My Newest Challenge. (Warning, Some slightly graphic pics)

On Sunday, me and my mom got in the car to go into town. Just down the road from my house, there is a family that has chickens that run free all the time. One was laying in the road, and I thought it was dead. We passed it, and it raised its head up. My mom slammed on the brakes and I jumped out to check it. It had a broken leg, and the owners didn't want it back. Her foot was also severely craped up and bruized.

I brought it home and shaved the feathers away from her leg with an electric trimmer. Then I splinted the leg with gauze and vet wrap. I betadined the cuts and covered them with a piece of gazue to keep the gnats out. This is what it looked like before hand.






Then on Monday, I got some soft cast from the pharmacy and put a cast on her leg. It doesn't get rock hard like a regular cast, but it sets up very firm to hold the bones back in place. I wrapped a layer of vet wrap over the cast to try and protect it from getting soiled. We elevated the leg for a little while right after we did it, so the cast could dry, and some of the swelling in her foot went down.






She's getting spoiled already, as you can see in the picture below. That's her "pillow." I don't know how the soft cast is going to work, but I am very optimistic. I haven't come up with a name yet, so if you have a suggestion please post it. She's a Light Brahma pullet.

 

Well, its the third day and she's already gotten better. Her foot has begun to scab over and the bruising is getting better. She's definitly perked up and is now eating pretty good and drinking lots of water. The only thing I'm concerned about is the way her leg will heal. I hope she won't have a bad limp, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Should I put some antibiotics in her water? She has a few shallow scrapes under the cast that weren't bad enough to need medicine, and I thought maybe it would help her foot heal faster? What do you think? Should I just keep up with the triple antibiotic ointment, or should I add some antibiotics in there to help her along?

 

I can deal if she dies. I've delt with it many times before, and I've learn to distance myself until everything works out. I can't use Jenny though. I had a crazy dog named Jenny that killed a bunch of my chickens and almost broke my leg when I tried to take away the body of one of them from her. Bad, Bad memories.

 

Thanks Redhen, I try. Normally I would have taken her to the vet, but my ducks got attacked by a coyote last week and I had to spend 80 dollars getting one of my females sewn up, so I just didn't have the money to spare. I think I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself.