This is a horror story.
Once lived 17 hens in a mostly peaceful existence. They scratched, they sunbathed, they dust bathed. It was a chickens life for sure.
It was a calm, cool spring evening in mid June and a thump could be heard from inside the house. “What could that be?” Mr. Gillis thought to himself. As he went to the window to see, a villainous raccoon was making off with our dear Lucy.
He ran out into the dusk, shoes be damned, and scared off the fiend, leaving a shadowy bump on the ground. Was she dead? He didn’t know. He rushed inside to come get me. We both ran back outside, to find Lucy, bloodied and walking around the pen, confused and hurt. Her sister pippi and our Wyandotte, hen, surrounding her and squawking at would be attackers.
I gently picked her and and took her into the kitchen. The mess of her face made me cry, but I knew I had to get ahold of myself. It didn’t take long to assess the damage, and it was bad- her comb was torn off in the front. The tip of her tongue was attached by only a thread. she had scratches on her waddle and ear and her eye. And her eye… Oh her poor eye appeared to be gone.
We cleaned her up as best we could, but knew the bleeding would subside with time and clotting. So we had to kick Peatree, our broody barnvelder out of the chicken hospital and put in Lucy with fresh shavings and a lot of positive thoughts. We weren’t sure if her making it thru the night was a good thing or not.
The next morning I went in our back shack and Lucy was up and walking. So we made her some electrolyte water and mush and let her do her own thing. She was eating and drinking, but only a little. I still hand feed her water from a spoon once a hour if she wanted it.
Warning graphic pictures ahead.
The next day, she was a little depressed from being cooped up inside. It’s hard for chickens to be inside without the flock and freedom. But despite how she felt, her instinct to live was stronger, because she was able to eat and drink on her own.
Mr gillis and I did some talking and decided to boomer up to Houlton, our nearest tractor supply company-forty odd mile away, and get a bottle of vetericyn.
It turned into a plant buying trip as well but more on that in another blog.
Now, obviously, no animal likes being sprayed in the face. But this vetericyn spray helps heal wounds both minor(ripped comb) and major(possible missing eye) by keeping them moist and sanitized. We’ve used the gel on bumblefoot infections, but the spray is much better for face issues. At 30 odd bucks per bottle, we use it and let it work it’s science-ie Magic.
She’s been doing ok, but the only reason I know she’s eating at this point is because her crop still has food in it, every night. The only way I know she’s drinking is by marking the water level on her tank when I fill it and watching the level fall.
On day five after the attack, I noticed what I thought was a shaving hanging out of her mouth. I picked her up to help her get rid of it, and the truth was discovered. It was actually the dead portion of her tongue. My husband and I discussed possible solutions and decided to see if it would finish falling off on its own.
Day six, and Lucy was now having trouble eating and drinking. The tongue had to go. I disinfected the table top, our medical scissors, my hands and for good measure the table again. I gently picked her up, snipped the offending piece of tongue and was happy to see she seemed relieved. There was no bleeding, and she happily took a big gulp of water afterwards, so I am confident I did the right thing.
Day seven, one week after the attack, the scabs on her face are starting to fall off. She is so good when being handled, as if she understands I’m just trying to help her. Sadly, it doesn’t seem like her jaw will ever be completly normal. All the swelling has pretty well gone down and it still hangs open a bit. There is a pretty substantial scab on the roof of her beak, so hopefully when that finally falls off, she’ll be able to close it.
Day 8 and we have decided to put her in a pen outside, separate but in sight of the other chickens. If she heals we want her to be accepted back into the flock as quickly as possible. So far, it’s been worth it just for the improvement to her mood. She’s been drinking and sunning, even tho her breathing is a little wheezy today. Not every breathe, but like every other. This leads me to believe the scab in her mouth is starting to fall off, causing kind of a flap that could be in the way of her ventilation hole. Also, her eye scab is starting to fall off. Which, means, and graphic content ahead again, her dead eye is also about to come out.
After taking this picture, I got into the pen with her to investigate and am sad to say the wheezing seems to be from an infection.
I knew some sort of action needed to be taken. So I whipped out the saline solution and some qtips and back out to her I went. At first, she didn’t take to kindly to me poking around in her mouth with a saline soaked qtip, but when I started pulling out infectious materiel and old scab, she calmed down and allowed me to clean out her entire beak.
The wheezing was gone but My husband and I were going to have a very hard talk to get thru tonight after work.
These are the hardest lessons you learn, caring for and loving farm animals.
Day 9 and she’s up and ready to go back outside. Her beak is looking clean and pink, and I see the spot the possibly caused the infectious crap…. It definitely needs some tlc, but will require more then just myself to accomplish. As I’m walking her outside, I notice that her eye scab is about to fall off, so I just give it a quick flick and boom off it comes and I am staring into a beautiful, bright, EYE! Holy crap! She still had her eye, her inner eyelids and her eyelid function. Her outer eyelid was puffy and sorta off, but hope springs eternal!
She spends another day outside, pecking away and sinking happily into the grass to sunbath.
We still don’t know if she can see, but she’s keeping it shut most of the time right now. Also, she can shut her beak again! To think we were going to give up. Life will find a way, thankyouverymuch.
Day 10 – she is loving her time outside. Her bad eye was a little funky this morning. She didn’t really appreciate the saline wash and vetericyn spray, but she’ll appreciate staying infection free, I’m sure. Seems to still be having a little trouble eating, but the will to live is strong, my hen.
End of day ten- Lucy has refused to eat since this morning. We took a look at her beak injury and it seems pretty bad.
Day eleven- turns out, the raccoon had caused another wound in her jaw. I got the scab off, cleaned it out and Lucy seemed very grateful. She spent the day hanging out in the sun scratching around. Still had a pretty empty crop at the end of the day. I’m worried she’ll starve to death before the infection clears up.
Several days later- it’s pretty obvious that, although Lucy kept her eye, she is indeed blind. Her comb is almost healed and she’s pretty well able to close her beak. She’s spent the last few days scratching around, sunning and drinking a fair amount of water. Her crop still seems woefully empty every night when I go to put her in the med cage, but she’s still going. So if she’ll keep trying, so will I.
We have a few days of rain in the forecast, which means she’s gonna be alone inside. Hopefully, it won’t deter her from the progress she’s making.
A few days later- the swelling in her eye is gone, but the eye is now cloudy and unfocused. It’s able to close tho so I’d say it’s healed. Well as healed as its gonna get. The original beak wound is still giving her a little trouble, but she’s eating again. Last night her crop was FULL when I brought her inside. The scabbing around her Comb injury is almost all gone. I think she may be able to rejoin the flock in another week to ten days.
This is all while Peatree is still being a broody little butt head. I was hoping she’d just break, but it seems we’ll have to take my mom up on her offer of her old dog cage. I never thought I’d need TWO chicken med cages. But here I am, trying to figure out how to fit two into our chicken hospital.
A few days after that- we just got home from strawberry picking and Lucy was running around outside of her enclosure making all the other chickens super jealous. She’s eating perfectly well and I believe that when her scabs are finally off in another couple days she’ll be able to rejoin the flock. We got our second med cage from my mom and we’ll be putting Peatree in tommorrow. By the time she’s unbroody, we can put them in togethe and Lesson the stress on them going back in individually.
Day 18-she laid an egg! And promptly broke it because I didn’t think to even look. This is actually the second egg laid since the attack, but the first was the day after it all happened and I believ it was already on it way. This to me, signifies a return to good health, but we shall see if she lays again in the next few days.
Also the biggest of her scabs finally fell off. She has very little scabbing left. She’s eating normally. When I put her out in her mini pen, she immediately went slug hunting.
It’s looking good for our little Lucy.
Day19- supposed to rain today, so so far I’ve just kept her in, with her usual morning dose of vetericyn. The top of her head scab has turned a little gray, so I’m going to watch it super close. Today we give her a housemate anyway. Peatree is refusing to break brood. So we have to put her in the dog kennel. For like a week. By then we can possibly put them both back in.
Day 21- scabs are gone, wounds are healed and infection free, beak can close completely, and she has enough of a tongue to eat and drink unaided. It’s time to put her back in with the other girls. Especially since she has jumped the fence three times today to try and get to the nesting boxes.
Sorry that this blog was so long, but in the end, it was important to highlight that while she suffered for a few weeks, she’s alive and happy to be so. Everyone I spoke to, other then my mother and husband, encouraged me to cull her, and I am so happy I didn’t give up on her.
I plan on finishing my bumblefoot blog next, and I promise a non invasive treatment method that will keep you and your hens happy and healthy should th need for it arise.
Until next time, have a wicked good night.
Update 12.30.2016
The winter cold has hit Lucy girl right in the comb. It appears that she will suffer some more- I’d say the comb has severe blood flow issues and can’t work properly because of it.
She’s a trooper tho, and I’m still glad she’s hanging in there with us.
Gillis Gardens, LLC 