Reintroducing healed chicken to winter weather

[Goddesskim]

Hi! I have searched and searched, and for the first time I cannot find an answer. So, I have decided to come out of my shell (hehe) a little bit and ask a forum question.
(Side not: hey, thanks BYC community, you have saved my ladies more than once!)

Ok, I have this lovely chicken, "White Chicken" (she was one of my first, when I thought we shouldn't name the chickens. Now I know that if you don't name them they end up with stupid names like White Chicken, Bald Chicken, Giant Boob Chicken...) anyway, she got caught by our dog. She seemed fine, and then she wasn't fine... At all. So, I brought her in to the mudroom in the chicken er and gave her a bath to clean her yuck butt and treated with antibiotics. A few days later and she is almost 100%! Eating, clean bum, tail up and walking around - just not talking yet. I figure she will be in the hospital another week or so, getting the rest of her medicine and some probiotics. But, what then? It's about 14 degrees outside and any acclimation that she has built up to the winter weather will surely be lost!

Can someone advise on what I can do to put her back outside to rock with her flock? She is my second most favorite lady! (Don't tell the others!)

Thanks!
Kim

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC as a poster. I would start putting her out some in the daytime. You could do that now in a crate--maybe they haven't forgotten her yet. Then start letting her out of the cage during the days. The sooner she is out the better. Maybe a heat lamp out there at night for a night or two if she needs a little at first.

 

[Goddesskim]

Thanks! I think the ladies will be fine with her coming back, they have so much space that they really just don't care who is there with them! I was mostly concerned about her going from the toasty 67 degree inside to the frigid tundra outside. Ya know? Don't want her to fully recover just to become a chickenscicle.

 

[DKB70]

I am facing the same issue. My hen was attacked by dogs and I couldn't find her. Miraculously, she was found alive a week later in a shed buried under things in storage...she survived with no food or water in frigid temps for a week!! She has been in the house for about 2 weeks now and is mostly healed. And by in the house, I mean wandering around our house like the cats and dogs do. She loves to nap under the Christmas tree. She also likes to share the dog bed with our lab. She goes in her kennel in the living room at night, but she clearly wants back out by morning. Anyhow, we live in Michigan and it has been bitterly cold with lots of snow. I don't want to just plop her back out in the coop. Should I take her out a little each day for awhile?

 

[Imachicklvr2]

I am dealing with this at the moment too. I have two 16 week old bantams that got coccidiosis in October. I brought them inside to treat them and they are still in my family room

My plan is to put them in my garage with a heat lamp and then slowly start raising the heat lamp over a period of a few of weeks depending on how they seem to be doing and what the temperatures outside are. I don't heat my coop at all (no electricity) so I will probably wait until it is going to be above freezing for a few days and put them out after that. If anyone can see a downside to this plan, please let me know!