How often to feed and water an injured chicken

[chickabittie]

After three year of free ranging in a woodsy area and not needing to lock up my birds at night when they wander back to their
coop .... yep, a mink went on the attack. Two pullets were killed and one injured. Looks like a head injury...right side seems effected.
She bends her neck to the right and can't put any weight on her right leg. After three days she is now eating on her own but can't drink water. I have been giving her eye droppers of water, a bit of egg yolk and additional crumbles. My question is how often and how much should she be fed and watered? Anyone have any ideas?

 

[wittman]

I'm not very experienced with injured chickens, but in my opinion, I would give her a little bit of food every hour and a half or so, and maybe every 30-40 minutes give her a little water. Just keep checking on her and see if she if it looks like she's too hot and needs water.

 

[chickabittie]

Thanks for your suggestion! She has gone from only being able to lie on her side where I stuffed her crumbles into her throat (she swallowed) and then fed water with electrolytes through a straw three times a day. Each time I fed her I would put her in my lap so her legs could touch the chair or floor. She would spazz out sometimes pushing her legs on the hard surface and flapping her wings but I think that helped her with balance and strength.Slowly she grew stronger. I took her out and put her in a "nest" outside with the other chicks so she could see and hear them. As she got stronger I took her out of the nest and put her in the grass and low and behold she stood up and flapping her wings she ran over to the other chicks! Yay. Now I take her out each morning and she eats, drinks and spends the day with the other chicks. At night she wants to come inside and back to her "nest". She is not perfect. Her neck prefers to be back at an angle. Don't know if that will ever change. The other chicks seem to accept her and some stay by her... Not sure about the neck thing...if there is anything I should be doing to help
her keep it straight....time will tell.

 

[wittman]

Yay! I'm glad that she made a recovery. She may always do the neck thing, but if it doesn't seem to bother her, its not really something to worry about too much, it gives her more character