Yesterday we found Daughter's favorite show hen had a HUGE laceration down her side where the rooster's spur had caught her. Some how he had broken his spur and I assume the sharp edge must have done the damage. What a mess! The laceration is about 5 inches long and went deep into the muscle layer. Infected, necrotic tissue and the smell.... well it was just gross! "Normal" people would have just euthanized the bird. Apparently we do not fall into the "normal" category but I have been aware of that for some time! One of the amazing vets I work with used her lunch hour to do chicken surgery! She removed as much of the infected tissue as possible, trimmed up the edges of the wound, flushed with what seemed like gallons of disinfectant and sutured what was left as best she could. She even did subcutaneous sutures to hold the flap of skin to the muscle layer of the body wall. The hen is on antibiotics 3 times daily and is receiving hydro therapy twice a day as well as wound care. I am amazed that she is eating, drinking and walking around as best she can in her small "hospital" room/cage. Time will tell if the effort is worth it but for now at least we tried. How to pill a chicken? Crush the massive pills and mix with a little canned cat food...she loves it!
Western Canada Poultry Swap