hurt wing and PTSD

[amandapdx]

Hi all,

One of my chickens had a close call with a raccoon Saturday night; we thought she got out of it with just a couple of scrapes. Yesterday she seemed fine, though low-key. This morning she didn't come out right away but neither did another chicken so we left for work. We got home tonight and immediately saw that she was feeling blue. She keeps letting her head drift down and is basically hiding in corners, not moving.

I dragged her out of the coop to see how her wounds were and if we missed any. I didn't see any additional ones and her few scratches are healing well. She is favoring her wing on that side, though. She let me manipulate it a bit but when she jumped down and used both wings, she cried out in pain. She just tried to jump up onto the roost and fell.

Is there anything we can do for her or will this heal itself? Her crop is empty so she didn't feel like eating today. Could PTSD play a role? Should we bring her inside where it's warm? We finally put antibiotics in the water just now along with vitamins and electrolytes - should have done that yesterday morning - but she's not drinking any.

Thanks for any help - I hate to see her like this.

Amanda

 

[chookchick]

Chickens definitely get PTSD, but she should pull out of it if she is not terribly injured. I would bring her inside and give her a nice, warm, dark corner to recoup in. Try tempting her with nutritious goodies such as crumbled egg yolk, yogurt, or other things you know she really likes to eat. If she's not drinking anything, you may have to force liquids down. You could do a search on this--or perhaps someone will chime in. Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[tiki244]

Yes keep her inside nice and warm and make sure she gets vitamins and food. Egg yolk is good. Yogurt and maybe a little oatmeal. Make sure she drinks. I dont know if antibiotics will do anything or not.

 

[amandapdx]

Morning report: Samantha Bee is still as sluggish as she was last night, but both last night and this morning she has eaten some and drunk some water, so that's reassuring, right?

I tried giving her cream of wheat just now but she didn't seem interested. (the past two days I gave my chickens oatmeal and usually they eat it all up but not this time! so I thought I would change it up a bit). Thanks for the yogurt tip - I'll mix some in and see if she likes that any better.

If anyone has other ideas how to give her some more energy and make her feel better, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks for the nice welcome to BYC!

Amanda

 

[tiki244]

Definitely egg yolk for protein.