Illinois...

[Faraday40]

Bathing question:
My hen is doing OK after I treated her bleeding nail this morning. So now I really need advice on what to do next. I want to clean the blood off her feathers, but as you know, it's very, very cold today. The long term goal is of course to get her back into the flock.

If I'm going to be having a house chicken for a few days, how do I go about bringing her inside & putting her back out? How do I make the transition between temps w/o putting her into shock?
Right now she's still in a box with food & water in the garage.


Here's the story before this point:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Faraday40

Injured toe. Please help.

Found a lot of blood on a hen this morning. It was on her feet & caked on her chest.
After closely checking, I believe her nail from her back toe got ripped off while roosting. (Not sure how yet)
So far, I've washed her feet & soaked the bleeding one in a dilute iodine water solution. Then applied corn starch & "Vetericyn" to the remaining nail on the toe.
She's resting in a box with pine shavings in the garage. (I'd like to avoid a house chicken if possible.)

So, what's next? What can I do about all the blood on her feathers. It's very, very cold here & I don't want poor Honey to go into shock by bringing her into the house. I don't know how the rest will react if she has bloody chest feathers. This is our 1st injury. Never had more than a nick before.

PS- Thank you to the unknown BYC members for their advice on having a chicken 1st Aid Kit on hand. Made this morning easier to be able to treat ASAP.

 

[NotAFarm]

Bathing question:
My hen is doing OK after I treated her bleeding nail this morning. So now I really need advice on what to do next. I want to clean the blood off her feathers, but as you know, it's very, very cold today. The long term goal is of course to get her back into the flock.

If I'm going to be having a house chicken for a few days, how do I go about bringing her inside & putting her back out? How do I make the transition between temps w/o putting her into shock?
Right now she's still in a box with food & water in the garage.


Here's the story before this point:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Faraday40

Injured toe. Please help.

Found a lot of blood on a hen this morning. It was on her feet & caked on her chest.
After closely checking, I believe her nail from her back toe got ripped off while roosting. (Not sure how yet)
So far, I've washed her feet & soaked the bleeding one in a dilute iodine water solution. Then applied corn starch & "Vetericyn" to the remaining nail on the toe.
She's resting in a box with pine shavings in the garage. (I'd like to avoid a house chicken if possible.)

So, what's next? What can I do about all the blood on her feathers. It's very, very cold here & I don't want poor Honey to go into shock by bringing her into the house. I don't know how the rest will react if she has bloody chest feathers. This is our 1st injury. Never had more than a nick before.

PS- Thank you to the unknown BYC members for their advice on having a chicken 1st Aid Kit on hand. Made this morning easier to be able to treat ASAP.

I'm no help on the bathing....never have done it. I know that people who show blow dry them after a bath so you could do that. When she is dry, return her to the garage. I agree that you do not want to keep her in the house and then have to transition her back out. Keeping her separate but in the same temp as the coop would be best.
Ditto on having the first aid kit handy!

 

[MeepBeep]

If I'm going to be having a house chicken for a few days, how do I go about bringing her inside & putting her back out?  How do I make the transition between temps w/o putting her into shock?

IMO, not a big deal with mature grown chickens, that are fully feathered out... Consider normal weather shifts, just last week it was pushing 60° in my area, last night it was 4° so they experience extreme rapid shifts in temps naturally... If you return her to a coop on say a 30°-40° sunny day it's not really that drastic coming from your house at 68°...

 

[Faraday40]

Honey started bleeding again, so I ended up bringing her inside to the basement. The bleeding was worse, so I just sprayed some Vetericyn, packed with corn starch, applied pressure w/ gauze for a bit & then wrapped it with vet tape. (I didn't wrap it before, so the clot was probably knocked off.) Tough girl even laid an egg today. She's about 18 mo & never molted yet. Definitely not looking pretty, but she is our best layer.

I'll think I'll wait at least 24 hrs before trying anything. Feather cleaning will have to wait. Any recommendations to help her perk up from blood loss or fight possible infection? She's not acting different, I'm just thinking about prevention. She gobbling up the feather fixer feed & drinking.

 

[ilroost]

Happy New Years !!!

 

[Faraday40]

Happy New Year!

My Honey is recovering well. I changed her dressing & it didn't bleed. The kids are enjoying a temporary "house-chicken" too. She even got a few table scraps of turkey for New Year. (Feels kind of wrong to feed her poultry, but I thought the protein would be good.) I didn't do anything with the bloody feathers yet, but Honey cleaned herself up pretty good.

I suspect we had a hawk visit us today. The flock made a huge commotion & all but 2 were hiding in the coop. I grabbed the two young pullets (formerly my 3 Amigos) & locked them up with the rest. I would think after what happened to their friend, they'd learn to hide like the others. Everyone's OK. The 2 pullets are 5.5 months & sometimes hanging "near" the flock. They have no problem sleeping in the coop or coming close when treats are present, but they just don't like staying with the group. I decided to wait until they start laying & to see if the dynamic changes. Then I'll decide if I'm keeping them.

 

[SixChickFlock]

Good to hear that Honey is recovering!

 

[NotAFarm]

Happy New Year!

My Honey is recovering well. I changed her dressing & it didn't bleed. The kids are enjoying a temporary "house-chicken" too. She even got a few table scraps of turkey for New Year. (Feels kind of wrong to feed her poultry, but I thought the protein would be good.) I didn't do anything with the bloody feathers yet, but Honey cleaned herself up pretty good.

I suspect we had a hawk visit us today. The flock made a huge commotion & all but 2 were hiding in the coop. I grabbed the two young pullets (formerly my 3 Amigos) & locked them up with the rest. I would think after what happened to their friend, they'd learn to hide like the others. Everyone's OK. The 2 pullets are 5.5 months & sometimes hanging "near" the flock. They have no problem sleeping in the coop or coming close when treats are present, but they just don't like staying with the group. I decided to wait until they start laying & to see if the dynamic changes. Then I'll decide if I'm keeping them.

Good job!

 

[LinaNate]

Quote:
When the hawks found us, it continued for weeks and they got braver and better at picking off the chickens, even while we were watching. Watch out. I lost like 5 chickens, some just were suddenly gone- others were hurt bad. I hope you DON'T have a hawk or hawk(s) looking for a meal.

 

[Faraday40]

When the hawks found us, it continued for weeks and they got braver and better at picking off the chickens, even while we were watching. Watch out. I lost like 5 chickens, some just were suddenly gone- others were hurt bad. I hope you DON'T have a hawk or hawk(s) looking for a meal.

We had a Coopers hawk get one of the 3 Amigos the day after Thanksgiving. We were away & our chicken sitter felt awful. Our wonderful neighbors sent our dogs out after the hawk & took care of the clean up. The stupid (& still hungry) hawk camped out in the yard for almost a week waiting for another meal. Chickens were locked up. I've been letting the flock out more often since Dec20th. Most are very good about staying near the roo for protection, but my remaining "2 Amigos" are too independent.

Did you have a single determined hawk or several different hawks? Were the attacks all close together or spread out over several months? The little Coopers hawk is so small compared to my Orpington roo. There was no way it could fly off with one of my birds, but it still killed one. It was seen flying by over the summer & tried to get into the chick tractor. It certainly scared but never got a full grown chicken before then.