TL;DR: Yesterday was not a good day. (things are handled, but just wanted to share)

JustSarahThanks

Songster
Jun 24, 2020
194
548
186
Portland, Oregon
The short of it is one of my 13 week old pullets apparently broke her right wing in two places.

I went in to do my morning chicken-check(in) and took one look at little Goga and something was very obviously not right. She was standing weirdly off by herself, her wings were hanging kind of strangely, and when I offered food the other three went bananas for it as they always do and she just wanted to be left alone, and was making very sad little murmuring sounds. I went inside and told Connor and he came outside with me. I picked her up and she didn't make any kind of fuss at being picked up, perched on my arm kind of rigidly, and then tried to fly off of it suddenly and kinda... flopped. Whee, time to go to emergency! My poor hapless chicken, this is the second emergency visit we've had with her.

The abbreviated version of the vet visit was the DVM did her exam and noticed that there was a lot of free mobility in her right wing, and troublingly at the top of her humerus near where it connects to the shoulder. The vet said that at least in a dog or cat that kind of fracture (if it is that) usually requires surgery. In birds it's a pneumatic bone so those sometimes don't heal as easily as the nonpneumatic bones. They gave her butorphanol for pain/sedation, took xrays, and yes, that bone is snapped kind of nastily and not in alignment but she also apparently fractured her ulna. They did a wing wrap, stabilizing the wing to the side of her body, prescribed meloxicam tablets and advised me to schedule a follow up appointment in about a week at the avian vet for re-wrapping the wing and determining a plan for follow up xrays, etc.

Fast forward several hours and my little hapless chicken is back at home but completely unsure how to make her body move with her wing bandaged against her side. We made her a little convalescing cage using a dog crate placed in the shed half of which is the coop so that she and her sisters can see each other, put down a soft towel and set up the chick waterer and little food dispensing flying saucer-thing, plus a chick perch I bought for their brooder to get their feet to learn how to grip when they were small. As she was waking up from the sedation she mostly lay on her (good) side quietly, still making sad little murmurs, but would periodically kind of lurch upward and backward like she just doesn't really know how to move her body with this wing wrap. This kind of results in her flopping on her back and panicking. Really the only time I could get her to really settle back down is when I took her out of the cage and just had her rest on my chest or stomach while laying back and gently cradling her with my hands. Incidentally that's not a long term solution for her getting healed up, though. I gave her the first dose of her meloxicam last night and decided to move her to our cat carrier with a towel bundled in it for the night because it was smaller and had smooth, rounded sides rather than sharp corners just to hopefully minimize the chances of her hurting herself more while flopping around.

She's back in the dog crate now and I think I sorted out a little set up for her that is comfortable using that little perch-thing (it's this if anyone's curious) partially covered in a towel so that her feet can grip one of the lower dowel things and the upper one can support her breast. I placed that so she's within easy reach of her food, water and grit. She seems to periodically still do the weird lurching/thrashing thing and flop over onto her back but my hope it's just a learning thing, eventually she'll sort out that legs do still work like legs even when one's wing is immobilized against one's body. And I'm a little hesitant to just rush in there to pick her up and set her back each time because I want her to learn how to do it herself, but it's also the first day so I'm also thinking she might need a little more gentle TLC and getting set back in place.

Anyway, mostly sharing because it's been kind of rough here in this household. I'm hoping she'll be OK but we'll see what the long term plan looks like when we bring her to the avian vet next Sunday (or, sooner if she really takes a bad turn or gets her wrap wet or covered in poop so we need to change it sooner). I'd be curious to hear how folks who've had birds recover from wing fractures handled these sorts of home care things and how the healing process went. We have no idea what specifically happened that caused this so we're going to revamp the coop and especially if she never regains full wing function, how to make it ADA accessible.
 

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The short of it is one of my 13 week old pullets apparently broke her right wing in two places.

I went in to do my morning chicken-check(in) and took one look at little Goga and something was very obviously not right. She was standing weirdly off by herself, her wings were hanging kind of strangely, and when I offered food the other three went bananas for it as they always do and she just wanted to be left alone, and was making very sad little murmuring sounds. I went inside and told Connor and he came outside with me. I picked her up and she didn't make any kind of fuss at being picked up, perched on my arm kind of rigidly, and then tried to fly off of it suddenly and kinda... flopped. Whee, time to go to emergency! My poor hapless chicken, this is the second emergency visit we've had with her.

The abbreviated version of the vet visit was the DVM did her exam and noticed that there was a lot of free mobility in her right wing, and troublingly at the top of her humerus near where it connects to the shoulder. The vet said that at least in a dog or cat that kind of fracture (if it is that) usually requires surgery. In birds it's a pneumatic bone so those sometimes don't heal as easily as the nonpneumatic bones. They gave her butorphanol for pain/sedation, took xrays, and yes, that bone is snapped kind of nastily and not in alignment but she also apparently fractured her ulna. They did a wing wrap, stabilizing the wing to the side of her body, prescribed meloxicam tablets and advised me to schedule a follow up appointment in about a week at the avian vet for re-wrapping the wing and determining a plan for follow up xrays, etc.

Fast forward several hours and my little hapless chicken is back at home but completely unsure how to make her body move with her wing bandaged against her side. We made her a little convalescing cage using a dog crate placed in the shed half of which is the coop so that she and her sisters can see each other, put down a soft towel and set up the chick waterer and little food dispensing flying saucer-thing, plus a chick perch I bought for their brooder to get their feet to learn how to grip when they were small. As she was waking up from the sedation she mostly lay on her (good) side quietly, still making sad little murmurs, but would periodically kind of lurch upward and backward like she just doesn't really know how to move her body with this wing wrap. This kind of results in her flopping on her back and panicking. Really the only time I could get her to really settle back down is when I took her out of the cage and just had her rest on my chest or stomach while laying back and gently cradling her with my hands. Incidentally that's not a long term solution for her getting healed up, though. I gave her the first dose of her meloxicam last night and decided to move her to our cat carrier with a towel bundled in it for the night because it was smaller and had smooth, rounded sides rather than sharp corners just to hopefully minimize the chances of her hurting herself more while flopping around.

She's back in the dog crate now and I think I sorted out a little set up for her that is comfortable using that little perch-thing (it's this if anyone's curious) partially covered in a towel so that her feet can grip one of the lower dowel things and the upper one can support her breast. I placed that so she's within easy reach of her food, water and grit. She seems to periodically still do the weird lurching/thrashing thing and flop over onto her back but my hope it's just a learning thing, eventually she'll sort out that legs do still work like legs even when one's wing is immobilized against one's body. And I'm a little hesitant to just rush in there to pick her up and set her back each time because I want her to learn how to do it herself, but it's also the first day so I'm also thinking she might need a little more gentle TLC and getting set back in place.

Anyway, mostly sharing because it's been kind of rough here in this household. I'm hoping she'll be OK but we'll see what the long term plan looks like when we bring her to the avian vet next Sunday (or, sooner if she really takes a bad turn or gets her wrap wet or covered in poop so we need to change it sooner). I'd be curious to hear how folks who've had birds recover from wing fractures handled these sorts of home care things and how the healing process went. We have no idea what specifically happened that caused this so we're going to revamp the coop and especially if she never regains full wing function, how to make it ADA accessible.


So sorry!! Praying for a speedy recovery!! ❤❤❤🐓🐓
 
The short of it is one of my 13 week old pullets apparently broke her right wing in two places.

I went in to do my morning chicken-check(in) and took one look at little Goga and something was very obviously not right. She was standing weirdly off by herself, her wings were hanging kind of strangely, and when I offered food the other three went bananas for it as they always do and she just wanted to be left alone, and was making very sad little murmuring sounds. I went inside and told Connor and he came outside with me. I picked her up and she didn't make any kind of fuss at being picked up, perched on my arm kind of rigidly, and then tried to fly off of it suddenly and kinda... flopped. Whee, time to go to emergency! My poor hapless chicken, this is the second emergency visit we've had with her.

The abbreviated version of the vet visit was the DVM did her exam and noticed that there was a lot of free mobility in her right wing, and troublingly at the top of her humerus near where it connects to the shoulder. The vet said that at least in a dog or cat that kind of fracture (if it is that) usually requires surgery. In birds it's a pneumatic bone so those sometimes don't heal as easily as the nonpneumatic bones. They gave her butorphanol for pain/sedation, took xrays, and yes, that bone is snapped kind of nastily and not in alignment but she also apparently fractured her ulna. They did a wing wrap, stabilizing the wing to the side of her body, prescribed meloxicam tablets and advised me to schedule a follow up appointment in about a week at the avian vet for re-wrapping the wing and determining a plan for follow up xrays, etc.

Fast forward several hours and my little hapless chicken is back at home but completely unsure how to make her body move with her wing bandaged against her side. We made her a little convalescing cage using a dog crate placed in the shed half of which is the coop so that she and her sisters can see each other, put down a soft towel and set up the chick waterer and little food dispensing flying saucer-thing, plus a chick perch I bought for their brooder to get their feet to learn how to grip when they were small. As she was waking up from the sedation she mostly lay on her (good) side quietly, still making sad little murmurs, but would periodically kind of lurch upward and backward like she just doesn't really know how to move her body with this wing wrap. This kind of results in her flopping on her back and panicking. Really the only time I could get her to really settle back down is when I took her out of the cage and just had her rest on my chest or stomach while laying back and gently cradling her with my hands. Incidentally that's not a long term solution for her getting healed up, though. I gave her the first dose of her meloxicam last night and decided to move her to our cat carrier with a towel bundled in it for the night because it was smaller and had smooth, rounded sides rather than sharp corners just to hopefully minimize the chances of her hurting herself more while flopping around.

She's back in the dog crate now and I think I sorted out a little set up for her that is comfortable using that little perch-thing (it's this if anyone's curious) partially covered in a towel so that her feet can grip one of the lower dowel things and the upper one can support her breast. I placed that so she's within easy reach of her food, water and grit. She seems to periodically still do the weird lurching/thrashing thing and flop over onto her back but my hope it's just a learning thing, eventually she'll sort out that legs do still work like legs even when one's wing is immobilized against one's body. And I'm a little hesitant to just rush in there to pick her up and set her back each time because I want her to learn how to do it herself, but it's also the first day so I'm also thinking she might need a little more gentle TLC and getting set back in place.

Anyway, mostly sharing because it's been kind of rough here in this household. I'm hoping she'll be OK but we'll see what the long term plan looks like when we bring her to the avian vet next Sunday (or, sooner if she really takes a bad turn or gets her wrap wet or covered in poop so we need to change it sooner). I'd be curious to hear how folks who've had birds recover from wing fractures handled these sorts of home care things and how the healing process went. We have no idea what specifically happened that caused this so we're going to revamp the coop and especially if she never regains full wing function, how to make it ADA accessible.
I'm so sorry about your chicky. :hugs
But thank you for sharing the xrays because that's fascinating to me.
 
The short of it is one of my 13 week old pullets apparently broke her right wing in two places.

I went in to do my morning chicken-check(in) and took one look at little Goga and something was very obviously not right. She was standing weirdly off by herself, her wings were hanging kind of strangely, and when I offered food the other three went bananas for it as they always do and she just wanted to be left alone, and was making very sad little murmuring sounds. I went inside and told Connor and he came outside with me. I picked her up and she didn't make any kind of fuss at being picked up, perched on my arm kind of rigidly, and then tried to fly off of it suddenly and kinda... flopped. Whee, time to go to emergency! My poor hapless chicken, this is the second emergency visit we've had with her.

The abbreviated version of the vet visit was the DVM did her exam and noticed that there was a lot of free mobility in her right wing, and troublingly at the top of her humerus near where it connects to the shoulder. The vet said that at least in a dog or cat that kind of fracture (if it is that) usually requires surgery. In birds it's a pneumatic bone so those sometimes don't heal as easily as the nonpneumatic bones. They gave her butorphanol for pain/sedation, took xrays, and yes, that bone is snapped kind of nastily and not in alignment but she also apparently fractured her ulna. They did a wing wrap, stabilizing the wing to the side of her body, prescribed meloxicam tablets and advised me to schedule a follow up appointment in about a week at the avian vet for re-wrapping the wing and determining a plan for follow up xrays, etc.

Fast forward several hours and my little hapless chicken is back at home but completely unsure how to make her body move with her wing bandaged against her side. We made her a little convalescing cage using a dog crate placed in the shed half of which is the coop so that she and her sisters can see each other, put down a soft towel and set up the chick waterer and little food dispensing flying saucer-thing, plus a chick perch I bought for their brooder to get their feet to learn how to grip when they were small. As she was waking up from the sedation she mostly lay on her (good) side quietly, still making sad little murmurs, but would periodically kind of lurch upward and backward like she just doesn't really know how to move her body with this wing wrap. This kind of results in her flopping on her back and panicking. Really the only time I could get her to really settle back down is when I took her out of the cage and just had her rest on my chest or stomach while laying back and gently cradling her with my hands. Incidentally that's not a long term solution for her getting healed up, though. I gave her the first dose of her meloxicam last night and decided to move her to our cat carrier with a towel bundled in it for the night because it was smaller and had smooth, rounded sides rather than sharp corners just to hopefully minimize the chances of her hurting herself more while flopping around.

She's back in the dog crate now and I think I sorted out a little set up for her that is comfortable using that little perch-thing (it's this if anyone's curious) partially covered in a towel so that her feet can grip one of the lower dowel things and the upper one can support her breast. I placed that so she's within easy reach of her food, water and grit. She seems to periodically still do the weird lurching/thrashing thing and flop over onto her back but my hope it's just a learning thing, eventually she'll sort out that legs do still work like legs even when one's wing is immobilized against one's body. And I'm a little hesitant to just rush in there to pick her up and set her back each time because I want her to learn how to do it herself, but it's also the first day so I'm also thinking she might need a little more gentle TLC and getting set back in place.

Anyway, mostly sharing because it's been kind of rough here in this household. I'm hoping she'll be OK but we'll see what the long term plan looks like when we bring her to the avian vet next Sunday (or, sooner if she really takes a bad turn or gets her wrap wet or covered in poop so we need to change it sooner). I'd be curious to hear how folks who've had birds recover from wing fractures handled these sorts of home care things and how the healing process went. We have no idea what specifically happened that caused this so we're going to revamp the coop and especially if she never regains full wing function, how to make it ADA accessible.
That sucks!

How much was the Vet bill?

And to your last sentence about revamping the coop to make it ADA compliant? Keep us posted on what you find out. I'm curious if our esteemed legislators actually put something the ADA Law about chicken coops!

Thanks and best wishes to your little bird!
 
I'm so sorry about your chicky. :hugs
But thank you for sharing the xrays because that's fascinating to me.

Thank you! She's my special little girl and my 20-month old niece named her, not taking her in to be seen kinda wasn't an option for us, I guess. And you're welcome! When the DVM said they were going to take xrays (even though I was weeping on the phone call) I got super excited and asked if they could send me copies or images of them, because same!
 
That sucks!

How much was the Vet bill?

And to your last sentence about revamping the coop to make it ADA compliant? Keep us posted on what you find out. I'm curious if our esteemed legislators actually put something the ADA Law about chicken coops!

Thanks and best wishes to your little bird!

Ha, I've been sort of afraid to ask what the bill came out as (husband was the one who picked her up and settled the bill). If I were to make a guess I would probably estimate like $700 range? I used to work in vet med and vet ER visits of course run a higher premium.

And I'm glad you appreciated my ADA joke! I think we'll probably be adding lower roost bars, maybe another "floor" and more ramps. And maybe removing this old table frame we put in there as a perch, I have no idea what happened but it doesn't seem impossible that she could have tried to fly down from the high perch and clotheslined herself on it or something.
 
That sucks!

How much was the Vet bill?

And to your last sentence about revamping the coop to make it ADA compliant? Keep us posted on what you find out. I'm curious if our esteemed legislators actually put something the ADA Law about chicken coops!

Thanks and best wishes to your little bird!

I finally asked Spouse what the bill was and I guess it was about $400 so I was pretty far off.
 

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