Injured hen now shivering.

[Erin80]

I posted a couple days ago about my polish hen, she was hit hard with the pop door by accident. It looks like she was hit on the head as one eye is totally closed. This happened on Saturday and she’s made no improvement....she still just sits all day, will look around if we come in the room but then her head slowly drops down like she’s falling asleep. We have been syringe feeding her for 3 days now and she HATES it. Squirms and won’t open her beak, it’s terrible.
This morning when we got her out to feed her, we noticed she was shivering. Could this be fever?
I called the only farm vet in our area yesterday (they care for our goats), and the receptionist rudely told me they don’t deal with chickens.

I feel terrible for this hen. She hates being fed, she’s clearly in discomfort though I don’t know how much or where besides her eye. I don’t have antibiotics to give her, and now she’s shivering. Should we put her down at this point? I was hoping to see some improvement but there’s just none. She still preens and scratches, stretches.....but that’s it. Such a hard situation.

 

[HKG]

I would hook up heat lamp. Preening is a good sign it usually means they arent sick

 

[HKG]

Do you know if she has internal injuries?

 

[HKG]

Will she drink on her own?

 

[HKG]

Trauma like this would drop body heat so when one of my chickens picks on another bad I hook a heat lamp up

 

[Aapomp831]

I would bring her into a garage / back porch, I a small dog crate with food and water to monitor her condition. See if she improves with rest and relaxation - if not I would be worried about brain damage and would consider putting her down. Especially if you can’t get her to eat or drink on her own.

 

[Erin80]

Will she drink on her own?

We actually have her in a cage in the house. She’s definitely not cold, this is why we were worried about fever.
She will not eat or drink at all. She absolutely hates when I syringe feed both food and water and I feel terrible doing it.
She doesn’t have internal injuries to her body, but definitely to her head.
It’s hard because I don’t know what she’s feeling or how and if I should keep going or if I’m just prolonging it and pretty much torturing her by keeping her alive.

 

[Erin80]

Trauma like this would drop body heat so when one of my chickens picks on another bad I hook a heat lamp up

She’s in a cage in the house

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

It sounds like she has a concussion.
There could be a Permanent brain injury.
If there is no improvement after a week, or if she declines, I would probably put her to sleep if it was my chicken.

 

[HKG]

Ok sounds good. I would do same thing wait a week and see how she is doing. Is she doing any thing that tells you she is in pain?