Injured Chicken

[liz vizentin]

HI
my first post. I have a 2year old Barred Rock with puncture wound to the head and neck. I heard her last night ran outside and scared away the predator. She was in shock standing in a corner, I left her in a box with water the rest of the night ...unsure of what else to do. She is not bleeding and is walking around this morning in my garage. I gave her water with aspirin. I can see she has lost an eye and the head wound has fractured part of the skull. I have been reading about cleaning up the injuries but the blood is now dried up around the feathers...
With the head wound and loss of an eye am I going to just prolong her suffering? Will she heal from wounds from head and neck if I take her to the vet? Thanks

 

[Eggcessive]

Can you post any pictures? Is her eye for sure gone, or is it so swollen that you cannot see it? Many chickens get attacked and suffer serious tissue wounds and can recover over time, but it depends if they are alert, able to eat and drink, and if they have internal injuries that will prevent recovery. If her skull is fractured, that doesn't sound good at all. If she does live, you will need to keep her separate, clean her wounds with saline or Vetericyn wound spay (or other things,) and apply an antibiotic ointment once or twice daily. She will need to take enough water, and feed her some chopped egg, tuna, wet chicken feed to recover and heal. I would put her down if she is suffering, but if she seems to have a will to live, I would try to help her. Good luck.

 

[FatHenAssociation]

When my girls were attacked, we cleaned their wounds daily, sometimes multiple times a day (especially the first few days) with diluted iodine and saline as best as we could without messing with the dried blood. We did use syringes (without needles) to wash out the wounds so that we could use enough force to push away any dirt without hurting the hens. We didn't use any topical cream for a while so that the wound could breathe and heal. After a week or so we began topping it with neosporin (be sure to avoid neosporin with pain relief!) Once a day we would spray their wounds with Vetericyn. We also added nutri-drench to their waterers because they weren't eating as much as we wanted them to. It took some time but they healed and now go on as if nothing happened to them. If it wasn't for a small patch of missing feathers on their head, you'd never know what all they went through.

I can post or message you some pictures of their wounds for you to compare. It was hard for me to find posts about similar wounds as bad as theirs.

As for the fractured scull, that seems worrying. Ass Eggcessive said, if it seems she is suffering, I would consider putting her down. We did contemplate it with one of our girls, but when we considered it she began to perk up. It is not an easy decision to make, I know.

Good luck! I hope she can recover and go on with her happy life as if nothing happened.

 

[liz vizentin]

Thank you for the replies
I am worried about the skull issue as well
The eye is definitely never going to recover
I would appreciate photos to compare
if I need to euthanize what's the most humane?
Thank you again

 

[Eggcessive]

Chickens can get around with one eye. I had a hen once whose eye I thought had been pecked out by another chicken because the tissue was so swollen. It took 5 days of putting plain antibiotic ointment into the eye, but the eye was still intact when the swelling went down. But she did seem blind in the eye, and got around with only the good eye for several years.
Euthanizing is done differently, but the quickest way is best. I have only done it a couple of times, but I will cut the jugular vein with the sharpest of knives, and they bleed out in about a minute while I hold them still. Let us know how she gets along.

 

[liz vizentin]

Luna is still doing ok
I took her outside for a walk
She moves around ok
I have been giving her aspiring and electrolytes
She refuses to eat
The eye is very swollen and her neck is very stiff.
But I think she is going to make it.
Thank you all for the support !

 

[Kiki]

How is she doing this afternoon?

 

[liz vizentin]

I am still giving her fluids and electrolytes with dropper
She tries to eat but misses the food and twitched
her neck is very stiff
Her wounds are starting to smell even with the daily cleaning and ointment
Its like she doesn't know how to be a chicken anymore
I take her outside in the garden she walks around but doesn't scratch or tries to eat any greens