I played chicken doctor today!

[countrygoddess]

Today I noticed one of our yardbirds (most of our chickens are on pasture, but 4 of them are 3 years older and are pets that hang around our front porch) was lethargic and had what looked like a (sorry, graphic here) blobby, bloody gob hanging from her rear. I thought, "Oh, great, she's pooping blood," but when I scooped her up, I found that she was not pooping blood, thank goodness.

What I found was a large wound just below her vent. I figured it must have been an abscess and hoped it wasn't a fistula (a tunnel into her large intestine). I gave it a rinse with the hose and found that the wound was filled with maggots! As a nurse, I knew that this wasn't necessarily a bad thing: they clean out dead material. And for the most part, they had. I aggressively rinsed them all out and saw that the wound was fairly clean inside. It's the size of a nickel and about 1/4" deep with no tunneling.

Meanwhile, my son brought out liquid hand soap, antibacterial owie foam, bacitracin, and gauze. I got the wound cleaned out and then filled it with bacitracin and then gently put poor, wobbly, Big Girl (what else do you call a chicken who hangs out with bantams?) down to totter off to her buddies. I hope she's not septic. I called my vet and because we've known him for 14 years and he knows I'm a nurse, he readily agreed to give me antibiotics without seeing Big Girl. One pill a day for ten days. It wasn't even too difficult to get it down her throat! I hope she feels better tomorrow...

 

[Yayah]

Wow! Nice job! I hope it all works out! I don't think I would have been as level-headed as you.

 

[countrygoddess]

I wasn't too sure about giving her antibiotic pills, but it's no problem. If you push them into the side of their beak, they open right up and you can pop it in. She swallowed it right away and we dropped some water in with a pipette to wash it down. I am glad it's just once a day, though. LOL

Today she is MUCH better. Whereas yesterday she was listless and wobbly, today she ran away from me when I went to check out her bottom. She is eating (she was yesterday, too--I felt a little food in her crop when I was giving her the pill), drinking, pooping, and more active. AND the wound is narrowing and still looks nice and clean. Yay!!

 

[Yayah]

Way to go, Doc! haha
So nice when things work out.
Im always hoping that nothing goes wrong with my flock because 1. I know quite little about chicken biology & 2. although I treat them as pets and I love them dearly, i know my husband woulddraw the line at vet bills for chickens! So anything that comes up, is going to be dealt with by me!

 

[countrygoddess]

Well, that's my thinking (and my husband's), too. I ran into my vet in the Home Depot parking lot earlier this summer and, knowing that I keep quite a lot of chickens, he told me of how he had performed surgery on a rooster just the day before. The thing had some manglefoot or some such and he had to amputate the foot. I remember standing there thinking, "Why on earth would someone spend money on surgery for their chicken? Particularly a rooster??" I wouldn't have. So yesterday when I called to ask about the antibiotics, if he had asked me to bring her in, I was prepared to say no, I'll just see what happens. If she dies, she dies. I was so pleased when he returned my call and said sure, he'd give me what she needs. And in fact, since the office was closed at that point, he offered to take them home with him and invited me to go over there to pick them up. What a nice guy!

 

[Yayah]

Rooster surgery! That is so odd! I can think of about a hundred things Id rather apend money on than rooster surgery! I get a lot of amusement from the chickens, and probably treat them more 'pet-like' than most people - I'm a big softy - but yeah, they're not going to a vet. Ever. Haha. I'm not that big a fan of spending money.
I do have a special-needs hen though. One of my silkies had a slipped Achilles tendon from birth. I tried to play chicken doctor like you, but with much less success. I followed Internet directions to try to slip it back in place, I made a boot out of a business card to straighten the toes, made a brace out of a straw, leg hobbles out of a band-aid. Haha. Let's just say this chick stressed me out! And not a single thing worked. So now she hops on one leg & uses her wing for balance. She's never once peeped in pain, and seems fairly content. Everyone I asked told me to cull, but like I said, I'm a softy. oh well!

 

[countrygoddess]

Aw, your story is sad but cute. Animals are so resilient! It doesn't surprise me a bit that she overcame her disability. My mom had a cat who was hit by a car and it broke his femur right where the ball goes into the socket. The vet took the ball out, cleaned up the rough end of his femur, and sewed him back up. Do you know that TWO WEEKS LATER the only way you could tell that he didn't have a joint in that hip was to lay him on his back and see which leg flopped further down? Well, that and the shaved fur. LOL He was just as active as he was before the accident and went on to live a very full and long indoor/outdoor life.

This morning Big Girl is out wandering around with her tiny companions and you'd never know she'd ever been sick. =D

 

[countrygoddess]

Update on Big Girl's wound. It's almost completely healed, having healed in from the bottom up, which is what you want with a nearly full-thickness wound like that. I cleaned it out yesterday as it was caked with dirt from a dust bath, but apart from that it's looking fantastic and she's got all her energy back!

 

[KansasKate]

Hi! Could you tell me what oral antibiotic your vet prescribed?

 

[Yayah]

Oh yay! I was going to ask how she was doing. That's great! Phew! I bet you're relieved! Now, let's hope nothing goes wrong again... for either of us!