lower leg injury then dead!?!

[krazykatz13]

I have 3 leghorn girls and a mix breed rooster. We had been keeping them in a large chicken enclosure but decided to finally let them free range. They are almost 18 months old. The 2ND day they were out, I went out later in the afternoon to play in the yard with my boys when I noticed one girl limping. After getting a closer look, she was bleeding slightly on her leg, where the feathers end. I had a hard time catching her (she was still very fast!!) and could not find any cuts and the only things that looked like puncture wounds were where it appeared her feathers had been pulled out. I brought her in, cleaned her leg and bandaged it with some antibiotic ointment and vet wrap because she kept picking at the bloody area. It was bruised all of the way around her leg but just from the feather line down. I put her back in the coop as I thought she would be more comfortable with the other chickens and it was time to lock them in for the night anyway. I found feathers along the back of our fence and assumed she had gotten her foot caught and bruised it trying to get out. I went out yesterday to let them out and she could barely walk. She had just ran from me the night before!! I thought it was just soreness and brought her inside and put her in a cage to re-coop. i gave 1/2 baby aspirin and cleaned and re-bandaged the wound. It was more bruised looking and not as red. This morning she had laid an egg and it was soft. First time ever for her. Te leg was a deeper bruised color and more bruising down to her foot but no swelling the entire time. This afternoon she was panting a little so I gave her fresh water and food and put a fan in her direction to cool her. (She was in our sun room where we have babies so it is warm in there). She also would not eat so I fed her some yogurt with 1/2 baby aspirin again because she still was not moving around. I checked on her about 30 minutes ago and she was dead!!! Anyone have any ideas???

 

[speckledhen]

She could have been in shock. I can't see infection spreading that fast, not enough to kill her. Sometimes, things just stay a mystery. Could be a predator just grabbed her and hurt her leg badly, but she escaped and was in shock, possibly with internal injuries you couldn't see.

I'm sorry you lost her.

 

[Kacey's Krazee's]

Do you think it could it have been a snake bite?

 

[crchickens]

Did the antibiotic ointment have numbing pain killer in it? I understand that we should not use that on our chickens.

 

[downsm75]

If she had internal injuries, asprin would cause her to bleed more.

 

[krazykatz13]

Thought about snake bite but could not find puncture wounds and the tissue did not die as it usually does with snake bites. The antibiotic ointment I used was Panalog which does not contain a pain killer. It is a vet prescribed med we used a lot when I was a vet tech on cat bite wounds. I gave the aspirin only after giving a thorough looking over and there were no signs of bruising anywhere else on the body so I didn't think there would have been internal injuries but I could have been wrong. She appeared to be very stiff on that leg the morning after and I figured it was from sitting all night and so I gave her 1/2 baby aspirin to try to help with the discomfort.