Injured leg in trap

[MyLuvlyChix]

My friendliest hen is a blonde polish hen, named "Sleepy". As a tiny chick, she always fell asleep in our hands.

We had some woodchucks burrowing under the chicken coop, and we needed to get rid of them, so we set a trap. One morning (2 days ago), we forgot to cover the "trap area", and Sleepy got caught in the trap. We got her out, and she didn't seem any worse for the wear. The next day she was favoring her leg, just barely putting weight on one of the toes as she walked. Today she's just hopping on one foot. I picked her up, and her leg, which usually has a grey scale-like covering, looks like about an-inch of her leg has no scales, and it's all black. Not sure if that's dried blood, or just dirt.

I don't think it's broken, because it would've probably been bad from the start.

Do I need to soak her leg? Can I put Bacitracin on it? How do I wrap it up? I heard of some say that she needs to "rest it"..... but how do you explain that to a chicken?!?!?!

 

[TeamChaos]

Depending on what kind of trap it was, I bet she skinned her leg and it's got to be sore. Yes, soak her leg and clean it up- put a wound coating to keep the flies out if it's that season where you are and consider putting her in a cat carrier w/ lots of tasty treats for a day or so to see if being off the leg will help it heal. Best of luck to you and Sleepy!

 

[soler]

First you should wash the leg with a saline solution or water and mild soap to make sure you can see the injury. Hopefully that black stuff is dried blood/dirt.

Once you can see the wound you should disinfect it, iodine is good because it will also help with fungal and bacterial infection. I have Xenodine, which is also safe to use in eyes if they get scratched. You can also use betadine or hydrogen peroxide, whereas alcohol irritates the skin and stings, so best not to use that.

I would then apply some neosporin or other antibiotic cream and wrap it not too tighly if the wound is large so it's protected from dirt/insects/pecking.

Make sure you don't put on her any product containing benzocaine, lidocaine, or anything that ends in "caine" as those are toxic to them.

If the wound is infected (oozing, swollen etc) you'll need additional care as the bird may get a secondary infection and suffer complications.

 

[MyLuvlyChix]

Thanks! I poured hydrogen peroxide on it, and it foamed like I thought it would. The pad on her foot is now swollen to 2-3 times the size of her other foot. And I noticed that one of her scales near the injury is greenish. But there's no bleeding or oozing.

I think I'll soak her leg in an epsom salt bath, according to the directions on the box. (I'm such a newbie, it's scarey to try things without knowing the dilution rate or length of time needed to be effective.) Any ideas?

Then put on the neosporin with some gauze and then vet-wrap. She's in the pet carrier, but I feel so bad for her being "cooped up" like that. (pun intended) Due to her injured leg, it's hard for her to turn herself around in the cage. But I suppose that the chickens in big egg farms have smaller cages than that.

Wondering if maybe I should put cold compresses on the foot after her bath, to help reduce the swelling.

Any other suggestions?

 

[soler]

maybe a bit of baby aspirin to help with the pain? just make sure you don't use advil or other products, only aspirin is ok. Hopefully it's not infected.

 

[MyLuvlyChix]

Looks like her foot is paralyzed. She has no feeling when we touch or squeeze it. Hope we don't have to "put her down"...she's such a sweetie. My daughter is going to bring her to high school tomorrow, and see if the "small animal ag teacher" has any ideas.