Is there anything else I can do for our hen?

[Aeriana14]

Hi, so we have a bantam hen, her name is Rachel. About 5 days ago I heard a loud cluck coming from chicken run. Upon further inspection, none of our hens or roosters suffered anything except Rachel. It seems that some animal literally took a bite out of her left side as there was a 2 inch x 2 inch piece of skin ripped off, exposing the muscle. It also looks too serious to be from simple overmating from the roosters. For three days I just let her live like normal with the rest of the coop while looking in every couple hours. A sort of a scab formed and the skin was growing back. Then one of our dumber roosters started hopping on her. I saw while she was eating he danced for her then mounted. I immediately threw him off. His talons sort of pierced the scab, making it bleed. After that I decided to separate her and put her in a fenced area near the others so she could be separated but they could still see each other. While this was happening (i’m talking since the following day after the attack) she had slowly started retreating from the flock; mainly staying in corners. She started to eat and drink less. During this time I gave her our normal mix of chicken feed (consisting of wheat, corn, peeled and unpeeled sunflower seeds) and some plain rice with no salt. She ate the rice with more appetite than our feed. She also drank water every so often. More so I would move the bowl of water near her and shake it a bit to intrigue her and then she drank. Then the following day, yesterday, I decided to move her from the enclosure and let her live free-range around our backyard with our other bantam hen. Since then she seemed to recover significantly. She started eating more often and with more appetite. Same with water. She has started to forage around a bit to look for grass and worms. I noticed that on her left leg she does limp a lot. I think its due to the muscle on that side being weaker from the bite, maybe? That is why she doesn’t move very much. Do you think she has a chance to survive or return to her original condition? Does anyone think I should do anything else? As of the moment, we don’t have the budget to buy any medication or medicated feed or something. I am wondering if there are fruits or any natural foods that she could eat to help with the healing. Should I also try to goad her somehow into walking more, as to strengthen her left muscles? Thank you for any help. I will also attach pics below of her as of today. Also forgot to mention, she’s the white one!

 

[nuthatched]

How many roosters to hems do you have?
Is formulated chicken feed available where you are?

 

[FunClucks]

Where in the world are you located? If you can get ahold of some commercially formulated chick starter or flock raiser with 20% protein, that would be good. You don't need "medicated" feed - generally the medication in medicated feed is for coccidiosis, which is not what's wrong with your hen.

Feed her some protein - scrambled eggs, raw or cooked egg yolk would be perfect for nutrition and protein. Also cooked fish without bones, cooked chicken, cooked or raw meat of any type. If you feed anything raw, be sure to remove any leftovers before it has a chance to grow bacteria and get spoiled. Molasses and molasses water would be good for micronutrients, also brewers yeast. Human vitamin supplements, B complex vitamins, can be fed to any extent without harm - just pop it in their beak and they'll swallow it. Whole pill or half a pill - they excrete any excess.

Get a chicken saddle for your hen or keep the roo away from her so he doesn't reinjure her. Mating injuries like this can happen. My girls wear chicken saddles year round. Down Under chicken saddles (australian manufacturer) are my favorite - they're super durable, very adjustable, washable, and last forever. I get them off of Amazon.

Your girl looks to be healing awesomely. She'll be just fine in a month or less. Keep her full of high quality animal protein with good micronutrients, and she should heal quickly.

I have seen much worse injuries heal until you'd never know they were once there.

Good luck!!!

 

[Aeriana14]

How many roosters to hems do you have?
Is formulated chicken feed available where you are?

I don’t know the exact ratio, but there are 3 roosters and about 15 to 17 hens. As for the feed, I’m honestly not sure. We have had a hen with worse injuries and she honestly did fine with what we had. I’m wondering more if formulated feed is necessary as it would be hard to find.

 

[Aeriana14]

Where in the world are you located? If you can get ahold of some commercially formulated chick starter or flock raiser with 20% protein, that would be good. You don't need "medicated" feed - generally the medication in medicated feed is for coccidiosis, which is not what's wrong with your hen.

Feed her some protein - scrambled eggs, raw or cooked egg yolk would be perfect for nutrition and protein. Also cooked fish without bones, cooked chicken, cooked or raw meat of any type. If you feed anything raw, be sure to remove any leftovers before it has a chance to grow bacteria and get spoiled. Molasses and molasses water would be good for micronutrients, also brewers yeast. Human vitamin supplements, B complex vitamins, can be fed to any extent without harm - just pop it in their beak and they'll swallow it. Whole pill or half a pill - they excrete any excess.

Get a chicken saddle for your hen or keep the roo away from her so he doesn't reinjure her. Mating injuries like this can happen. My girls wear chicken saddles year round. Down Under chicken saddles (australian manufacturer) are my favorite - they're super durable, very adjustable, washable, and last forever. I get them off of Amazon.

Your girl looks to be healing awesomely. She'll be just fine in a month or less. Keep her full of high quality animal protein with good micronutrients, and she should heal quickly.

I have seen much worse injuries heal until you'd never know they were once there.

Good luck!!!

We are located in a village/small town in Romania, hence why it’s more of a problem to find formulated feed in the first place. That’s also why I wanted more food sources that we have in our house or at the store. I will try to get her some egg yolk or meat, as that seems particularly good. I never knew we could feed human vitamins to chickens - I might try that too.
The roosters are not any worry right now because both hens are locked in a big cage at night and they free range all day. There are no roosters within a mile radius of them.
Thank you so much for the help! I will get back to you tomorrow or in a couple days to show you some progress.

 

[FunClucks]

We are located in a village/small town in Romania, hence why it’s more of a problem to find formulated feed in the first place. That’s also why I wanted more food sources that we have in our house or at the store. I will try to get her some egg yolk or meat, as that seems particularly good. I never knew we could feed human vitamins to chickens - I might try that too.
The roosters are not any worry right now because both hens are locked in a big cage at night and they free range all day. There are no roosters within a mile radius of them.
Thank you so much for the help! I will get back to you tomorrow or in a couple days to show you some progress.

If you look on this Emergency Forum, in previous postings, you will find dosages for human vitamin E, vitamin D, and calcium citrate. Those are commonly used for chickens, are inexpensive, and can help for specific conditions. It is helpful to have them in your emergency supplies for your chickens. There are a lot of common human medications that might be helpful for chickens also, lots of info on this Forum and on this site.

3 roos to 15-17 hens sounds like one roo too many to me, but it could work just fine for you. It depends on how the flock interacts.

Also, if you hunt or have a farm, or process any type of animal for human consumption, the chickens can usually eat and get some good nutrition out of what is left over. Most things that you might feed to a hunting dog, you can feed to a chicken. Plus all your kitchen scraps / food waste. Think of them as tiny dinosaurs - omnivores, but heavy on the meat.

Good luck!!!

 

[Aeriana14]

Hi. Do you think you could give some specific links about vitamin dosages or brands? I’ve tried looking but I can’t really find anything useful.
For the past two days I have been giving her some pieces of boiled chicken meat in a tiny bowl of egg yolk. I take an egg and crack it in a bowl and then I mix it a bit and add some small bits of the meat. The meat is from our own flock of chickens so it’s natural. I gave her the mixture in the morning and she gobbled it up. Probably the only thing she gobbles up so far. Then I feed her some grains throughout the day and she eats some fresh grass as well. Today, more towards the late afternoon,I gave her half a pill of an organic supplement that has both vitamin E and D and calcium. I had to open her beak and put it in her mouth as she wasn’t eating it herself.
Yesterday she was going great, as she was eating and drinking more. She also walked around a lot more than usual, about 6 feet of distance. But today she has gotten to a low point. She hardly ate or drank anything but a bit of the egg yolk mixture. As mentioned earlier, I had to open her beak to put the pill in but I also had to do this for water and some grains. She refused to eat or drink basically. She also didn’t want to move at all today and was generally looking weaker and couldn’t really stand. The weather was slightly colder/clouder today so maybe that’s why?
Her poop today was also more liquidy and green. If you want I can tell you more about how her poop looked like for the past week.
As for the injury, It’s starting to become yellower because the skin is growing back. She’s going very good in that department. She also doesn’t smell bad/putrid like an infection and it generally looks okay.
My family is thinking to cull her because of today but it is still early in her treatment I suppose; so she could have both highs and lows, right?

 

[FunClucks]

Hi. Do you think you could give some specific links about vitamin dosages or brands? I’ve tried looking but I can’t really find anything useful.
For the past two days I have been giving her some pieces of boiled chicken meat in a tiny bowl of egg yolk. I take an egg and crack it in a bowl and then I mix it a bit and add some small bits of the meat. The meat is from our own flock of chickens so it’s natural. I gave her the mixture in the morning and she gobbled it up. Probably the only thing she gobbles up so far. Then I feed her some grains throughout the day and she eats some fresh grass as well. Today, more towards the late afternoon,I gave her half a pill of an organic supplement that has both vitamin E and D and calcium. I had to open her beak and put it in her mouth as she wasn’t eating it herself.
Yesterday she was going great, as she was eating and drinking more. She also walked around a lot more than usual, about 6 feet of distance. But today she has gotten to a low point. She hardly ate or drank anything but a bit of the egg yolk mixture. As mentioned earlier, I had to open her beak to put the pill in but I also had to do this for water and some grains. She refused to eat or drink basically. She also didn’t want to move at all today and was generally looking weaker and couldn’t really stand. The weather was slightly colder/clouder today so maybe that’s why?
Her poop today was also more liquidy and green. If you want I can tell you more about how her poop looked like for the past week.
As for the injury, It’s starting to become yellower because the skin is growing back. She’s going very good in that department. She also doesn’t smell bad/putrid like an infection and it generally looks okay.
My family is thinking to cull her because of today but it is still early in her treatment I suppose; so she could have both highs and lows, right?

There's no way I'd be culling that chicken. If her injury is looking better like you say, any number of things could have caused her to be seeming weaker. And honestly, one off day or one off afternoon could just be normal variation, and not indicate something is actually wrong. Mine seem like that when the weather is overcast or a little colder. It doesn't sound like the things that are wrong with her have anything to do with her wound.

Post some pictures on here of her poop. This sounds like the most urgent thing to follow up on. Green poop often means she's not getting enough to eat, and poop pics can help us diagnose a lot of what is wrong.

I would give her as much egg yolk and chicken, cooked or not, as she will eat, not just a small amount in the morning. Give her a variety of meat. People sometimes feed chickens canned cat food or canned sardines, canned tuna or salmon to help increase protein in their diet. I like to feed fresh or frozen to avoid the sodium, but a bit won't hurt them. Cook (unseasoned) scrambled eggs for her, and leave them with her for 4 hrs. You can crumble up the shell into the eggs and then cook them as an added calcium source if she's still laying. Get that crop full of protein. She gets enough grains on other days, get her full of protein for the next few days and see how she does.

Offer her molasses water for the trace nutrients and minerals (they make this commercially, it's a product called Nutridrench) it is sweet. Maybe a bit of sugar water if the molasses water isn't appealing to stimulate her appetite.

Does she have a good source of grit?

She may be eating and drinking when you can't see her do it, don't discount that possibility. Feeling her crop to tell when it is full throughout the day is very helpful for accurately assessing how much she's eating. She should fill it in the morning, and then eat more throughout the day, and go to bed with it full. It should be empty when she wakes up before breakfast.

Have you wormed her recently? If so, how did you do it, what product and dosage did you use?

Have you treated for coccidiosis, if so what product, how much did you use, and how did you administer it?

I wouldn't worry about the human vitamins so much right now, as they don't sound like the appropriate treatment for what is currently wrong.

For your information:

600 mg Calcium citrate with vitamin D included is generally good for chickens laying soft shell eggs or being egg bound.

Vit E can treat neurological symptoms, if you think the chicken has Merek's disease, feeding vitamin E and B12 for a month or so can help you figure out if it's not Mereks but a deficiency - if symptoms go away it's a deficiency. I don't remember the dosage of vit E.

B complex (having all the B vitamins, B12, B4, B6 etc) 50mg or 100mg, can feed this daily - you will pop it in their beak - they won't eat it on their own, but they will swallow if you pop it in their beak. Excess gets excreted. Since they don't have a formulated chicken food, you may need to supplement micronutrients in their diet, or at least make sure their natural sources have them.

Here's an example of a good commercial formulated chicken feed so you can get an idea of what's needed. Check out the Purina Flock raiser farthest right column - their formulation was updated in 2023. I've also included a link below that to one of Kiki's posts - look in her signature, she has a link to this document (Poultry Feed Comparison Google Sheet - click on this) which she keeps updated. Lots of good info on commercial feeds there.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/posts/28450060/bookmark

 

[Aeriana14]

Below are the pictures. For the first three days her poop was liquidy brown, although that was when she was in the coop with the other chickens so I couldn’t know exactly when or where she pooped. On the 4th day when I separated her into an enclosure and I fed her some more protein it was more normal; solid brown with some yellow liquid. After that I moved her into our backyard/frontyard and for the next two days it fluctuated. First it was literally normal, brown with some white or just brown. Then it was more liquid green/yellow with some brown. And in some poops there were small green solid cylinders along with that. Yesterday night and today morning it was liquid dark green with some yellow/white, as far as I remember. This also seems to coincide with her not eating so much. Today - as far as I’m aware anyways- she hasn’t pooped since 10 am. It’s now 9:30 p.m. Well, I tried feeding her much more today and as a result she ate much more compared to yesterday. In the morning I cooked a bowl of scambled eggs and she ate a bit by herself. Then she stopped eating them and I tried to open her beak to put some more in there. She resisted like crazy. Then I stroked her head a bit and out of nowhere she started gobbling up the scrambles. She only left a bit of food left. She then drank water by herself, I didn’t have to put in to her beak. I also gave her some cooked chicken meat and lamb meat. All unseasoned of course. Her crop was just less than full but she refused to eat any more. That was her breakfast. Throughout the day I fed her more meat, seeds, and egg. Almost anything she would eat. Towards the evening I also gave her some earthworms I dug up, about five. She ate everything of them. I gave her some cooked carp and some unseasoned cooked peas, as i’ve heard they are also high in protein. She refused to drink water or eat much towards the night but her crop is still at least half full. I’ve also noticed she tried hobbling more today. Her feathers are also a bit ruffled and her wings droop down a bit.
As of today, I haven’t tried any deworming or coccidosis. I considered putting some garlic in her water for deworming but haven’t gotten around to it.
And yes she does have a source if grit.
I’m thankful for your help. Thus is the first hen i’ve had to look out for like this and it feels rewarding in a way helping her.