Preparing For The Worse, Just In Case. Help and Tips Greatly Welcomed

[DogAndCat36]

So I have been thinking. If something goes bad, I always go on BYC to ask for help. Which by the way you guys are awesome! I love this community so much! But what if I have to do something now. Then and there. I would have to run into my house, type the password on my phone, wait a minute or so to finally get on BYC, and then type and wait for a bit. Possibly 5 to 10 minutes or so in between.
So I am asking for a bit of advice, please.
What do I do if...
My chicken bleeds out, like ALOT
My chicken starts to choke on a giant amount of food
My chicken falls and manages to break its legs
My chicken gets hit very very badly in the head
My chicken gets an eye pecked or even gouged out
My chicken losses its beaks or a part of it (I heard about this possibility)

And my biggest fear
What if my chicken gets a prolapsed vent. I know that I need valsaline or something. But that is all that I know. It is just too horrify to think about one of my girls getting it. I heard that you have to act fast or else you have to get the gun. But it is such a delicate "operation" and I am clumsy and I will most likely be shaky.

 

[Sally PB]

Take a moment (or several) when you have time and google each of the things you're worried about. Chances are VERY good one of the hits will be a BYC thread about that issue. Take notes, bookmark things for more reading later. There are a ton of articles on this site as well. So much info from the collective BYC brain trust! Yes, sometimes it takes a little digging to find, but you're being proactive! Good for you!

 

[NatJ]

The most basic thing in any case: put the chicken somewhere safe where the problem will not get worse, then you often do have time to look it up.

"Safe" means protected from the other chickens, from predators, from dogs and other pets, from children, from temperature extremes or rain or direct sun, etc. A dog crate often works well, but a cardboard box or laundry basket can also work. Inside the house it usually a good choice, but inside the chicken coop or a garage or shed is sometimes better (depends on your exact situation.)

Bleeding a lot: if it's from the comb, let it be (combs just do that.) If it's from anywhere else, try to get it stopped. Same way you'd stop anything else that's bleeding badly.

Choking on food: they will often solve it themselves. Make sure they have access to water, and let them get on with it. If a chicken is repeatedly swallowing something long (like a blade of grass), you could cut off the part that's hanging out, and then it'll finish swallowing it. The only time I ever helped a chicken, it was trying to swallow a T-shaped piece of tough meat--one part going down, two sides stuck across the beak. I held the chicken, my Mom pulled the piece out, that was that. I have had hundreds of chickens over the years, fed lots of weeds and table scraps, and never had one actually choke to death. So it might happen, but is not common.

Break legs: dispatch chicken, cook & eat.

Hit on head: let it lie somewhere safe until it recovers, or until you get impatient and kill it. While it's lying there, you'll have time to ask for further advice.

Eye, beak: put the chicken somewhere safe, provide food and water, wait for it to heal. For the beak, add water to chicken food to make a mush that's easy to eat. Or dispatch the chicken, then eat it. Again, after you put it somewhere safe, you'll have enough time to come ask for more advice.

Prolapsed vent: put the chicken somewhere safe, then come look for advice. Safe might mean a dog crate in the house, with a clean towel for "bedding," because you want the vent to stay clean. An hour doing research isn't going to make much difference, as long as she's not being picked on or getting dirty during that hour.

For any of those: you could search, and read appropriate threads, and make a list of what information seems useful. You could even print it out and put in a binder for easy reference, if you like.

Many of those problems are relatively rare, but we hear about even the rare things on here because so many people come to ask questions. So there is a good chance you will never see some of the things on that list (although I cannot tell in advance which ones you will or will not see.)

 

[Trisseh]

Most of these things, if the bird dies in the short period of time it takes for you to come on and get some info, most likely it would not survive regardless no matter what you do, even if rushed to an emerg clinic. @NatJ gave you some excellent tips. Maybe save a copy of her list in your phone notes or somewhere else easy and quick to access. You can also troll the boards and see if you can find good threads about each of the things you’re worried about, and screenshot and save pertinent info. I have a compendium (drug index) on my phone and I save dosing info and other useful information for quick access when I need it. Contrary to most belief, broken bones are not even considered a true emergency if there isn’t involvement of organs and no compound fractures where pieces are sticking through the skin. In some of these situations, you’d be best to stabilize the bird as well as you can and get to a vet if at all possible. If that’s not a possibility then you stabilize the bird and come looking for help.

 

[ackie]

Take a moment (or several) when you have time and google each of the things you're worried about. Chances are VERY good one of the hits will be a BYC thread about that issue. Take notes, bookmark things for more reading later. There are a ton of articles on this site as well. So much info from the collective BYC brain trust! Yes, sometimes it takes a little digging to find, but you're being proactive! Good for you!

I second this. I found BYC by googling various problems when I was experiencing them and ending up here more than a few times. I finally made an account when my question wasnt answered.

Imo the first steps of anything is usually stop bleeding and get the bird warm. I'm actually not sure how to clear a blocked airway in a bird but that's the only time I can imagine bleeding and warmth maybe not being first.

 

[azygous]

Oh my. You do have a lot of concerns. Yes, it's possible any of those thing could occur. Your house could suffer a direct meteor hit, too, but the probability is low. Same with these chicken calamities you envision. But I understand your wanting to be prepared if you encounter them.

The first one - bleeding. Chickens bleed heavily from combs and wattles, but not so much from injuries to other parts of their bodies, and comb and wattle injuries are almost always minor.

Choking. That has happened to a hen of mine and I was there when it happened. She choked on a cherry tomato and couldn't breathe. She panicked and ran, then collapsed. I picked her up and shook her in an up and down motion, and that dislodged the obstruction. You can also hold the chicken upside down and do some jiggling and gravity would dislodge the obstruction in most cases.

Head injuries are not usually survivable since brain damage almost always occurs. You would need to resign yourself to put the chicken out of their misery.

Broken legs can be splinted in many cases and a chicken often recovers, but in other cases, the injury can slowly kill the chicken. Just recently I had a three-month old pullet injure a leg, and she went into a steady decline and had to be euthanized.

An eye injury is usually treatable with saline eye wash and Neosporin ointment. If the eye gets pecked out, the treatment would be the same as a minor injury. Chickens can survive just fine being blind in one eye. I have a twelve-year old hen that is blind in one eye, and she still rules the flock.

The last one is one you do need to be prepared for. While prolapse and other reproductive crisises are scary, they are all treatable. Here's a new article I wrote on this very subject that will prepare you for this. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ng-from-vent-prolapse-oh-my-what-to-do.76124/

 

[ackie]

I tend to go immediately for a cardboard box or tote in the house. If they are in this kind of bad shape, they're not going anywhere. When they start getting better, then I bring in a dog crate. It's too far away and too heavy for me to bother with if the bird is dying in the next hour haha.

 

[DogAndCat36]

The most basic thing in any case: put the chicken somewhere safe where the problem will not get worse, then you often do have time to look it up.

"Safe" means protected from the other chickens, from predators, from dogs and other pets, from children, from temperature extremes or rain or direct sun, etc. A dog crate often works well, but a cardboard box or laundry basket can also work. Inside the house it usually a good choice, but inside the chicken coop or a garage or shed is sometimes better (depends on your exact situation.)

Bleeding a lot: if it's from the comb, let it be (combs just do that.) If it's from anywhere else, try to get it stopped. Same way you'd stop anything else that's bleeding badly.

Choking on food: they will often solve it themselves. Make sure they have access to water, and let them get on with it. If a chicken is repeatedly swallowing something long (like a blade of grass), you could cut off the part that's hanging out, and then it'll finish swallowing it. The only time I ever helped a chicken, it was trying to swallow a T-shaped piece of tough meat--one part going down, two sides stuck across the beak. I held the chicken, my Mom pulled the piece out, that was that. I have had hundreds of chickens over the years, fed lots of weeds and table scraps, and never had one actually choke to death. So it might happen, but is not common.

Break legs: dispatch chicken, cook & eat.

Hit on head: let it lie somewhere safe until it recovers, or until you get impatient and kill it. While it's lying there, you'll have time to ask for further advice.

Eye, beak: put the chicken somewhere safe, provide food and water, wait for it to heal. For the beak, add water to chicken food to make a mush that's easy to eat. Or dispatch the chicken, then eat it. Again, after you put it somewhere safe, you'll have enough time to come ask for more advice.

Prolapsed vent: put the chicken somewhere safe, then come look for advice. Safe might mean a dog crate in the house, with a clean towel for "bedding," because you want the vent to stay clean. An hour doing research isn't going to make much difference, as long as she's not being picked on or getting dirty during that hour.

For any of those: you could search, and read appropriate threads, and make a list of what information seems useful. You could even print it out and put in a binder for easy reference, if you like.

Many of those problems are relatively rare, but we hear about even the rare things on here because so many people come to ask questions. So there is a good chance you will never see some of the things on that list (although I cannot tell in advance which ones you will or will not see.)

Thank you so much for the advice!

I do not want to eat my chickens if they die though, just saying.

 

[NatJ]

I do not want to eat my chickens if they die though, just saying.

I was just anticipating the next common question, whether it's safe for a person to eat a chicken with [insert problem here].

If you don't want to eat them, then that's fine too. I know it's not for everyone.