Shackled!

[SilkieNation]

I don't know where to put this, but it was so weird that I want to put it somewhere.

The bale of straw I currently have has 6-8 inch pieces of baling twine in it - a string obviously got cut up with the straw. I've been picking it up just in case someone would think it's edible... This morning I noticed my rooster was walking oddly, as if his leg was quite hurt. When I inspected it, I found that he had been fully shackled by one of these pieces of twine! The threads were tightly wrapped around a right toe, and tightly wrapped around a left toe with about three inches of twine in between. It was bizarre! I think he had a piece of poo on his foot that the twine stuck to in the first place. It looked like it may have been there for a few days and finally got wrapped around enough so that he couldn't lift his leg up all of the way. Poor thing! I guess the lesson here is to keep your chicken areas free of weird stuff that might injure them, get ingested, or get attached to them!

 

[chooks4life]

Accidents happen for sure, no matter how careful one is. Some animals are also very accident prone, too.

I think it's also a lesson to eyeball each chook each day. So many potentially fatal issues can be (and are) nipped in the bud if one just checks each chook every day. But that's easier said than done with enormous flocks. Still, even when my flock gets very large, I do a check on them at least once a day.

Best wishes.

 

[SilkieNation]

Yes that's good advice. I have a teeny tiny flock, so checking daily is easy.

 

[chooks4life]

Also entertaining if you like 'chook TV' lol.

Oh, and educational, there's always something new to learn and see.

Best wishes.

 

[SilkieNation]

A one time thing I'm hoping! I'll admit it was slightly amusing...

 

[chooks4life]

All's well that ends well.

Sometimes you get a real tangle combined with a bird that is hellbent on removing it and that's often the worst case scenario, instead of mainly ignoring it, they can slice open their feet and even get their heads stuck in the tangle and do themselves serious harm in a matter of moments, even kill themselves. It's good you noticed when you did.

Best wishes.

 

[SilkieNation]

That sounds absolutely horrible! My roo is pretty calm, unless he's in a mood to seriously hurt me. I've been lucky and in nine years never had an injury. Maybe he just took it as a little arthritis, a sign of old age, a pair of socks that didn't fit quite right...

 

[chooks4life]

lol yes they can be so blase about some things sometimes, it does raise questions.