Injured Hen

[eross230]

Two of my hens were attacted by a dog yesterday. One died the other was injured. She has several deep wounds and is obviously in shock. I cleaned the wounds yesterday and applied triple antibiotic ointment to the injuries (several). I also put her in a cage, but left the door open so she could get out if she wanted. Last night and this morning she was still in her cage, but this afternoon she was out and just standing, zombie like in the corner of the coop. I brought her inside, cleaned all of the wounds, applied more triple antibotic ointment, gave her water, feed, raw liver (dropped it in her mouth), and yogert. She is still standing and looking as though she's terribly uncomfortable. She has not eaten, other than the few pieces of liver I force fed her, ane as far as I can tell, has not been interested in drinking her water.

Is there anything else I can do for her?

[Maura]

She is still in shock. She may have something broken. As I read this, she has been in bad shape for about 24 hours. I would give her another day to feel better. She will want to be in a dark spot probably. Can you do any kind of massage on her? TTouch, myotherapy, accupressure? Do you have any lavender plants or lavender essential oil?

[eross230]

Thank youk Maura. As far as I can tell, she doesn't have anything broken. I do hold her and try to comfort her, she's in a quiet, dark spot in the house. I should have put her inside last night, but didn't. She is still just standing, doesn't seem to want to lie down and is still listless. I don't have lavender, wouldn't have the slightest idea of how to perform accupressrre on a human, let alone a chicken, and I really don't know what T Touch or myotherapy is. Do you think I should add a little heat?

[Cyngbaeld]

She might appreciate a heat lamp, but be sure she can get out from under if she needs to. Hope she gets better.

[Yvonne]

She may be to bruised to move. I had the same thing happen to two girls last spring, You could see the bruising in the one that made it in her legs as they were purple for about two moonths, Keep her warm and they seem to prefer a darkened place. If she dooesn't have internal unjuries she should come around. You can give her asprin in her water. 5 asprin per gallon of water is what I mix up. I'd break it down into a saller amount but I'm brain dead from a broken wrist.

[eross230]

Just to update you. My hen seems a little better today. She's still not moving much, but is at least interested in reacting when I talk to her and pet her. She is a Turken, free range bird that hasn't had much interaction with people, so it's strange to see her so docile. I had expected her to be more afraid of me. I guess when something's hurting, they give in to attention and maybe, even appreciate it. Her wounds look like they're healing, but still serious. Turkens are spunky, so hopefully she'll pull through.

[fishhead]

I had a hen muscovy lose about 1/4 of her scalp to an owl last fall. She stood in one spot for a couple of days with her second eyelid up. I kept the skull covered with honey for 10 weeks until the scalp regrew. She also had a deep gash in her cheek muscle. That completely healed in 4 weeks.

[eross230]

My hen died early this morning. She must have had internal injuries in addition to the external, obvious wounds. Now I feel as though I should have culled her instead of trying to save her, because she probably suffered a lot.

[Cyngbaeld]

It is really hard to know how badly a bird is injured internally. I've seen them live that looked impossible and die that didn't really seem badly injured. Also, a prey animal goes into shock easily and doesn't seem to feel pain as much as a higher functioning animal does. Possibly their bodies release natural pain killers to cope. Please don't feel badly as you did the best you could for her.

[fishhead]

Without obvious signs of pain I would have let her keep trying to recover too. I think you did the right thing.

[eross230]

Thank you for your kindness.

[Yvonne]

Sorry she didn't make it.