Possible broken wing

[alinas2010]

Today has been her first day without a bandage. She's moving her wing, including stretching it out and occasionally doing a flap. It works and she doesn't seem to be in pain but it is lower than the other one by a few inches.

Every night I've been putting her to sleep in the nursing cage in the garage but tonight she will sleep with all the others.

So far so good. I had hoped the wrong would be back to how it was. It isn't but maybe as she uses it, the muscles will strengthen. She's been bandaged up for 2 weeks, so I should expect there to be some weakness from non movement for such a long time.

She's also out and about rather than staying in the hen house. I think her confidence has grown and continues to grow now that she's not restricted in her ability to move about, and importantly, get away from Dusty when she needs to.

I will post again, as I said I would, to update on how it finally settles in a week or so.

Thanks for all the support and encouragement!

Here's how she looks now. I tried to get her shaking her wings but it was too blurry. The broken wing is the left one, not the purple one.

View attachment 3948660View attachment 3948661

Oh I am terribly disappointed that somehow I wasn’t getting notifications about your replies to this thread! I’m happy to hear that overall she’s getting along well. Poor dear will look more marvelous than she has ever looked (and feel better than she ever has) once she comes out of this molt! We’re starting molts here, too, just this week and appetites are dwindling. I just wish I could tell them how much better they’d feel if they’d just eat!

I will certainly look into that organization for ex battery hens. It has been a goal of mine to eventually take them on. It’s actually due to being in Wyoming that I don’t seem to have access to battery hens. We are so rural that we aren’t anywhere near factory farms. If I had to guess, there may be some in our neighboring state of Colorado, but at the closest it’d be a 5 hour commute for us, so it would take a lot of coordination and planning. I also don’t see such organizations promoted nearly as much in the US as I do in the UK, it makes me so sad. But on the other hand, we do have a lot of small local farms that sale eggs, so it’s nice to see that versus factory farming.

And you are totally correct about there being so much empty space here! I love living in Wyoming, but we do live in a small city currently, about 75,000 people, nowhere near as large as yours. Unfortunately, that means we are limited to 6 hens at the moment. Currently we only have 5 on a property of about 1 acre in town. We started with 4 and I wanted to rescue 2 more if I could find ex battery hens, but then our neighbor had a hen he was going to cull in a way we found to be cruel for a reason we didn’t find to be true, so we took on a lone hen into our flock of 4, which was a difficult journey. So now I am hesitant to take on another lone hen to fill the sixth spot as a lone hen is never easy to integrate. Anyways we’re on the hunt for larger more rural property with no limits on livestock.

I’m rambling at this point, so sorry. It sounds like she’s really settling in and gaining confidence! I love hearing that. I love her new found happiness and light in her eyes. Are you still thinking this was a break to her wing? I agree with you about her having to regain strength to carry it properly. Maybe there is still a little bit of healing to the muscles or ligaments, too, perhaps? I hope she does well tonight on the roost with the others. Keep us updated and I will try to watch more closely this time!

 

[MandS]

My turn to miss the notification!!

Thanks for your reply.

It's now a month later and unfortunately I've been in hospital and am recovering (slowly....).

The good news is that Acorn is fine. Her wing is a little lower than the other but she's very mobile and will jump up and off things. She's second in command in the coop, so she maintained her status. The only negative is that for the first fortnight of her life with us, she was in a nursing cage with no perch (which I thought was safest as her wing was bandaged up) however it has led to her always nesting rather than perching. She's not the only one. I'm not sure if the others copy her but there's 4 big perches and only one of the new girls and our original girl perch. I've tried putting them on at night and they literally wait till I've shut the door and then jump off and nest!

Anyway, it's all good news for Acorn.

Unfortunately we lost our beloved cat Teddy last week when he was hit and killed by a vehicle (really odd circumstances) so we are going through a tough time at the moment. The chickens, oddly, bring me consolation when I'm feeling upset. He was only 5 and a strapping lad. It felt so unfair but I'm conscious that we are only custodians of our animals. We are lucky to have them in the first place and they simply go back to the place from whence they came. We just do our best whilst they are in our care.

Thank you again for all your kind words and interest. Hopefully this thread will help anyone who has a broken wing to deal with. It's not a death sentence - it just requires a period of effective strapping and careful attention.

 

[alinas2010]

My turn to miss the notification!!

Thanks for your reply.

It's now a month later and unfortunately I've been in hospital and am recovering (slowly....).

The good news is that Acorn is fine. Her wing is a little lower than the other but she's very mobile and will jump up and off things. She's second in command in the coop, so she maintained her status. The only negative is that for the first fortnight of her life with us, she was in a nursing cage with no perch (which I thought was safest as her wing was bandaged up) however it has led to her always nesting rather than perching. She's not the only one. I'm not sure if the others copy her but there's 4 big perches and only one of the new girls and our original girl perch. I've tried putting them on at night and they literally wait till I've shut the door and then jump off and nest!

Anyway, it's all good news for Acorn.

Unfortunately we lost our beloved cat Teddy last week when he was hit and killed by a vehicle (really odd circumstances) so we are going through a tough time at the moment. The chickens, oddly, bring me consolation when I'm feeling upset. He was only 5 and a strapping lad. It felt so unfair but I'm conscious that we are only custodians of our animals. We are lucky to have them in the first place and they simply go back to the place from whence they came. We just do our best whilst they are in our care.

Thank you again for all your kind words and interest. Hopefully this thread will help anyone who has a broken wing to deal with. It's not a death sentence - it just requires a period of effective strapping and careful attention.

Oh no I’m so sorry to hear you were in the hospital and not doing well. I hope you’re feeling a bit better. And I’m so so sorry to hear about your beloved cat I hope you can find comfort in the memories of him. I fully agree that we are here to take care of our animals and give them the best possible lives we can while they are here. They deserve so much from this world and it’s our job to give them all we can until they can move on to the wonderful heavens from where they came

How are the ladies doing? Are they looking better yet? So glad to hear Acorn is feeling more her spunky self! I bet as time passes she will do even more healing. Thanks so much for sharing the update!

 

[MandS]

Thank you for the kind words. We've never lost a pet like this before and it has been, and at the moment continues to be, really difficult. No goodbye, no chance to even see him.

The girls are in various stages of moulting. They go off their food and things slow down, including their crops for some of them. Egg production is also dropping but that's to be expected. Acorn is doing well but I've noticed that when she jumps off something, she only puts out her left wing, not the broken one. If I hold her or she does the 'submission dance' then she does hold it out and I can stretch it out without it appearing to her pain, so maybe she's just reluctant to use it or it is weak. I may start doing some wing exercises on her if time permits.