Update: HAPPY ENDING! - Friday 13th - One dead, one injured.

[ivan3]

You might consider Betadine (iodine/povidone) just dilute per instructions. Peroxide is excellent stuff, but can damage healthy tissue (hold some inside one cheek for a few minutes it starts to eat away at the mucosa), as well as killing the bad guys.

I'm not sure if this would be relevant, but you mentioned the wing dragging. Dlhunicorn posted this link (wrapping a broken wing - might also work for `shoulder' injury?) with an illustration - chick might be to small for this:

http://www.starlingtalk.com/fractures.htm

She posted in this thread:

http://p072.ezboard.com/What-is-cor...rdchickensfrm4.showMessage?topicID=4887.topic

Hope the little fella makes it!

 

[Wolfpacker]

We have a vet fairly close by who treats birds. I"m going to be there when they open at 8.

IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH - STOP!

I thought I had all the maggots removed yesterday. She was, as I posted above, much better. She still seems fine. Eating and drinking and active. But the last 4 times I've checked her, the maggots are back and larger and more each time. I treated her again last night and pulled all off that I found. This morning I went in to check on her and there were probably five or six. They have eaten the flesh on her wing down to the bone. She is in our guest bathroom on fresh shavings and there are no flies in there with her. I can only surmise I didn't get all the maggots, despite treating her regularly (every 3 - 4 hours) with h-p and neosporin. I'm sure she will lose that wing. There's no skin on her little bone. I guess it would only take a few - 20 or so - to do this to such a small, 8 week old pullet's wing.

This is the stuff of nightmares. I didn't sleep at all last night and it is even worse this morning. I can't get the image out of my head when I lift up that wing. Sorry to vent, but my wife cannot handle this. She has no idea what is happening because she could never stomach it.

Moral to this story: DO NOT let an bird with an open wound or sore stay outdoors in the summer. Our run is clean and dry. The coop has fresh shavings daily. But flies are everywhere here this time of year. If I had kept her in from the time I got her from the vet last Friday instead of turning her out those two days, this would never have happened. I had no idea something like this could happen.

 

[eggcetra_farms]

wolf, it's not your fault! Maggots never crossed my mind until a while back when I read someone's post about them being on her injured rooster. It's just not something at the forefront of most people's "things to watch out for." You were focused on keeping her safe, happy, painfree, fed.......who would have reasonably considered this happening, unless they've dealt with it before? You are NOT a bad chicken daddy!!!!

I'd like to suggest a bath for her. Bathing a chicken is a little weird, but not hard to do. I had to do it for my barred rock when she got sick and had some really smelly loose stool all over her (sorry, but it's true - she really stunk).

Here's how you bathe a chicken:

1. Try to have 3 buckets that will comfortably hold your chicken for a bath. These could be muck buckets that they sell at the feed store or something similar. When we bathed my Dot, we only had one of those Rubbermaid totes with the snapping lid, but it was big enough and it worked. I say 3 buckets because there are 3 steps.

2. In the first bucket, you will want to put warm water, not HOT water. Chickens have a high body temperature, and you don't want to chill her with cold or lukewarm water. I'm pretty sure you don't have the chicken shampoo they use for show chickens, so if you have Ivory that will work. DO NOT use dish soap or any other soap that has a grease dissolving agent in it. It will make her feathers brittle and they will all break off.

3. The second tub needs plain, warm water. After bathing her in bucket #1, take her to bucket #2 and do as best as you can to rinse her.

4. Bucket #3 needs warm water and roughly 1 cup of white vinegar. The vinegar will ensure that all the soap residue will be washed out of the feathers. If not, the feathers can mat together, be sticky or become brittle and break. The vinegar rinse works perfectly.

5. Dry her in an old towel as best as you can. You will probably not get her completely dry. Feathers can hold a lot of moisture. My barred rock (who was 9 months when I did this) didn't dry for about 2 hours. You could use a hair dryer to dry her completely, but she may freak out. My suggestion would be to put a heat lamp over her or even just hold her and keep her warm as long as you can.

That's it! Perhaps a bath will flush out the rest of the maggots you're not seeing. Just keep a firm hand on her when bathing. She may want to fly out of the tub, but I have a feeling that with her injury she'll behave.

Feel better wolf - good luck!

 

[Wolfpacker]

Thanks so much egg-cetra for the kind words, advice, and support. She's at the vet right now. I really don't see how thay can save that wing, at least the lower part. Although the vet wasn't in when I arrived at 7:45, the receptionist/vet tech was very familiar with the problem and said it was nearly impossible to remove them all. They are so tiny at first and they bore in and start feeding and you just can't get them. As small as she is, it didn't take many to do a lot of damage. She called the vet and discussed the situation and she was going to check things out as soon as she arrived.

I'll save the bath instructions and I'm sure they might come in handy for someone else. I just felt like I was at the end of my rope and it was time to turn to a medical professional.

She still acts like she felt fine. Was pecking around, eating and drinking, and took oatmeal from my hand when I offered it.

All this for a $3 bird! But hey - she's a cute little life!

If there is any levity in all this, you should have seen the faces on the other patients' owners at this vet which specializes in exotic birds in a rather swanky part of town when I walked in with a maggot-infested Dominecker chicken.

 

[eggcetra_farms]

Well I'm glad she's getting looked at. Just remember, if she looses the wing it's not the end of the road. In fact, it may be a new beginning because if the wing is removed it may just save her life. Whenever I'm watching my chickens I don't even think about my Kitty Cat with her one wing - until she "flies" off of something with that one wing just flapping away. At least your chicken is so little she has plenty of time to adjust. Have you told your wife what's going on yet? I hope she took/takes it well. Please update with the vet's treatment. Take care and get some rest.

 

[hollyclyff]

I hope your chick gets better. I have one Dominque and I just love her. I know if she got hurt like that I would be taking her to the vet. Well, I guess that would apply to any of them, but Ethel is really special. May I ask what vet you're using?

 

[Wolfpacker]

Dixie Trail Animal Hospital. My dog and cats go to Hayes Barton Animal Hospital and Dr. O'Brien originally stitched her up for me. But she readily admitted she was not a bird expert, so I took her to Dixie Trail this morning. Dr. O'Brien did a great job and things were really going well until this blasted complication. I don't know the name of the vet attending her because I haven't heard from them yet.

Are you in Raleigh?

 

[Wolfpacker]

Just got a call from Dr. McKinnish at the Dixie Trail Animal Hospital.

The main cause of all this is the infection from the original injury. Despite the antibiotic, the infection has spread and the maggots have been feeding on the dead flesh.

She is sedated now and they are cleaning out the maggots and cleaning her up. My two options are amputation ($$$) or euthanasia.

She's a trooper and I'm a softie. Amputation it is.

Obviously there are no guarantees but they feel than can get it all by removing the wing. They'll try to leave a stump, but will have to wait and see what they find. She also is getting a stronger antibiotic.

Eggcetra - does your girl have a stump? They said it could cause some balance problems without one.

 

[hollyclyff]

I'm in Chatham co. about 2 miles from the Wake co. line near Cary. I've heard good things about Dixie Trail as far as exotics go. I didn't know they would treat chickens too. That's good to know.

 

[eggcetra_farms]

hey wolf

Yes, she has a stump because her wing was torn off at the "shoulder" bone. Get what I mean?

This very well may save your chicken's life and the wing is not essential to your chicken's well being anyway. I mean, I'm not saying to just go around lopping off chicken wings - just that the loss of this wing may be the gain of a life. You may notice her walking with her remaining wing a little lower for a while. This is normal, as she will have to learn to balance in a new way. Also, if she is wrapped (and I can't see why she wouldn't be if it's taken off) she may fall and stumble. This is just because of the bandage, not because something is wrong with her. My Kitty Cat stumbled and fell a lot at first which worried me, until one day when I was changing her bandage and sneaky her got away. She was RUNNING just fine, whereas with the bandage she couldn't even stand right. She was perfect once the bandage was finally able to come off.

Out of curiousity, and if you don't mind, just what does a wing amputation go for? I'm just glad you found someone to help you. I hope you got some rest too. Take care and keep us updated!