime, the pattern of injury about the beak, eyes and head is consistent with being attacked, pecked and kicked by another bird.

Look like she has some beak injury, multiple abrasions about the head and facial tissue, scabs, blood clots and some green bruising. She also has some debris stuck to her face, but this can be taken care of when you use some saline and clean the face, open the eye and generously flush it out with saline as well. The foam in the eye, in this case is consistent with trauma, a poke to the eye and very likely getting debris in the eye. Once you flush the eye really well, apply Terramycin eye ointment IN the eye and surrounding tissue. If you can't get Terramycin eye ointment, then you can use Original Neosporin.

Inspect her beak closely, I'm having a hard time telling if it's cracked or not, do open the beak and if she's got any debris or dried blood inside, wipe it out with a moistened cloth or Qtips.

Work on hydration, sugar water or electrolytes for the first day or two. Start getting vitamins into her asap. Vitamin E (400IU) and 1/4-1/2 tablet B-Complex daily. Give her bits of soft cooked mashed up egg or some canned fish to help with the uptake of E.
Offer wet soupy feed.

She's suffered trauma to the head which can cause affect neurological and leg function, and you don't know for how long she's been injured or wasn't getting water/food since you were away.