Helping the Hurt Chicken Heal: Some advice for treating injured animals

We currently have a hurt chicken on the farm. The hen has an eye damaged by I-don't know-what. Her eye is swollen and she is lethargic. She had stopped eating and drinking by herself so I placed her in a box in a private part of the barn with a heat lamp. I soaked her food in water and milk and fed her by sticking her beak into the water/food just enough to get her to respond. Check out the video to see how she is eating by herself now. The wound has a long way to go to heal though.

Growing up on a farm as a child I saw a lot of animals die. I began to try to help every one of them get better, as much as I could. I fed a mangled rooster and dressed his wounds everyday until he recovered from a gruesome cock fight. Little bunnies, birds, and mice rescued from the cats were released into the field, or buried under picked flowers and handmade crosses. To name just a few . . . I have learned a lot over the years and there are some must-dos in dealing with hurt animals (always check with your vet).

What do you do with a hurt animal? Here are some important things:

1. LOCATION: place the animal in a safe, quiet, and warm spot; a box works well. We often put chickens and other farm animals in the barn.

2. HEAT: keep the animal warm, as it may not be able to regulate it's temperature adequately. This is especially true if the animal isn't eating much or at all. Bring the animal into your home in a quiet, warm place. Or use a heat lamp in an outbuilding or barn. With a heat lamp err on the side of caution: you do not want to over-heat the animal.

3. WATER: must have! If animal doesn't drink on its own, use a bottle, syringe, or other implement to get water down the animal's throat. If the animal is in urgent need for sustenance (starvation/lack of food or water for prolonged time) feed the animal milk, honey-water, or soaked food/grain/feed, depending on the animal. Feed water to animal that is not drinking on its own as frequently as every hour during the day until you see improvement.

4. FOOD: See #3, you may need to soak the animals food in water and/or puree it to get it in the animal. Sometimes simplifying the food in the beginning is important. A starving kitten had kitten formula with extra water until she recovered. So no solids until the animal can eat them by itself.

5. WOUND TREATMENT: you may need a veterinarian for deep and/or large wounds, broken bones, internal injuries, and more. You can use raw honey to treat superficial wounds, it is antibiotic and very healing. Check with your veterinarian for more options.




VIDEO: Rose the Hen drinks her food while healing from a hurt eye