Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[troyer]

GRAPHIC PHOTOS BELOW


Disaster struck today. Two of my welbar pullets managed to get into the turkey pen. I found the gap under the fence and fixed it but this is getting old. Both girls are ok at the moment. They must've been running from the turkeys and got themselves wedged between a tree and the chicken wire. The turkeys couldn't get them there but they were pinned and the rest of the chicken flock must've started picking at them. The one was lucky and only has the tip of her one wing chewed up. Not too bad either. THIS one though, I thought she was dead when I found her. She must've wiggled her head through the chicken wire, trying to get out, which made it a target. She was dripping blood all down her face when I found her and was limp, like she'd given up completely. I even saw her get pecked and she didn't even move. I didn't get a picture of her before I treated her but it was horrific. Her skin is completely ripped from the top of her head, the whole way down the back of her neck and the muscle was even missing a couple chunks. She was picked completely bald and the skin on the right side of her head was pulled forward towards her face, exposing her ear and part of her eye. I cleaned her up the best I could and made some makeshift stitches with a needle and heavy thread. It took 6 of them to pull the skin together down the back of her neck. Her left eye is still good and she'll open it and look around but she's sleeping a lot and not moving much. I know she can though because I took her outside to bluekote her head and an escaped turkey came over to see what was up. She went into a panic trying to escape. Her right eye concerns me. Though it doesn't look like there's any damage to the eye itself, The muscles to open and close her eyelid are most likely torn and ruined. Right now, her eyelid on that side looks stretched back a little since I had to pull her skin back some to connect it with the stitches. I'm using an eyedropper to slowly give her vitamin water. Everyone, please wish me luck with her recovery. She's going to need it.

The first 5 pictures were right after I cleaned her up and stitched her together. The last couple were a couple hours later, after some bluekote and rest.

Be sure to keep a moisterizer on that wound at ALL times until it is healed. I use vaseline. I have had too many experiences of youngsters dying because it dried out, but looked perfectly fine.

 

[BullChick]

I assume everyone that free ranges (or pays attention to the runs) knows the habits of their chickens well enough to know when they are hungry. For my flock, they come barreling at me when they are hungry. For treats, they only come if they see something in my hand. Otherwise, they just take a look and walk away.
I walked outside about an hour ago, and the two mamas came barreling at me with the chicks. Some of the chicks were even leading the way! It was pretty darn funny!
For the life of me, I don't know why they didn't just eat what was inside the coop. Because of the chicks, I do make sure that there is food and water inside. Even if the adults are the ones to eat it, it means that the chicks will be likely to get first dibs on the outside feeders when I open the door.

 

[stake]

She looks purebred CCL to me. Unless your BCM has a lot of recessive genes hiding in him, any of his chicks should be extended black (black penguin chick with white front). EB is dominant over wild-type chick down (and all other types except for dominant white, which neither parent has). The chick does look wheaten or doubled barred over wild type (male autosexing breed). Any chance you got confused and she did not look like that as a chick?

nope....both looked the exact same at hatch...that is the confusion....The BCM is from your line....I have a handful of black colored, slate shanked, dark beaked OEs ....I agree in a mix eWildtype would not be expected....so...the girl in question is alot smaller than the OEs....question, maybe my young girl is mating with a brother??? in my first thought there was a wheaten in the BCM... but no traits have carried forward....is it possible to mix breeds and have no visible traits of one carried forward???

 

[stake]

Thought everyone would like to see the little survivor today. I decided to name her Mira for miracle. She's much, much more alert today (though she doesn't look like it in the first picture) and feeling a bit better. Her head does stink though. Is that normal? I noticed it when I was flushing it.



She's had that eye open all day You can probably see that it's stretched back and there's a wrinkle under it but it still works

Way good job Auro....don't know how I'd have handled it....she's looking pretty pert though!!!!!

 

[OneMountainAcres]

   Be sure to keep a moisterizer on that wound at ALL times until it is healed. I use vaseline. I have had too many experiences of youngsters dying because it dried out, but looked perfectly fine.

Thank you so much! I will get her coated up

Way good job Auro....don't know how I'd have handled it....she's looking pretty pert though!!!!!

Thank you

I'm thinking that I'll leave her stitches in for one week then take them out. What do you all think? I was looking them up last night and for people, the rules are 5 days on the face, 7-10 days on back/torso, and about 14 for legs. Think 7 days will be ok? Remember, it's heavy weight thread. I don't want her to heal in to it. Maybe I should go with 5 days? I don't know.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

I assume everyone that free ranges (or pays attention to the runs) knows the habits of their chickens well enough to know when they are hungry. For my flock, they come barreling at me when they are hungry. For treats, they only come if they see something in my hand. Otherwise, they just take a look and walk away.
I walked outside about an hour ago, and the two mamas came barreling at me with the chicks. Some of the chicks were even leading the way! It was pretty darn funny!
For the life of me, I don't know why they didn't just eat what was inside the coop. Because of the chicks, I do make sure that there is food and water inside. Even if the adults are the ones to eat it, it means that the chicks will be likely to get first dibs on the outside feeders when I open the door.

Mine come running everytime they see me free ranging or not. They are used to getting something all the time weather it's table scraps or treats

 

[dheltzel]

nope....both looked the exact same at hatch...that is the confusion....The BCM is from your line....I have a handful of black colored, slate shanked, dark beaked OEs ....I agree in a mix eWildtype would not be expected....so...the girl in question is alot smaller than the OEs....question, maybe my young girl is mating with a brother??? in my first thought there was a wheaten in the BCM... but no traits have carried forward....is it possible to mix breeds and have no visible traits of one carried forward???

I'm quite sure the BCM's you got from me were very true breeding, so I think the most likely situation is that she is pure CCL, just a bad case of bad autosexing. I had one CCL that I sold as a pullet end up as a roo, so they can be a little ambiguous. I tell people I'm 100% accurate with the autosexing breeds and the black sexlinks, but sometimes they just don't look right. If I had a CCL chick like that, they chances are I would have culled her as a male, so it's possibly more prevalent than I guessed. If it happened here I would not notice, you just happened to.

 

[stake]

I assume everyone that free ranges (or pays attention to the runs) knows the habits of their chickens well enough to know when they are hungry. For my flock, they come barreling at me when they are hungry. For treats, they only come if they see something in my hand. Otherwise, they just take a look and walk away.
I walked outside about an hour ago, and the two mamas came barreling at me with the chicks. Some of the chicks were even leading the way! It was pretty darn funny!
For the life of me, I don't know why they didn't just eat what was inside the coop. Because of the chicks, I do make sure that there is food and water inside. Even if the adults are the ones to eat it, it means that the chicks will be likely to get first dibs on the outside feeders when I open the door.

MCC:

I've found that keeping multiple bowls of food and water makes sure that the lower ranking girls get some...and my girls always come running when I pay a visit........

 

[BullChick]

Did you know it hurts to get coffee in your eye?

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Did you know it hurts to get coffee in your eye?

If anyone else had posted this, it would seem really weird.... lol