Broken, dangling leg from predator attack - what do I do?

[cristina]

MY girl seems fine-- hopping around, eating, drinking, etc... but there's still blood on her leg/feathers and the flies are bothering her a bit. Her leg is literally dangling -- but she's hopping around the yard strongly. Is there hope for her leg? Does splinting it help her balance or help the the leg recover (I'm thinking both)? And, how do I splint it?
Any help is appreciated!

 

[Eggcessive]

If the bone has pierced the skin, she should be seen by a vet due to the risk of infection. What part of the leg was broken? Note in the pic below that the mid leg has 2 long bones. Can you clean the bone and skin with betadine? If the bone pieced the skin it should have a bandage. Here is a link to a splinting manual that has good illustrations and info (pages 17-23 cover legs: )
https://theiwrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Duerr_Splinting_Manual_2010.pdf

Leg of bird

 

[wild chick]

Good link above. I just posted the end of a thread I started when I found a chick with broken leg (femur, leg dangling, if I held her upsidedown it flopped out sideways at a really wrong angle), but no skin broken & no bleeding, so I don't know if it's similar enough to be of use. I put her in a 36" x 18" wire cage with food and water to restrict the movement and keep others from "kicking her while shes down". I put a feeder outside the cage so my free-rangers would come by several times a day and not "forget" that she was a flock member. Today is 4 weeks and she is almost sound, but she is young and they always heal faster than the elders. Not sure how helpful it will be to you, but I'm AMAZED at how these birds can heal. Hope this link works, have faith!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...6-week-old-chick.1262500/page-2#post-20346893

 

[lazy gardener]

The fact that the bird has "flies hanging around" makes me assume that the bird has a compound fracture, the bone has pierced the skin, and flies have now invaded the wound, causing fly strike. If my assessment, without laying eyes on the bird is correct, I suggest that you cull her. Bones are extremely prone to infection once they have pierced the skin. To keep her alive in the face of a maggot infested wound including bone fracture with open fragments would be a horrid way to die.

Clean up the wound, assess what is going on. If flies have invaded the wound, that does not look good. When you say the leg is dangling, the visual picture that evokes can vary from: she's favoring the leg and not using it much, there is a skin tear, but I don't know how much damage was done. vs. The leg was torn off, and is now dangling by just a few tissue fragments.

One picture is worth a thousand words. Please add a photo, close up and from a distance. If you intend to do any thing to save her, you must examine her, clean the wound and make an accurate assessment before you can decide. If you do not have time or energy to invest, then be merciful and cull her.

 

[wild chick]

totally agree with @lazy gardener - posted my link to a successful story adding that there was no blood or skin damage whatsoever.

 

[Eggcessive]

One of the vet articles I read this PM said that if a compound fracture was not treated within 8 hours, they would probably get gangrene. Compound fractures need strong antibiotics as well to prevent osteomyelitis (infection of the bone.)