injured silkie hen

[kittylee123]

I have a very small and very friendly blue bearded 1yr old silkie hen named violet that i just adore but iam a bit worried about her....situation : my 4 yr old son & my 3yr old daughter were playing outside as they do every day my son came running yelling that sissy killed the chicken i went running violet wss lying on her back unable. to move i thought she was dead but her eyes were blinking and she was breathing (not very well)with my heart.broken and thinking i was going to have to release her
from unnecessary suffering i picked her up to love on her and say goodbye. about 5 minutes went by and i had noticed that she was starting to hold her head up on her own then her legged streched out and then a few feather flaps...i wad ecstatic but still very concerned it has benn about 4hrs since then i have her seperated from the other chickens and she is very slowly moving about but still a bit wobbly. since i did not see what acutely happened i was hoping that this detailed discription of how she is physicaly acting would get me some help trying to figure out what might have caused her injury(if one at all). Is there anything i should watch her for?does it sound like she might be ok? Iam very unsure and concerned i just love this little hen

 

[chooks4life]

Well, from the sounds of it there definitely was an injury, and probably not just one. I would guess she has multiple broken bones, probably ribs and maybe a skeletal fracture. As you probably know, they have fused skeletons, so when they get a broken back, it means a heck of a lot more is broken than just one bone. This sounds to me like a multiple-fracture injury.

When they're smashed, picking them up can do significant and even fatal damage. If you see severely damaged animals on the ground and unable to move, please, for their sakes, do not pick them up. The less you move them the better for them. Just as you do with a human that is damaged and unable to move; if injury has immobilized them, but you can see it's not a broken limb, you can assume it is best to not move them and if you do have to move them, move them very, very carefully, like shifting them onto a flat surface before moving that.

I know you probably know this too but a three year old kid is way too young to be unsupervised with animals, especially a tame and friendly one who may not have the sense to spot and avoid an injury coming its way. The kid is also way too young to spot and avoid an injury coming its way. Animals and kids don't have to be malicious in intent to do one another life altering, and life ending, damages. It's always fine, until it's not. And there usually is a point when it's not, most kids don't have an incident free childhood of freeranging unsupervised with animals. Sooner or later someone always gets hurt, whether it's the animals or the kids or both. Pretty commonly, kids kill small animals.

I have had two little Pekin Silkie mixes who both received smashed bodies, one from a feral dog attack and one from a large rooster attack, and both required at least a few days to rest and allow the bones to set. Since then, though, they are easily re-smashed, and being reintroduced to the normal flock is now a continual liability. Your little hen sounds like she has undergone a similar or identical injury and she may never be safe to reintroduce. I mean, she'll probably be fine, until that one random accident or minor scuffle that smashes her weakened body again and either kills her or puts her back to square one.

If you let her be to heal, she may recover and look normal, but be aware she may always be damaged. She might not be, time will tell. Give her extra calcium right now to help her bones knit and control the pain.

Best wishes.

 

[chooks4life]

And

Sorry it's not the best circumstances!

Best wishes.

 

[kittylee123]

I'm still unsure about what exactly took place but i think she was just stunned almost like in a hypnotic state....
she was up running around like normal befor i even went to bed that nite and i put her back with the group the following morning she has been fine and i have been doing some extreme schooling on how and when to handle the chickens

 

[chooks4life]

I'm still unsure about what exactly took place but i think she was just stunned almost like in a hypnotic state....
she was up running around like normal befor i even went to bed that nite and i put her back with the group the following morning she has been fine and i have been doing some extreme schooling on how and when to handle the chickens

Good luck with that! Good to hear she's up and about, but best keep a closer eye on her (no doubt you already planned to) because chooks are masters of acting fine when they're almost ready to drop dead.

About training kids that young, I hope it works for you, but they can often be too young to comprehend. One of my littlest family members went through a few years of 'splatting' animals, like lizards, baby chickens, etc, because even though he knew he wasn't allowed to catch them himself, he couldn't resist when nobody was watching him, and he tried to catch them with a lot of force administered by a downward blow of an open and flat hand. Needless to say, many small animals died wretched deaths during his period of incomprehension there. It only stopped when he was 5. Good luck with your kids and birds.

Best wishes.