So we rescued a flock of silkies tonight...

[djhowe69]

My daughter’s friend from school had a rather tragic incident with her coop. The heat lamp tipped over into the straw bedding and started a huge fire. When her uncle got to the house it was a huge blaze. He opened the door expected to see nothing but a St. Hubert from hell (that’s a joke for any Canadians out there) but instead the bird came blasting out like crazy. All but one of the 16 were burned. 2 were dead in the coop. 13 have varying degrees of scorched feathers. Amazingly, 1 didn’t even getting a spark on her. None of the surviving birds are burned to their skins, there is actually still some feather left where they got too close. So now there’s a dilemma, we already have a flock of our own. Granted between the cold a bad run with foxes my flock has been whittled down to 1 road island red hen and 4 americaunas. One question is, there is some wheezing in the survivors. What kind of treatment can be given to them should they develope respiratory issues? Two, on the scorched birds, they aren’t burned but their feathers are 3/4ths gone, can they still go outside with my old flock? It’s cold in northern NY this time of year and freezing to death after surviving that disaster would really suck for them.
Any advice would be appreciated or any similar stories about horrors like this are welcome.

 

[Pyxis]

Poor things! It sounds like they're suffering from smoke inhalation.

They cannot go out with your flock, because I'm assuming you don't have a heat lamp in your coop (this story illustrates why that's a bad idea) and they are used to the warmth of having the heat, so they will not be acclimated to the cold at all. Moving a healthy bird from warm temperatures to freezing temperatures quickly can be enough to send it into shock and kill it; these guys definitely can't handle that.

So, keep them inside where it's warm. If possible, put them in a quiet, dark place for now, since they might be going into shock from their ordeal and this will help with that.

Tomorrow, I would consider giving them a bath to try to remove the smoke and soot from their feathers.

Hopefully they do not develop respiratory infections due to the smoke inhalation. I'm not sure what would be good for that aside from maybe Baytril or Tetracycline, but both of those would need to come from a vet. Maybe @casportpony could offer advice on that front.

 

[orrpeople]

I agree with Pyxis - the after effects of shock and smoke inhalation could definitely be worse that the actual event. Keeping them calm, warm, and separate from other birds should be your priorities. Poor things.

 

[CapricornFarm]

If they are up and around, i would say water with electrolytes, vitamins and a little sugar. High protein food sources. There was a similar thread not too long ago, if you can find it all the meds suggested would be there. I think the OP was @The Great Eel Man .

 

[djhowe69]

Well, it's almost been a month. The silkies were moved out to the coop after three days cause my wife didn't want the basement to start stinking. Anyway, everybody is still here. They have started to grow their plumage back. Unfortunately, the older hens started their horrible egg eating habit again and half of the silkies are roosters, but they're alive.