NEED HELP CHICKEN MAY BE DYING

I am so so sorry for your loss, one time I had a mother hen and my favorite chicken jumped in the coop with her, her foot got stuck in the chicken wire. The mother hen was protecting her chicks but she ripped her scalp off. I could see her scull and when I found her she was still alive, I gave her some food and water with quick chick but she was miserable so we put her out of her misery. What helped me get over this was painting a rock to put where we buried her

I'm sorry for your loss. I'm going to say something that I hope you don't take the wrong way. :oops: You could've potentially saved your scalped chicken. It might surprise you, but they can survive quite a lot, even a scalping. I had a pullet that got attacked and almost completely scalped, and yes, I could see her skull, but with blukote and antibiotics, she healed up - the skin grew back, and she even grew some feathers there again, as she recovered. She had a lot of will to live, and I was willing to spend the months it took to help her heal.

I'm not saying your choice was a bad one, because you know your birds more than I do, and you know your abilities better than I do. But if you have the abillty, the room, the stomach to deal with a nasty wound everyday, and the bird shows the desire to get better, they can heal from a pretty serious injury. I've got the room, and the patience, and the stomach to deal with it, and just enough knowledge of their anatomy and needs that I've brought some back from almost certain death. :clap In fact, right now, I'm tending to a turkey that will need artificial legs when she heals up completely. She lost the bottom parts of both legs in a terrible accident, but I've managed to prevent or fight off any infection with antibiotics, and her stubs are healing beautifully, and I already have a plan for the artifficial limbs, using some plastics that you heat with boiling water, shape into what you need them to be, and they harden as they cool. Stubbs, as I've named her, has a strong will to live, and she has been quite patient with it all, even the exercises I put her through to keep her remaining limbs flexible, strong, and limber enough to make her be able to relearn to walk once she's completely healed. It's been a very slow process, since the wounds, and the ensuing infection, were potentially life-threatening, but we beat the infection, and she's doing beautifully! :love

And yet, there've been others that just didn't have the will to fight. At all. No matter what you do for them, what antibiotic you use, what you try to feed them, they still go downhill fast. Those, I knew it was best to put them out of their suffering. And occasionally, there's one too far gone, too badly injured, to be able to try. :hit Every bird, and every injury, is different. I had to hold my badly injured Frizzle Banty Cochin hen, a wonderful mother and real cuddle bug, as she took her last breaths due to an awful attack overnight from a murderous raccoon. She lived long enough to tell me goodbye, basically. So, I understand dealing with something you can't save a bird from. But I also know there's times when they will surprise you in their ability to recover.

Please, again, don't take this the wrong way. I just want you to know, if [Heaven forbid] something similar happens again, you can likely get help from us here to nurse them through it. Even if there's no vet anywhere nearby that will help you. That's why I've learned as much as I have, to be able to save more than I could before. :caf Because I don't have a vet within 50 miles of me that will even look at a bird of any kind, much less what is generally considered livestock birds.:rant Those around here would be more inclined to tell you how to harvest it, not how to save it. :he Just something to keep in mind.
 

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