Official BYC Poll: What Do You Do With Seriously Sick/Injured Chickens?

[BYC Project Manager]

Chickens are very tough animals, but like any living animal, chickens can get hurt & get sick. . Some injuries may be treatable with due time, love, and care. So: What Do You Do With Seriously Sick/Injured Chickens?

Please place your vote above, and please elaborate in a reply below if you choose "Other".

Further Reading:

• Safely Administering Oral Medications to All Poultry and Waterfowl
• Chicken First Aid Kits - Handy and Essential Supplies, and How to Use Them
• A Couple Chicken Problems And How To Fix Them
• Valbazen (albendazole) Doses for Poultry, Waterfowl, and Game Birds
• Skin Wounds: Healing with Honey and Sugar
  

For more tips & tricks, please visit the Injuries, Diseases, & Cures section of our Learning Centre.

Check out more exciting Official BYC Polls HERE!

 

[sourland]

Depends. Injured/wounded birds are treated. 'Pets' (doesn't everyone have several?) are treated. Birds needed for a breeding program are treated. Birds with apparent infectious diseases are culled.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Recently had a hen with a prolapse that wouldn't stay in, then she got fly strike. I put her down. There wasn't much more I could do about it.

 

[Sauron1]

I'd do all of those depending on the time and the severity and type. If it was internal, like an impacted crop or sour crop, I would take her to a vet. If it was infectious, then I would Quarantine and treat. If it was totally hopeless, I would cull her. If I was not really sure, I would wait and see.

 

[Jenessa_096]

I describe her situation and post pictures of her on BYC. I always have helpful answers.

 

[BlueHorse17]

Chickens are actually pretty tough! I’ve had two serious cases in the past. One of them survived, while the other unfortunately did not. Regardless though, they were troopers!

 

[Fallenone05]

Depends on the situation! I had sickly chicks this spring - two regained their health after treatment while the other didn't. I culled the one that didn't recover.

I had a chicken once, when trying to integrate into the flock, must have caught his neck on something and sliced it open so bad I could see the muscle/meat underneath and he had completely separated the surrounding area. I immediately took all the babies out and kept them all inside for a while longer instead, to keep the adults from picking at it. He recovered completely after a couple more weeks indoors and you couldn't even tell he had an injury that bad on him. No infection in the wound, the other chicks (they were about 2 -3 months old but still babies to me SHHHH) didn't mess with it and he was eating and drinking as if nothing was wrong right after.

Chickens are tough.

 

[Hannahdoesntexist]

I generally will treat and do what I can to help them. I’ve got a small backyard flock and they are like children to me. They get the same treatment as any of my dogs and cats do. The only time I’d ever consider culling is if their pain and suffering was untreatable and their quality of life was poor. I’ve been lucky enough to never have that happen.

The hen in my photo got attacked by foxes twice and had 2 lots of stitches. She survived and lived normally until a 3rd attack while we were asleep and we lost our whole flock. That photo was taken about 2 days after an attack. She was basically back to normal within a day. Many people in my situation I know would have culled her but she was a lovely hen. I miss her dearly

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Depends. If it was a serious injury, broken leg, deep/very large wounds or severe infectious disease like mareks I would cull. Smaller injuries are treated differently depending on size and location sometimes ill post about those. I don’t use vets because it’s difficult to find a vet that treats poultry much less knows what they are doing. Also if it’s not easily treatable in a chick under 10 days I usually cull.

 

[Shezadandy]

If on a clear downhill spiral but very subdued/out of it: comfortable crate inside with favorite stuff available until she passes in her sleep. If they're suffering and there's no response to best effort with treatment or medicine, cull. Each bird is given its best shot to recover but nobody is made to suffer unnecessarily. I've seen some amazing healing on things that looked horrendous.