Snake Bite

[nairba57]

My young chicken was walking thru some plants with her six buddies. I noticed she was hung up in something. She got loose but I went and looked and a cottonmouth snake had bitten her right foot. She ran away and then started to limp. I dont know what to do, any advice. She lived overnight and walked around today but her foot that was bitten is swollen and turning black. I wanted to know is there anything I can do for her. HELP please.

 

[panner123]

Not much you can do for the chicken.
Put her down isf she starts to show signs of dizziness. And what ever you do DO NOT eat her, for the same snake that killed her could kill you and your family.

 

[gretchen13]

I had a hen get her foot wedged between two rods on my chick cage that I had put in the coop to get the new chicks aquainted with the flock. Anyways, by the time I found her she was upside down hanging by the foot, in shock and had given up trying to free herself. It took some work but I manged to free the foot (after visions of cutting it off and having a peg legged hen). It was slightly cut and bleeding a bit but I let it go. she limped a lot for a day or two and part of it got swollen and a little black but she never showed any other signs of problems. She ate good and kept up with the flock. Months later she is just fine. So keep an eye on her, and she may be OK.

To the person who replied about not eating her. I don't know anything about that breed of snakes, but if it is poisonous; wouldn't eating the eggs be a problem too? I had a hen on antibiotics for a while and was told to keep her separate and not eat her eggs. You may want to do that with your injured hen also.

 

[nairba57]

The snake is extremely poisonous. The chicken is way too young to start laying yet. I am going to keep her boxed up tomorrow and make her stay off of it.

 

[mdbucks]

I may be new your breed of chicken, was it mentioned, either way, if there was not enough venum in the snake bite to kill a 25lb(again wasn't sure what size of chicken you have) do you think after this deadly venum has circulated throuhgout the chickens system that enough of the venum will be present in the egg that comes out to hurt a human? just wondering, any assistance in understanding this venum situation would be greatly appreciated.

My thought was that if there is that much venum present that a human would get sick that the chicken would be dead prior to laying the deadly egg.