Stitchin' the Chicken

Yesterday my grandparents stopped by. Grandpa said "so you're gonna be a vetinary? I got something for ya to practice on."

My grandma had been down at a neighbor's place the day before, and noticed a hen lying on the ground. Apparently it had been attacked by a visiting dog, and then left for dead. Grandma checked to see if it was really dead, and found that no, it was quite alive, and appeared to be suffering only from the trauma of the experience and a broken wing. So she took it home, thinking she could "take off the wing" and keep the hen as a layer. Grandpa put the hen in a tiny carrying cage, since he didn't have any cages set up indoors, and left her in the barn. He gave her oats that were intended for cows, and sometime along the way he gave her some water.

I drove up to the farm to check it out. My job was supposed to be to remove the wing, which had been dangling quite loosely. When I pulled her out of the carrier, I found that she actually had a severe tear in the skin on her back -- a flap of skin about 2 inches wide was torn about two inches back toward her tail. The fat layer and muscle were exposed, and the fatty skin flap dry and shrunken. The wing was floppy, but she didn't show any sign of pain when I manipulated it. Grandpa brought her more water and she drank like there was no tomorrow. I decided the only course of action was to take her home to a better space, where I could better care for her. My parents were fairly annoyed, since by "home" I still mean their house, not mine :-) Soon, though, my mom got pretty involved, and has helped me with nearly everything.

After consulting with a couple of veterinary offices, I decided to clean the wound with peroxide. I peeled away the feathers that were pasted all over the wound, and used a dropper to apply peroxide. The hen (by now I was calling her "Chicken") complained about that, so I turned her upside down to calm her. When I turned her back over she went into shock. I think this was due to the pain from cleaning the wound. Her breath was fast and shallow, her little body collapsed, her eyes closed, her neck limp. I researched the treatment of shock in birds and put her in a dark box with a hot water bottle for a half hour. That did the trick, and after a little more rest I continued working on her. I concluded that her wound had to be stitched up. I'd never stitched a wound before, but I took cotton thread and a curved needle, sterilized them, and dove in. First I softened the tissue with vaseline, since it had stiffened up so much, and then I stretched the flap of skin gently into place, and sewed it back to the healthy tissue. Pushing the needle through was interesting -- she didn't seem to mind when it went through the flap, but was clearly perturbed when I went through the skin on the healthy side. I'm concerned about the amount of time that flap was left loose -- I hope it heals.

The next step was to get Chicken on some antibiotics. I put her to bed in her box with a heating pad nearby to keep her warm, and then this morning went to the feed store and bought some terramycin. You can only buy this in huge amounts, since no one treats a single chicken, so we had to do a considerable amount of calculating to figure out a one-chicken dose. I weighed out the powder with a gram scale, mixed it up in her drinking water, and I hope that prevents infection from setting in. I'll have to mix new solution every day for the next two weeks, assuming she lives that long.

What's left to do now is to attend to her wing. Since it doesn't appear to cause her any pain, and since she doesn't really need wings, I've left it thus far. It is drooping but not hanging away from her body. Tomorrow I will see about splinting it with some vetwrap.

Chicken spent a good part of today in a small dog kennel in the yard. I think the fresh air is good for her, but the dogs won't stay away from the kennel; they just sit and stare at her through the wires. She doesn't exactly like that. Poor Chicken. I hope she makes it. But I can't believe I am going to all this effort for a chicken :-)

Anything for my grandparents, I guess.