- May 25, 2013
- 29
- 4
- 41
I feel like the worst chicken owner ever! Our chickens are 2.5 months old and we're new to this. A few weeks ago we put different colored leg bands on them so my husband, my little boy, and I could tell them all apart after he named them. I bought 2 sizes and was planning to change all their bands to the bigger size today when we put them into their new run.
I never realized how fast their feet would grow and did not notice that one of my Buffs out grew the band or the band slid further down her leg (probably both). When I went out to the pen I just thought she liked to be on the perch a lot (where I couldn't see her legs or feet) and I didn't think anything of it. My husband moved them into a bigger run today and he noticed that she was hobbling along on one foot. Upon closer inspection we saw the band had cut into her leg pretty badly, the bottom of the leg and foot were really swollen, skin started to grow around the band and her foot seems to be limp. It's not black at all, but it's completely limp. There is also one large, hard, darker bump in the back of her leg/foot that seems to be most the painful for her where the band dug in.
We got the band off of her. As soon as we got it off we put Neosporin on her and bandaged her up with gauze. Then we decided to give the nearest vet that would treat a chicken a call (almost 2 hours from us) and she told us if we couldn't bring her in to clean it out with warm water and hydrogen peroxide, but not to put Neosporin on or bandage it because the moisture would attract flies and maggots or the bandage could do the same thing the band did and cut off more circulation (although we did not bandage it tightly at all). So we took the bandage off and cleaned the wound area with warm water and hydrogen peroxide. Then we dried it really well, but it was still bleeding a bit from where we had to pull the band off. We let her get down though because she seemed stressed. She seems to be eating and drinking fine. We plan to clean it again tomorrow morning and every day after. Now my question is: Neosporin or no Neosporin??? It seems a lot of people on here are in favor of using it.
Should we bring her in the house to keep flies away? I think she's much too big to be in the long Rubbermaid bin we had her in as a chick so I'm not sure what would be sufficient for her at this point. We'd have to put her in our basement. Maybe a dog crate with shavings?
Would the penicillin found in the fridge section at the feed store help? We saw that posted in another thread. The only issue is that the feed store doesn't open again until Monday and I don't even know if they have penicillin or a fridge section. ugh.
Can you buy antibiotics for chickens online anywhere that is safe?
How do we know if her foot needs to come off? Do we just put her down? I don't think I could do it, but I don't want her to suffer. This is horrible.
The amount of guilt I have is immense! How did we not notice this before?? We have since taken the bands off all the chickens. Note to anyone wanting to band their chickens. If you want to do it make sure they're full grown or be prepared to put a bigger size band on them every week or better yet just don't do it at all and save your chickens the potential for injury and you from feeling horrible.
Any way, I think all the tips I read from the one wound care thread I found are going to be a good guide, but I just needed to get this out. I feel awful.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far.
I never realized how fast their feet would grow and did not notice that one of my Buffs out grew the band or the band slid further down her leg (probably both). When I went out to the pen I just thought she liked to be on the perch a lot (where I couldn't see her legs or feet) and I didn't think anything of it. My husband moved them into a bigger run today and he noticed that she was hobbling along on one foot. Upon closer inspection we saw the band had cut into her leg pretty badly, the bottom of the leg and foot were really swollen, skin started to grow around the band and her foot seems to be limp. It's not black at all, but it's completely limp. There is also one large, hard, darker bump in the back of her leg/foot that seems to be most the painful for her where the band dug in.
We got the band off of her. As soon as we got it off we put Neosporin on her and bandaged her up with gauze. Then we decided to give the nearest vet that would treat a chicken a call (almost 2 hours from us) and she told us if we couldn't bring her in to clean it out with warm water and hydrogen peroxide, but not to put Neosporin on or bandage it because the moisture would attract flies and maggots or the bandage could do the same thing the band did and cut off more circulation (although we did not bandage it tightly at all). So we took the bandage off and cleaned the wound area with warm water and hydrogen peroxide. Then we dried it really well, but it was still bleeding a bit from where we had to pull the band off. We let her get down though because she seemed stressed. She seems to be eating and drinking fine. We plan to clean it again tomorrow morning and every day after. Now my question is: Neosporin or no Neosporin??? It seems a lot of people on here are in favor of using it.
Should we bring her in the house to keep flies away? I think she's much too big to be in the long Rubbermaid bin we had her in as a chick so I'm not sure what would be sufficient for her at this point. We'd have to put her in our basement. Maybe a dog crate with shavings?
Would the penicillin found in the fridge section at the feed store help? We saw that posted in another thread. The only issue is that the feed store doesn't open again until Monday and I don't even know if they have penicillin or a fridge section. ugh.
Can you buy antibiotics for chickens online anywhere that is safe?
How do we know if her foot needs to come off? Do we just put her down? I don't think I could do it, but I don't want her to suffer. This is horrible.
The amount of guilt I have is immense! How did we not notice this before?? We have since taken the bands off all the chickens. Note to anyone wanting to band their chickens. If you want to do it make sure they're full grown or be prepared to put a bigger size band on them every week or better yet just don't do it at all and save your chickens the potential for injury and you from feeling horrible.
Any way, I think all the tips I read from the one wound care thread I found are going to be a good guide, but I just needed to get this out. I feel awful.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far.
