Chicken with bloody butt from bullying, losing blood at a medium rate, we need ideas as to how to save her.

[Fluffy Chicken Birds]

If she were mine, I would do a round of amoxicillin. You may have trouble getting it without a vet. We used to be able to get it as fish medication, but it's all been banned now. If you have any human pills, you could use those. Not sure why the vet didn't think it was needed for this kind of injury as it could possibly be open to the abdomen. Just my thoughts, and I don't have a vet that will see birds, so I'm usually on my own.

Thanks for your recommendation... Could you explain how the amoxicillin would help? I will call the office tomorrow and ask about getting an Rx for it...

Edit: I just have Keflex and a *bunch* of herbal antimicrobials... colloidal silver, oregano oil, Aqualaurin, and a bunch more...

 

[coach723]

Keflex is cephalexin I believe. You can use that. Dose would be 35 - 50 mg per kg of body weight, 4 times a day (every 6 hours).
Amoxicillin, if you can get it, is usually every 12 hours, so a little easier to give. The reason I suggested it, if there was any tear or opening into the abdominal cavity then infection risk could be high. I have no idea what they saw during exam, so am just guessing. Any kind of vent injury could result in a tear or hole into the abdominal cavity. I had a bird with a very bad prolapse, the egg was stuck in the prolapse and there was a tear in the tissue. I did do a round of amoxicillin as I felt the risk of infection was high enough. The bird recovered, and is still with me and laying normally now. I cannot see your bird, nor did I speak to your vet, so I cannot say anything either way on the exam or conclusions. Since she isn't doing perfect, it would be at least worth asking them the question.

 

[Fluffy Chicken Birds]

Keflex is cephalexin I believe. You can use that. Dose would be 35 - 50 mg per kg of body weight, 4 times a day (every 6 hours).
Amoxicillin, if you can get it, is usually every 12 hours, so a little easier to give. The reason I suggested it, if there was any tear or opening into the abdominal cavity then infection risk could be high. I have no idea what they saw during exam, so am just guessing. Any kind of vent injury could result in a tear or hole into the abdominal cavity. I had a bird with a very bad prolapse, the egg was stuck in the prolapse and there was a tear in the tissue. I did do a round of amoxicillin as I felt the risk of infection was high enough. The bird recovered, and is still with me and laying normally now. I cannot see your bird, nor did I speak to your vet, so I cannot say anything either way on the exam or conclusions. Since she isn't doing perfect, it would be at least worth asking them the question.

The vet is not being very helpful. After spending $300 on a visit, they won't call in amoxicillin without another visit We can't afford that. I may have to try the Keflex or an herbal regimen. I am not sure what to do.

The one helpful thing they said is that she may be egg bound. She has been in the nesting box but no egg for 12 days now, liquidy stool too. So we are going to see about that... Off to buy some KY jelly right now.

 

[coach723]

If she were egg bound, after 12 days she would be dead.

 

[Fluffy Chicken Birds]

If she were egg bound, after 12 days she would be dead.

I just gave her a nice, warm soak in an Epsom salt balt to relax her. I felt no egg at all. And I gently examined her vent and don't see any fresh blood. I didn't try to examine it deeply, but that wound was quite deep and there are no signs of blood or injury from my exam.

She is acting okay. Not eating much. I fed her 1 ounce of soymilk from a syringe. Even before that, looks like she is eating and pooping a bit. Not sure what's going on with her. She seems kind of out of it, not interested at all in soldier flies and scratch grains etc. But she also does not seem acutely sick/ injured to me...

Photo attached (she has slightly wet feathers from the bath).

Edited to add: that's a decoy egg. She has been sitting in the nesting box in the mornings, unproductively....

 

[coach723]

How old is she? Was she laying very regularly before this happened? She may be stressed being separated from the others. Any kind of stress can put them off laying for a time.

 

[Fluffy Chicken Birds]

How old is she? Was she laying very regularly before this happened? She may be stressed being separated from the others. Any kind of stress can put them off laying for a time.

She is 1.25 years old, same age as all the other 5 girls. She was laying regularly before all this.

I agree that she seems stressed being in isolation, and that's why we tried having her in the run with the other girls 2 days ago. But that's when she got scrappy and they attacked her and pecked off part of her comb :/

 

[coach723]

Have you tried putting the crate in the run? Then they can see her, she can see them, it's less stressful. And should make reintegrating her easier when the time comes. I always try to separate this way when possible. You can't do it if they need more warmth or closer monitoring or flies kept off wounds. But many times it's doable and works better.

 

[Fluffy Chicken Birds]

Have you tried putting the crate in the run? Then they can see her, she can see them, it's less stressful. And should make reintegrating her easier when the time comes. I always try to separate this way when possible. You can't do it if they need more warmth or closer monitoring or flies kept off wounds. But many times it's doable and works better.

I really like your idea and wish it were doable for us. The problem is that there really is not much room in our run. We could dig down 4" under the coop to squeeze the crate underneath, but then the girls would lose a lot of room. And we are already limited on space...

I would consider putting her cage next to the run for a couple hours a day maybe. But our landlord is really, really difficult about the chickens (hence our limited space) and there is a good chance we would not have permission to do so.

Do you think there's a way to safely socialize her, but avoid an incident like last week when they pecked off part of her comb? Perhaps under close supervision for 5 minutes at a time?