Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[bruceha2000]

If it doesn't work one morning that's a risk I'm willing to take.

For your consideration:

I don't know anything about the unit you are getting but my PulletShut runs on 12V. There are 2 options including 120V grid power and a solar panel that charges their battery. Not knowing if I had enough sun for that to work and having no power in the barn when I got the door I stole 2 standard 6V lantern batteries from a lantern that uses 4. They lasted 9 months and I replaced them with the other 2 which lasted another 9 months. I think I'm pushing 2 years on most recent 2 alkaline batteries. Your door may use more or less power than mine to operate twice a day. If your door is 12V you could use a standard car battery but it would be a lot heavier, though rechargeable.

 

[ManueB]

That wound doesn't look any better than it did when I answered on your thread. No wonder it stinks. Clean means no necrotic tissue, no dirt, no bits of flesh hanging off unless the wound is to be stitched.
You need to take her to a vet. You need to do it now. It doesn't even need to be an avian vet. Any vet should be able to clean a wound like that.

Chickens with an infection can seem fine for days and then one day they are not. Do not judge her health by her demeanor. There is obviously a problem and the vast majority of the time a smell from a wound means it's infected. Sometimes, rarely, the smell can just be lack of proper cleaning and dirt is rotting in the necrotic tissue.

I do not at this stage think this is something you and your partner can deal with adequately.

Assuming she lives she will need a large run built for her so she can be outside and moving around, preferably within sight of the other chickens. She must not be left alone with roosters until the wound is properly healed. Dink was living with me for a couple of weeks after a hawk ripped a very deep gash in her back and after that a further week in the run I made for her.

I mention in my coop article that everyone who keeps chickens should have an isolation coop and the coop should have a run. You should consider this a priority imo given you free range and have a high predator load.

You need to check all the hens carefully in case one has even a small cut on her body under the wing. Often it is the roosters spur getting caught in a cut that rips the flesh off like the hens been skinned.
Obviously you need to do the roosters toe nails and spurs. The toe nails just need smoothing. The spurs need perhaps 1mm filed off round. All these checks, including the spurs and toenails would take you and your partner a couple of hours at night using a headtorch.

@ManueB

This hen had a 5cm square patch ripped of her breat by a hawk. I caught her seconds after the attack. You can see sticking out on her right hand side the falp of skin I couldn't stitch. The main wound was cleaned, disinfected and then covered in this,
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...s-and-injuries-with-stockholm-hoof-tar.74400/ She was back with her tribe the next morning.
View attachment 3456824

This was Pinch. She took a full strike from a hawk. Unfortunately, despite being able to clean the wounds it seems likely her spine and perhaps other internal organs got damaged in the strike. She died after hanging on for eleven days.
View attachment 3456822

This is Mel. She fought off a hawk to save her chick. Gloria my vet stitched this wound, The skin was hanging off when I found her.
View attachment 3456841
These are two very bad pictures of under wing injuries. The first caused by a roosters spur. Again the wound was cleaned and Stockholme Hoof Tar applied.
View attachment 3456823
This one was from a hawk attack.
View attachment 3456821

Something like this for your injured hen would be fine. It doesn't take long to make.
View attachment 3456825

There are more injury pictures in my articles.

Thank you very much for your advice and taking the time to explain. I'll do all I can to have my partner take her to a vet but since he's working in the next three days and he has to take his mother to the hospital it won't be for a while. We have a safe place to put her in the wood shed now, it's just not on grass but on dirt. We could also separate her in the actual coop's run. But if I get the seriousness of it we should not let her in the dirt now to dustbathe.

We have checked all the hens and there is no other injury. We have also began filing Gaston's nail. They are not very long or pointed compared to the other roo, so I thing the weight was the main issue. We did only a little thinking to do it progressively, would it be better to do more and do it all at once ?

Edited to add that vets won't see chickens here unless they have a new company animals or an avian specialty, even for elementary care.

 

[lightm]

@ManueB
I am sorry about Piou Piou. You may remember my chicken Light was injured the same way. We also did not realize about her wound until days later.

I think you can simply cut off her dead skin with disinfected scissors. This is what I did to Light. We were also applying antibiotic ointment on the wound after cleaning. We did basic stuff and kept her in the house (for the most part) for 6 weeks.

PiouPiou is such a fighter that I am still hoping she will heal completely.

 

[lightm]

Foxy hugs her human "mama" every day. She is forever a baby.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Good Morning X Batts.
I was at the hospital in the morning yesterday.
Cleared since 1985, I have been cancer free.
View attachment 3456643

@pennyJo1960 That is great to hear.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

Temperature is in the 70s.

Have a great day!

 

[Shadrach]

For your consideration:

I don't know anything about the unit you are getting but my PulletShut runs on 12V. There are 2 options including 120V grid power and a solar panel that charges their battery. Not knowing if I had enough sun for that to work and having no power in the barn when I got the door I stole 2 standard 6V lantern batteries from a lantern that uses 4. They lasted 9 months and I replaced them with the other 2 which lasted another 9 months. I think I'm pushing 2 years on most recent 2 alkaline batteries. Your door may use more or less power than mine to operate twice a day. If your door is 12V you could use a standard car battery but it would be a lot heavier, though rechargeable.

This unit runs on 6 Volts. I doubt it draws much current; a couple of amps max.
There is a battery check display and a warning light. I'm stuck with batteries really. I could knock up a solar powered system but it's just something else to go wrong. I'm told the alkaline batteries last over a year. The only problem I can see with the system is the cord they supply from the control box to the door. I'll replace it with some fishing line at some point.
I'm going to try and get it fitted tomorrow.

 

[Shadrach]

Thank you very much for your advice and taking the time to explain. I'll do all I can to have my partner take her to a vet but since he's working in the next three days and he has to take his mother to the hospital it won't be for a while. We have a safe place to put her in the wood shed now, it's just not on grass but on dirt. We could also separate her in the actual coop's run. But if I get the seriousness of it we should not let her in the dirt now to dustbathe.

We have checked all the hens and there is no other injury. We have also began filing Gaston's nail. They are not very long or pointed compared to the other roo, so I thing the weight was the main issue. We did only a little thinking to do it progressively, would it be better to do more and do it all at once ?

Edited to add that vets won't see chickens here unless they have a new company animals or an avian specialty, even for elementary care.

You know me. I expect the world to stop turning when it comes to chickens.
I would just get in there and get the job done in one hit. It's not a great job to be doing. The roosters usually act up. I've wrapped a couple in a towel when they've been very uncooperative.

I was very lucky in Catalonia. If I spoke to Gloria the vet rather than a receptionist I got an appointment that evening. Half hour drive over the next mountain and I'm there. As I watched Gloria do stuff I needed to go less and less. There were a lot of injuries. Free rangers in the kind of environment you have and I had get injured like children playing in the countryside. Usually not serious but someone would need something done every couple of weeks even if it was nest hunting and pickup.

 

[Shadrach]

Sunny and almost warm with April showers. Two and a half hours out today.

They came into the run while I was working on the fenceline. They seem to like the run from the small coop. I'm going to knock up another from the panels from the old coop. The run in the picture has too much rot in it.

 

[bruceha2000]

This unit runs on 6 Volts. I doubt it draws much current; a couple of amps max.

Does it use four 1.5V batteries? You could use a single 6V lantern battery, they have a LOT more capacity than AAA, AA, C, D batteries.