Théo and the chickens des Sauches

[fuentemoon]

Yes, me too.
We realized that the cats having totally free access to their feed in a separate storage room means it took us two days before we realized he wasn't eating.
Then again, if they had still been complete outdoor cats, it would probably have taken us two or three more days to notice there was a problem.

Unfortunately this means we won't be taking Piou-piou to the vet. My partner will have almost 7 hours of vet driving this week and next week he has again to drive his mum twice for health reasons to town. It's not often that I wish I could drive / blame myself for failing to learn but it would be really helpful in this case.

Its never too late
I was forced to learn to drive in my teens and hated it. I finally got my licence when i was 32. I needed to be able to drive to art & craft shows to sell my work, and my partner was working full time. I still don't love it, but happy to have the ability.

 

[ManueB]

The clinic called us back. The good news is that the cat's blood tests were normal and the PCR negatives. This eliminates most bacterias or viruses he could have gotten from the tick, or from the cat's bite a few weeks ago. However, he's very weak and they don't know what is wrong with him. They are keeping him on the IV for the night and told us to call back tomorrow morning.
*********
Freezing this morning: -4/24, and as it was wet it all turned to white. It was beautiful in the morning but we had a little rain in the afternoon, at last !

The ex-batts and Théo still managed to dustbathe in the morning but were scared in the afternoon and spent most of it under the laurel tree. Théo kept making loud alarm calls while we were finishing to plant the potatoes on the other side of the garden, so we sprinted several times back to them, but saw nothing.

Merle and Léa laid in the coop as soon as I opened it. I tried to let Gaston's team handle on their own getting out of the coop, as they had roosted successfully the night before without me, but it didn't work and Théo and Gaston went into a fight. Then several times throughout the day both teams mingled, sometimes peacefully and sometimes not.
At noon I was cooking inside and I heard a small toc-toc on the door. I opened thinking maybe it was a shy new mailman - and it was Blanche! The roosters must have fought and made the netting fall and all the ex-batts were loose .

Léa and Merle now want to be able to go in the coop whenever they like, but Gaston is still afraid that Théo will harm them.

I put up a tent for Piou-piou so she could be on the grass and move around and scratch a bit. I stayed half an hour with her, but she kept trying to dustbathe and i'm not sure it's not a problem for her wound. She also laid early this morning.

 

[ManueB]

Its never too late
I was forced to learn to drive in my teens and hated it. I finally got my licence when i was 32. I needed to be able to drive to art & craft shows to sell my work, and my partner was working full time. I still don't love it, but happy to have the ability.

I took lessons before we came here for two years. After about 70 hours and a few thousand euros less I switched to supervised driving. All that was a total failure. I was 40 then and though age did not help, I think I am just one of those people who would be a danger driving.

 

[RoyalChick]

As you won't be taking her to the vet let me weigh in a bit on the wound. Most of you on here know more about chickens than I do. But I do know quite a lot about wounds.
From what I can see of the wound it is not a penetrating wound. Hopefully that is correct. A penetrating wound can introduce infection deep in the body and is complicated.

I am happy to look at more pictures but nothing I have seen so far looks like it is penetrating. That is good news and it really should heal on its own. Air flow is important to this kind of wound healing and keeping an eye on pockets of infection.

The skin flaps surrounding it will turn black and drop off. If it were easier to handle her I would say you could cut them off with sterile scissors but there is no need. The risk is that they enable infection to settle under the flaps so whenever you are tending the wound I would try and irrigate under those skin flaps. Try and keep the worst of the dirt off it (more or less impossible in a chicken I know), and look for expanding areas of redness or swelling that would indicate infection.

And recognize that wound healing taxes the body - so some electrolytes, extra protein, reduced stress are all good.

There are things you will have access too that can accelerate wound healing - honey for example - but I am operating on the assumption that a lot of handling isn't going to work.

It is good to monitor progress - so mark outside the edges of the wound - maybe even trim some feathers on the outer sides so you have some stable landmarks. Take a picture every day so you can assess if it is filling in or getting worse.

 

[RoyalChick]

On Shad's thread you said it smelled bad - that is not a good sign I will admit. What does it smell like?
Dry gangrene from the skin flaps can smell but typically doesn't.

 

[MaryJanet]

I took lessons before we came here for two years. After about 70 hours and a few thousand euros less I switched to supervised driving. All that was a total failure. I was 40 then and though age did not help, I think I am just one of those people who would be a danger driving.

I was lucky, I learned young and now I have a feeling for traffic and safety. I can see why learning late is much harder. If you feel you're not safe, it's very wise to not drive. What about an electric bike? I rode one years ago and loved it!

 

[ManueB]

As you won't be taking her to the vet let me weigh in a bit on the wound. Most of you on here know more about chickens than I do. But I do know quite a lot about wounds.
From what I can see of the wound it is not a penetrating wound. Hopefully that is correct. A penetrating wound can introduce infection deep in the body and is complicated.

I am happy to look at more pictures but nothing I have seen so far looks like it is penetrating. That is good news and it really should heal on its own. Air flow is important to this kind of wound healing and keeping an eye on pockets of infection.

The skin flaps surrounding it will turn black and drop off. If it were easier to handle her I would say you could cut them off with sterile scissors but there is no need. The risk is that they enable infection to settle under the flaps so whenever you are tending the wound I would try and irrigate under those skin flaps. Try and keep the worst of the dirt off it (more or less impossible in a chicken I know), and look for expanding areas of redness or swelling that would indicate infection.

And recognize that wound healing taxes the body - so some electrolytes, extra protein, reduced stress are all good.

There are things you will have access too that can accelerate wound healing - honey for example - but I am operating on the assumption that a lot of handling isn't going to work.

It is good to monitor progress - so mark outside the edges of the wound - maybe even trim some feathers on the outer sides so you have some stable landmarks. Take a picture every day so you can assess if it is filling in or getting worse.

On Shad's thread you said it smelled bad - that is not a good sign I will admit. What does it smell like?
Dry gangrene from the skin flaps can smell but typically doesn't.

Thank you so much for weighing in @RoyalChick.
I have been taking pictures every day. On one side of the wound it is clean and feathers growing back, but on the side where I took off the black dirty scabs, it has formed another ugly looking scab over it.
It has become easier to handle her now.
The wound smells like raw meat beginning to turn bad, I think. I'm not used to the smell of meat and pretty sensitive to it so I can't say how bad.

 

[ManueB]

I was lucky, I learned young and now I have a feeling for traffic and safety. I can see why learning late is much harder. If you feel you're not safe, it's very wise to not drive. What about an electric bike? I rode one years ago and loved it!

I used to do everything by bike but here the last three km to our house go up on a 12% steep road which is rather dissuasive. It takes me 40 mn walking up and 35mn on the bike (20mn by car).

Carrying a pet carrier isn't very convenient on the bike!

 

[ManueB]

A quick update. Piou-piou has a vet appointment on wednesday morning, earliest I could get. The scab is beginning to come off. I smelled carefully and it's not the wound that smells bad, it's the whole hen, I suppose that is not good. Still eating, laying, screaming and most of all wanting to join her rooster. It was the first time my partner carried her out of the crate to clean her, and she managed to escape to Gaston! I thought we would never catch her, but she came to me for sunflower seeds. She's becoming more trusting.
*****
The clinic told us to take Grochatila home this afternoon as he ate a bit this morning and he was too stressed to stay there. The echography showed nothing, the vet said the most likely diagnosis was inflammation of the bile duct, cholangitis. His attitude is much more normal but he looks weak and terrible, and he ate a little.
Two of the meds are liquid, so if anyone has great tips for syringing liquid into an unwilling cat, I'm all ears.
*****
And an interesting new about the healthy chickens : Théo ran away from Gaston this morning, leaving him in the coop with both Léa and Cannelle. Of course Chipie is showing a sudden new interest in Gaston .

Léa and Cannelle in the same nest, another first.

 

[RoyalChick]

I will be interested in hearing what the vet thinks of the wound. I know you and others have been a bit doom-and-gloom over it.
Smell is not a good sign - but smell of rotten infection is quite unmistakably awful and you have not described that really.
It is possible she has a collection of nasty smelly pus inside which would not be good. Don't laugh - but does she actually smell worse than the other chickens?

And I am hoping for the best for the cat. I cannot imagine how to give a liquid to an unwilling cat. How big a volume? Could you soak it up in bread and give the bread like a pill? Not an easy thing to do anyway!

I give powders by mixing them with butter and smearing it on their feet so they clean it all off - but I don't see that working for a liquid.

What did the vet suggest?

Is it a liquid that can be injected? Injecting a cat under the skin is surprisingly easy compared to giving them medicine by mouth.

Hoping for the best for all of you!