Silkie (11 weeks old) with a possible open wing fracture -- pics now posted! (might be a little grap

[buttonhead]

Hey everyone…. So I’m dealing with my first chicken injury, and I don’t know who is more traumatized, me or the chicken.

My sweet girl Dresdy (who is of course at the bottom of the pecking order) has an open fracture of her wing. L I noticed on Friday that she had a lot of poop on her back and wing area, which she was holding a little awkwardly. I asked my husband if he’d looked closely at her, and he thought it was just poop. I figured that she walked under the area where the other girls were roosting or something. So, Saturday morning I let the flock out and I decided that Miss Dresdy at the very least needed a bath. So I grabbed her and threw her in the kitchen sink… she had even more poop on her, poor thing. So I started washing away all of the poop, which she tolerated pretty well. I noticed that she was still holding her wing awkwardly even after I’d rinsed away anything that could be causing her wing to get stuck. Then, to my horror, I saw what looked to be the end of her bone sticking out. I tried to get a better look, but when I moved her wing too much, she started to struggle. I figure that she probably fell backwards off of her roost and hurt it while flailing around – she’s extremely clumsy.

I washed the area thoroughly, rinsed with hydrogen peroxide and smeared her with antibiotic ointment. I crushed half a baby aspirin and put it in her water with some sugar and have been feeding her scrambled eggs, a large ratio of ultra kibble and mealworms. She’s been a model houseguest and has been eating and drinking lots, and seems happy enough - she’s been scratching and making happy noises. Dresdy is probably loving that she doesn’t have to compete for food and water right now. I’ve seen that some people have amputated their chicken’s wings that have been similarly injured. Believe it or not, she seems like she can use the wing more or less. I need to get a better look at it, but my husband has been working a lot and it seems more like a 2 person job so that she doesn’t struggle.

She's been isolated for two days and so far appears to be okay... but I don't know if I should take further measures. I can't afford to take her to the vet, so anything I do will have to be on my own. :-/

Any other thoughts? Has anyone else had a similar experience?

 

[buttonhead]

Okay, I now have some photos.

I think there's a possibility that the wing might not be broken, but with the end of the bone sticking out like it is, it looks like it. She still tries to flap it and struggle when I'm cleaning it out and putting more antibiotic ointment on. So I'm thinking that since she can still move it, that's a good prognosis.

I'm hopeful about it today, because when I first noticed the injury, it looked like more of the bone was sticking out and the end of it was actually dry. When I looked at it today, it is bleeding a little and it looks like some tissue is trying to form around it.

I bought some Blu-Kote, which I see people seem to use. I'm a little worried about using it on the open wound right on the bone though. Has anyone done that before??

I took her outside for a little while this afternoon so she could see her friends (through the fence, of course - I didn't want to risk them picking at her). She was happy to scratch around and be a normal chicken and was not happy to be brought back inside. I'd put her out there in a dog crate, but with her open wound, I don't want flies getting into it.

Anyway, here are the photos.. they aren't very good because I have no one to help me at the moment and all I have is my cell phone camera.



This is after I trimmed away some of the feathers, so you can kind of see the wound positioning.



A closer image of the wound



Hanging her upside down seemed to offer me the best angle to document her injury.



Now I'm kind of wondering if maybe it isn't broken and she got it from the other birds pecking at her? Seems pretty severe for something like that, but I guess it's possible.

I wrapped her wing with vet tape, because she seemed to be pecking at the wound once I put the ointment on it. Do they make cones of shame for chickens??