Cetawin
Rest in Peace 1963-2021
I am posting this thread in hopes that it may help someone else. The photographs are graphic and may even be considered gross to some so if you are at all squeamish please do not go further. Speckledhen has been a great help through this and she was consulted because I obtained Delilah from her over two years ago and she knew the bird better than anyone else would have. This is Delilah in June 2010 when we brought her home to Kentucky.
Back in mid-April my black orpington hen, Delilah injured her leg and was found hanging upside down with her foot and spur caught in a wire dog crate. She took it upon herself to attempt to attack a young silkie rooster in the crate and got her foot caught. She was put inside in a box limiting her movement for a few days and later moved to a crate herself. Upon the recommendation of Speckledhen, she was given a round of penicillin (5 days...injections of 3/4 cc each day). It took several weeks for her to heal and she was gradually integrated back outside in a confined area and finally let back with her flock. Delilah was going on 5 years old, a huge girl and as tough as they come....she had incredible spurs herself and knew how to use them.
Fast forward to the end of May, she is walking around pushing her weight around as head hen but her leg looked puffy to me so on May 31st I took a pic of her right leg and sent it to Speckledhen and we decided another roung of Penicillin could not hurt just in case she had an infection. The area was not hot, squishy or fluidy but was firm as if that area of the leg was
going to be permanently damaged from her antics with the dog crate. She underwent another 4 days of penicillin injections. This is the picture I consulted with Speckledhen on, you can see the swelling on the front of the leg just above her spur.
Meanwhile Delilah was running around and acting normal, eating and etcetera was good and she even did the head hen duty of protecting and guarding a dying flock member. My SLW was dying of internal laying and Delilah stayed with her keeping everyone else away for three days and until Leaya passed away. So all seemed well. Then on July 11th, 3 months after her injury, I noticed Delilah hanging back in the coop, being the last to leave and walking very slowly (but normal gaited) with my Blue Orpington Athena. Athena has a hereditary crop issue, a pendulous crop. Ultimately her crop will stop working and she will die, Athena was walking slowly and this heat is hard on her so I assumed that Delilah was once again guarding over a ailing flock member. The 12th was the same way and I began to worry for Athena, checking her over carefully and I even checked Delilah's leg and foot and all was well.
July 13th my daughter bring Delilah into the house and says she was sitting on the floor in front of the roosts and nest box and would not leave the coop. Also Delilah was not fighting her to be put down so I knew something was amiss. I looked at her, checked her leg and even lifted her tail to check her vent which was clear. Seeing nothing, I assumed it was the heat and her just being an older gal so I told daughter to take back to the coop and sit her down where she was in front of the fan. A few moments later my daughter returned in a panic saying something was very wrong and her shirt had a huge blood stain where she had held Delilah against her as she carried her. So, I started looking Delilah over again and she was visibly distressed and I started separating feathers and saw my worst fear...a maggot. So I rushed her into the house to the sink and began clipping fluff away and saw a huge opening approximately 2" across and 2" high and about 3/4 of in ch deep and I was looking into her body cavity. I began rinsing the wound and removing the maggots, there were not many but they were there doing their worst of course. I rinsed and rinsed with warm water then made a sterile saline solution and began rinsing with that. I cut away dead skin and tissue as far as I felt safe. I dried her and the wound and applied a plain gauze bandage and ecured it to her with a strip of fabric around her body and put her in a box to rest while I decided what to do and to consult with Speckledhen. This is the "wound" before it was cleaned completely. It is on her underside very close to her left leg.
Speckledhen and I agreed she need antibiotics so I gave her a pencillin injection but she was fighting me so hard I only managed to get about 1/2 cc into her so I let her rest and texted my equine vet for advice. I am blessed with a wonderful vet and after hearing about the situation he decided to stop by on his way home and see if he could do anything and at a minimum, he could give her an injection of anesthesia that would euthanize her. Here she is all bandaged and getting more penicillin crushed and mixed with water. Then we set out to waitfor the vet to arrive at 4:00pm
While we waited, we figured out it was definitely and abcess that had burst open while my daughter was carrying her...clearly all of the damage was exiting her body. So the vet arrives and looks her over. He removed more dead tissue and checked her internally through the opening and declared she had a raging infection and if that could be stopped, she might be able to be saved. He had no way of knowing how far the infection had spread or what organs were affected or to what degree. So he gave her 1200 mg of antibiotics. It was a combination of three antibiotics to attempt to attack any type of infection....the combination of Trimiethroprim, Gentamicin Sulfate and Ciprofloxacin. The poor girl had enough antibiotics pumped her to have been good enough for a 1000 lb horse. He left me another syringe to give her over the next two days if she survived and he only gave her about a 30% chance. So we put her in her box and hand fed her scrambled eggs, vitamins and prayed. Later that evening we discovered my Red Cochin, Ruby missing, apprently snatched by a predator so it was a long day and night.
The next morning Delilah was alive and alert but she would not eat or drink on her own. She was giving water and food by mouth. I called Speckledhen to give her an update and Delilah began her death throws....she was flapping wildly and laid her head in my hand and looked at me and she quietly slipped away. Speckledhen solved the mystery of the wound...when she injured her leg, she obviously had an infection and the penicillin was not enough to handle it. It spread throughout and finally abcessed in her underside. With this horrible heat, there was probably a tiny opening where the abcess was draining and flies laid eggs within it. The abcess of course grew and finally burst. Sadly, the infection was too rampant and too much for penicillin and the with no way of seeing the problem and the bird not giving any indication there was a problem until so late in the game, even the vet treatment could not save her. This is the area after she died...it drained infection all night and the bandage was soaked. Her vent cannot be seen in the photo but I have marked the direction of it for location reference.
So, please learn from this and hopefully you can save a bird with a seemingly minor leg injury from a horrible death. I was blessed with Speckledhen's advice gained from her own experience with a hock injury and infection previously. It took prescriptions antibiotics to help her bird. The leg injury can be a silent killer. Sadly, she and I lost our beloved Delilah but if you have a bird with a leg injury and it is important enough to you...get the bird on strong prescription antibiotics because Penicillin will just not do it.
R.I.P. Beautiful Delilah
Back in mid-April my black orpington hen, Delilah injured her leg and was found hanging upside down with her foot and spur caught in a wire dog crate. She took it upon herself to attempt to attack a young silkie rooster in the crate and got her foot caught. She was put inside in a box limiting her movement for a few days and later moved to a crate herself. Upon the recommendation of Speckledhen, she was given a round of penicillin (5 days...injections of 3/4 cc each day). It took several weeks for her to heal and she was gradually integrated back outside in a confined area and finally let back with her flock. Delilah was going on 5 years old, a huge girl and as tough as they come....she had incredible spurs herself and knew how to use them.
Fast forward to the end of May, she is walking around pushing her weight around as head hen but her leg looked puffy to me so on May 31st I took a pic of her right leg and sent it to Speckledhen and we decided another roung of Penicillin could not hurt just in case she had an infection. The area was not hot, squishy or fluidy but was firm as if that area of the leg was
going to be permanently damaged from her antics with the dog crate. She underwent another 4 days of penicillin injections. This is the picture I consulted with Speckledhen on, you can see the swelling on the front of the leg just above her spur.
Meanwhile Delilah was running around and acting normal, eating and etcetera was good and she even did the head hen duty of protecting and guarding a dying flock member. My SLW was dying of internal laying and Delilah stayed with her keeping everyone else away for three days and until Leaya passed away. So all seemed well. Then on July 11th, 3 months after her injury, I noticed Delilah hanging back in the coop, being the last to leave and walking very slowly (but normal gaited) with my Blue Orpington Athena. Athena has a hereditary crop issue, a pendulous crop. Ultimately her crop will stop working and she will die, Athena was walking slowly and this heat is hard on her so I assumed that Delilah was once again guarding over a ailing flock member. The 12th was the same way and I began to worry for Athena, checking her over carefully and I even checked Delilah's leg and foot and all was well.
July 13th my daughter bring Delilah into the house and says she was sitting on the floor in front of the roosts and nest box and would not leave the coop. Also Delilah was not fighting her to be put down so I knew something was amiss. I looked at her, checked her leg and even lifted her tail to check her vent which was clear. Seeing nothing, I assumed it was the heat and her just being an older gal so I told daughter to take back to the coop and sit her down where she was in front of the fan. A few moments later my daughter returned in a panic saying something was very wrong and her shirt had a huge blood stain where she had held Delilah against her as she carried her. So, I started looking Delilah over again and she was visibly distressed and I started separating feathers and saw my worst fear...a maggot. So I rushed her into the house to the sink and began clipping fluff away and saw a huge opening approximately 2" across and 2" high and about 3/4 of in ch deep and I was looking into her body cavity. I began rinsing the wound and removing the maggots, there were not many but they were there doing their worst of course. I rinsed and rinsed with warm water then made a sterile saline solution and began rinsing with that. I cut away dead skin and tissue as far as I felt safe. I dried her and the wound and applied a plain gauze bandage and ecured it to her with a strip of fabric around her body and put her in a box to rest while I decided what to do and to consult with Speckledhen. This is the "wound" before it was cleaned completely. It is on her underside very close to her left leg.
Speckledhen and I agreed she need antibiotics so I gave her a pencillin injection but she was fighting me so hard I only managed to get about 1/2 cc into her so I let her rest and texted my equine vet for advice. I am blessed with a wonderful vet and after hearing about the situation he decided to stop by on his way home and see if he could do anything and at a minimum, he could give her an injection of anesthesia that would euthanize her. Here she is all bandaged and getting more penicillin crushed and mixed with water. Then we set out to waitfor the vet to arrive at 4:00pm
While we waited, we figured out it was definitely and abcess that had burst open while my daughter was carrying her...clearly all of the damage was exiting her body. So the vet arrives and looks her over. He removed more dead tissue and checked her internally through the opening and declared she had a raging infection and if that could be stopped, she might be able to be saved. He had no way of knowing how far the infection had spread or what organs were affected or to what degree. So he gave her 1200 mg of antibiotics. It was a combination of three antibiotics to attempt to attack any type of infection....the combination of Trimiethroprim, Gentamicin Sulfate and Ciprofloxacin. The poor girl had enough antibiotics pumped her to have been good enough for a 1000 lb horse. He left me another syringe to give her over the next two days if she survived and he only gave her about a 30% chance. So we put her in her box and hand fed her scrambled eggs, vitamins and prayed. Later that evening we discovered my Red Cochin, Ruby missing, apprently snatched by a predator so it was a long day and night.
The next morning Delilah was alive and alert but she would not eat or drink on her own. She was giving water and food by mouth. I called Speckledhen to give her an update and Delilah began her death throws....she was flapping wildly and laid her head in my hand and looked at me and she quietly slipped away. Speckledhen solved the mystery of the wound...when she injured her leg, she obviously had an infection and the penicillin was not enough to handle it. It spread throughout and finally abcessed in her underside. With this horrible heat, there was probably a tiny opening where the abcess was draining and flies laid eggs within it. The abcess of course grew and finally burst. Sadly, the infection was too rampant and too much for penicillin and the with no way of seeing the problem and the bird not giving any indication there was a problem until so late in the game, even the vet treatment could not save her. This is the area after she died...it drained infection all night and the bandage was soaked. Her vent cannot be seen in the photo but I have marked the direction of it for location reference.
So, please learn from this and hopefully you can save a bird with a seemingly minor leg injury from a horrible death. I was blessed with Speckledhen's advice gained from her own experience with a hock injury and infection previously. It took prescriptions antibiotics to help her bird. The leg injury can be a silent killer. Sadly, she and I lost our beloved Delilah but if you have a bird with a leg injury and it is important enough to you...get the bird on strong prescription antibiotics because Penicillin will just not do it.
R.I.P. Beautiful Delilah
