Urgent Advice Needed

[coach723]

If you have some electrolites, give her those, or you can use gatorade, that will help with the initial shock.

 

[Hen Help]

If you have some electrolites, give her those, or you can use gatorade, that will help with the initial shock.

Very good idea. I have none here but will shop for some soon.

The good news is that she is eating. I put a slice of bread in front of her and she pecked at it, so i tore off slices and soaked it in the asprin water. She almost gobbled up every wet piece. I then returned with some nuts and seeds and she went after that too. As she stretched her neck to eat I could see the damage. Her neck is stripped too, but she clearly wants to live.

We got an empty, deep, plastic storage tub. We washed it and filled it with clean shredded cardboard followed by clean grocery store paper bags shredded in strips. We put some old fleece pjs over it all. She's there now with a hot water bottle and a towel. We put the tub on the top bench of the sauna room. My son just made a "CHICKEN HOSPITAL" sign and put it on the sauna door. That will be her private room and we will try to nurse her.

She seems alright and the eating was very encouraging. She might have a chance to make it.

She really seems to really want to live.

Thanks again.

 

[coach723]

You are very welcome and good luck to you. They can be truly amazing and I sincerely hope she makes a full recovery. Puppy pads or clean bath towels make a good bedding when they are injured, helps keep things clean and prevents things sticking to the wound, and you can change them out as needed.

 

[Hen Help]

You are very welcome and good luck to you. They can be truly amazing and I sincerely hope she makes a full recovery. Puppy pads or clean bath towels make a good bedding when they are injured, helps keep things clean and prevents things sticking to the wound, and you can change them out as needed.

Another amazing idea! I will put that on my shopping list too. I can't tell you how grateful I am to have had all of you to hold my hand through all of this. Truly, I am so appreciative. Let's see how she does now.
I will keep you updated.

 

[Bertram]

Sorry I just left. I had to leave for church. Thankfully some other people had some good advice.

 

[Hen Help]

4 day update
I just wanted to give you all an update. After I last wrote on Sunday, my son found the rooster and the other 2 hens. (we have 3 hens and one rooster and they range freely by day, weather permitting.) One rooster and one hen went unscathed, but he found our white hen hiding under some outdoor stuff. She was injured in a similar way to the black hen, but not nearly as badly. I took her in, put her in a second plastic tub and gave her similar treatment.

They have been treated like royalty. At night, the sauna window is covered and is kept very dark. My son plays non-stop healing music very softly via a portable speaker in the "chicken hospital". On Monday, just as one of you predicted, the badly injured black hen would not eat, but she would drink. Tuesday was similar, but on Weds I managed to entice her with greek yoghurt, sunflower seeds and oatmeal. I had to bring little buffet dishes to her head level, because it was clearly too painful for her to stretch out her neck too far.

The white one laid an egg in her tub and flew to the rim of the tub last night and I was a little surprised by this. It was clear she was going to be ok. I gently returned her to her tub for the night where she stayed. Today, both are eating well and seem happy. While I was nearby, I heard a kerfuffle in the sauna and poked my head in thinking the perky white one had jumped up again, but to my surprise, I saw this (see picture)

It was the badly injured black one who had flown up instead. This is the one that had been but a hair's breadth away from being put down only 4 days ago. When the white one jumped up to join her, I saw that she immediately began pecking at the more badly injured black one (just as I had been previously warned about here). I put them back in their separate bins and covered the tops of their bins with a long metal grille to stop them from getting out.

I continue to slater them both in ointment every night and feed them with treats. If all goes well, when the time comes and once the weather improves, I will put them in their own side by side and separate outdoor pens during the day. Hopefully, they will both be free ranging again by late June. Does that timeline seem right? Or must I protect them from the rooster for much longer?

I guess they will each tell me when the time is right. The black one, certainly told me very clearly that she wanted to live, so I guess they also will tell me when its time to return to what's left of the flock.

Edited to comment that puppy pads are definitely the better way to go.

 

[coach723]

Glad they are doing better! When they can go back is entirely up to when the wounds are healed enough that they can't be re-injured, or you will be starting all over. Since you have a rooster, who will likely try to mount them as soon as they are back, that has to be considered also, so he doesn't re-injure them. Where the black hen is injured could easily be opened up again by the roo's claws or beak when mounting, and she may have a very large scab that might take awhile to flake off. It will probably come off from the edges in, and slowly get smaller. I would personally wait until the scabs are off and feathers are starting to regrow, but that is a judgment call on your part, and I know you will be ready for them to go back out too!

 

[Hen Help]

Glad they are doing better! When they can go back is entirely up to when the wounds are healed enough that they can't be re-injured, or you will be starting all over. Since you have a rooster, who will likely try to mount them as soon as they are back, that has to be considered also, so he doesn't re-injure them. Where the black hen is injured could easily be opened up again by the roo's claws or beak when mounting, and she may have a very large scab that might take awhile to flake off. It will probably come off from the edges in, and slowly get smaller. I would personally wait until the scabs are off and feathers are starting to regrow, but that is a judgment call on your part, and I know you will be ready for them to go back out too!

Yup, that sounds right to me too. I think they are about due to moult soon anyhow, so maybe the timing will be good. I do fear that there are patches where no feathers will ever grow back, but I guess we will just wait and see. Thank you for your wisdom and help.

As an addendum, our overly playful poodle is getting some much needed tough love training. He is being taught to not pull on the leash, not chase other living things, to mind his manners, does not get to go on the bed or couch anymore and doesn't get table scraps anymore. He seems much more submissive these past days. He walks by the sauna door and I can see that he knows he did a very wrong thing.

 

[coach723]

You may be surprised how well she feathers out once healed, very often you can't tell that anything happened. Picture attached below of one of my hens that was scalped. Skin was completely gone, her skull was visible. The picture is once she just started feathering out, and once they were all in you could not tell anything had happened. It's a much smaller area than your birds wound, but it's really amazing how they heal up.
I understand about the dog, I have two. One is a great Pyrenees, he doesn't consider birds a threat and they are too much work to chase, they're just treat dispensers (he's a poop connoisseur ), and my other is a rescue dog that is a pyrenees/rough collie mix, which is an absolutely terrible combination. Despite all efforts (LOTS of effort), she loses her mind over any kind of bird at all, chases buzzards circling 100's of feet overhead. She's just simply not allowed around the birds. Luckily we have the space to make that happen. Training can help immensely, but with some dogs and some behaviour it's difficult to overcome genetics, so sometimes it's management rather than fixing. Poodles are generally pretty smart, so you are fortunate there! Good luck!

 

[Bertram]

Poodles are generally pretty smart, so you are fortunate there!

Are you so sure about that? Tell that to my dog please.