hen wounded, can't get rid of the maggots

[tiki244]

A tiny pinch of baby aspirin will help with the fever and calm her down. I will get exact recipe link. Do get some aspirin at the store.

 

[tiki244]

http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/issues/6/6-2/the_answer_man.html The last article is about aspirin. I just guestimated a tiny bit in my birds mouth or you can mix a batch of smaller porportion.

 

[sherylreno]

Probiotics is in buttermilk. I medicated my chicken with the PenG anti-biotics for 3 days and then started her on buttermilk soaked quick cooking oats and it worked like a charm, continue the anti-biotic for 5 - 7 days to make sure the infection is over. Praying all goes well with her!

 

[plan4him]

Thank you! I'll check on the aspirin and buttermilk suggestions. She often gets oatmeal here, with yogurt.

We did her first shot! We didn't kill her (yet)

I held her and my daughter swabbed and injected, per the info given. Sammi didn't flinch. What a trooper. Now she is being fed scrambled eggs with probiotics powder. She ate it up great.

She has some poo on her lower feathers (not very close to exit place). Should I bother to try to clean it off? I don't want to disturb her more than necessary, poor baby.

 

[ChicksOnBikes]

I was both glad and sorry to read your post, it seems I had a similar incident this week with my chickens. One injured similar to yours by a dog, only our Rachel has a couple more tail feathers left. The injury was Weds night, and we have cleaned it out twice. She also had maggots, but not a lot. We'll check the wound again in the morning (it will be 24hrs) and I'll let you know how it goes. Rachel appears somewhat weak, but bright and alert, and managed to hop up onto the low roost tonight.
I'm hoping both our chickens recover!! This is a new thing for me too, even as a former biology major this is kind of hard to stomach (we never dissected live gross stuff!)

 

[plan4him]

Quick Sammi update before we are gone for most of the day: Cleaned her yesterday evening, picked out another 20 or so maggots from a couple of skin pockets (will they never end?) Slathered her with triple antibiotic ointment and put a on non-stick gauze pad. We couldn't get the vetwrap on (yet) because every angle we tried with going around covered her pooper (is that what is people refer to as a trap?) and we only had so much time before company arrived for younger daughter's B-day. We'll try again this evening. The gauze pad stayed on pretty good and covered the majority of the injured area. She ate pretty good, loved the scrambled egg with probiotics. This AM she is still shivery and very wobbly, can't stand for long (she stood more the day we got her back). but she seems a bit more alert today, less pathetic, I think.

I'm not quite ready to say we've turned a corner but she's made it this long and I feel we're doing everything we can reasonably do. We'll giver her another shot this AM.

ChicksOnBikes, I hope Rachel is doing better. Sounds like a good sign that she can hop up on a roost. Sammi can barely walk around right now, but maybe she is injured more than with just the wounds we can see. We aren't sure yet. First I think we need to get past this part then we can see if there is any thing else.

Oh the drama of having a chicken for a pet

 

[plan4him]

Back home now. Sammi seems a little mare alert, although she is still not able to get around, stands a little, then awkwardly lays down. I'm wondering about her "quivering". I've noticed that it seems to be more her back end that is quivery. Also, the bony area under her pooper seems to be flexing up and down often. This has been present for most of the time so I wonder if it's just normal? Mostly we're just waiting to see if our efforts will help. We hope to see a more marked improvement by tomorrow or at least the next day.

 

[tiki244]

I hope she continues to get better

I dont know anything about the quivering. Maybe she is in pain? Did you try a little aspirin. Thanks for the update and I sure hope she gets better.

 

[ChicksOnBikes]

How is Sammi doing today?
I think the quivering might be from a fever, a sign that she is fighting the infection. That's just a guess. As long as she is looking alert, eating, drinking, pooping, it's a hopeful sign.
I'm struggling with keeping Rachel's bandage in place. My neighbor is coming over to help me in a bit, because hubby is out of town. I'm also concerned that Rachel has a dark patch of skin, surrounded by healthier looking skin, like the skin got dried out, it doesn't smell like infection. I'm afraid it will have to be cut off. So I called the vet. She recommended rinsing the whole area daily ("hydro-therapy") and I might bring her in tomorrow. I hate the thought of the expense, but I hate more thinking that she will die after making it these 3-4 days so far.
Ugh. This is so hard!

 

[plan4him]

Sammi update: sorry it took all day to get to the computer. Sammi is, I think, getting better - little by little. She clucked a greeting this afternoon when I checked on her. First time since she got hurt! She's less shaky and seems to be steadying a bit. We haven't had to pick any maggots off of her, although we still find one or two every time we clean her cage out, which is 3-4 times daily. The triple antibiotic ointment makes her look kind of pathetic the way it greases her feathers. We're trying to keep the area that she lost the most skin clean and covered with ointment and a wound pad, kind of trying the skin cell regrowth idea from your link, tiki244. I don't think we are getting the method perfectly but we're trying. (hard to wrap the backside of a small chicken)

Overall, we feel pretty encouraged that she'll make it, barring any internal injuries that we can't see or heal. Her right wing tends to hang or droop down some when she's standing. I don't know if something is broken in it or if she is just keeping it off of her wound. It seems like it may be awhile before she's able to join the rest of the ladies outside again. She's really become quite the pet for us. Plus I hope she'll lay at least as many eggs as she is eating

chicksonbikes, I hope Rachel is improving for you! I understand about the reluctance with the vet (as well as the pull to go). I have a much greater understanding for why they cost as much as they do! You would have to pay me A LOT to do for another chicken what I did for Sammi

Check around a bit but it sounds to me like you can cut off the dead skin yourself. Look at the very first post tiki244 put on this thread. It's a pretty thorough article about taking care of an injured site on a chicken.

I'm having my daughter write a journal/summary of her adventure with Sammi. It's been quite a learning experience!

Tiki244 and so many of you others, thank you so much for all the the advice and wisdom and encouragement you have shared with us! It's been very helpful to know we have such support!