Supplements to help Becky heal

[NeeCee51]

OK my Backyard Chicken friends, I have a question about boosting Beckys healing power. Her leg is slowly getting better. The vet is pleased that it is doing as well as it is. I was just wondering if there are any supplements or specific foods I can give her to help the healing along. She is on another 5 days of antibiotics and bandage changes and I would like her to have as much help as possible. If anyone can steer me in the right direction I would really appreciate it. I still can't believe I'm so attached to a chicken!!! Thanks, NeeCeee

 

[chicknmania]

What is wrong with her leg to start with? If she's on antibiotics I'd be careful about giving her too many supplements...just make sure she eats well. Good quality feed and occasionally extra goodies is what we always do for ours. They like all kinds of stuff, and I like to give them chopped fruit or tomato, oatmeal or cottage cheese, just a little on top of their regular food. Mealworms or scrambled eggs or chopped hard boiled eggs are good too. Just something special while they are confined, because I always worry they will get depressed about being confined and quit eating. Why is it hard to believe you are attached to a chicken? They become pets, just like anything else.

Good luck with her. If I am worried about supplementing them with anything when they are sick, sometimes I will just go with a commercial feed that has some extra vitamins in it, something like poultry conditioner, it's soft food and has vitamins and stuff in it, you can get it at TSC and most feed stores. And I just mix a little of the poultry conditioner in their regular food.

 

[Eggcessive]

She probably needs probiotics, since she has been on antibiotics, to get her gut bacteria straightened out. Yogurt can help with that. Feeding her high protein foods such as eggs, tuna, or some gamebird feed would help. Vitamins in the water or Polyvisol baby vitamins 2drops a day may help. Hope she continues to heal.

 

[NeeCee51]

chicknmania, thanks for the info. Becky got a bad infection from never being let out of a cage where she used to live. I felt sorry for her because the man that had her got new chickens and rooster and they attacked her several times and now she has very little comb on her head. So I rescued her. She had scaly leg mites so bad it was awful so my husband and I worked on those and finally got rid of them. She had this hard thing on her right leg that was a hard waxy looking thing so we kept putting petroleum jelly on it and it final let go. My husband was a medic in the military so he has seen a lot of infections and when he seen her leg he told me to get her to the vet. When that thing fell off it degloved her leg and what was left was fascia and muscle. The vet said it had to heal with second intension meaning from the inside out. Of course by this time I am so attached to this little girl that I had to do something. That was 2 months ago. Took her yesterday and it is healing but slow and I have to keep her on antibiotics for another 7 days. She eats them right down, guess she thinks they are a treat. So I just want to help her heal nutritionally if I can. This has been a little on the spendy side since the vet is an Avian Vet. He is very nice and doesn't think I'm crazy.. Thanks for the info I appreciate it since this is my first adventure with chickens..NeeCee

 

[NeeCee51]

Eggcessive, thanks so much. She does like yogurt and oatmeal. I am going to TSC today so I will see what they have for vitamins. I'll be so happy when we don't have to bandage her leg anymore and she can start using it normally....NeeCee

 

[chicknmania]

That's good you got her away from there. Just fyi chicken leg infections like that can take a LONG time to heal. Hopefully hers will heal up quickly. Avian vets can be really pricey...been there, done that.