Temporary House Chicken

Lately it seems as though my hens are on the local predator menu.  After losing those two hens while I was away at work I was woken up in the middle of the night by the sounds of panicked chickens.  When I ran out into yard with my headlamp I saw black feathers everywhere and one of my buff orpingtons wandering around by the young chicken's pen.  A small animal that appeared to be a cat ran off through my electric fence and stopped to watch me from several hundred feet away.  As I looked around some more I found a black hen bumbling around the yard in a dazed state.  As quickly as I could I gathered up the two hens and checked them over for injuries.  The buff seemed no worse for the wear so I put her back into the temporary shelter that my chickens had been staying in.  The black hen was definitely injured but I had to bring her inside for a better look.  I quickly set up the chick brooder cage for the hen and then went back outside to make some quick reinforcements to the chicken coop.  When I was sure that the rest of the chickens were secure from another attack I went back inside to tend to the injured hen.

Upon closer examination of the hen I found that she had a large wound on her back that was very deep.  I cleaned up what I could and set the hen up with some food and water for the rest of the night.  She needed stitches but I wasn't going to be able to do that alone.  The wound wasn't bleeding much and looked like more of a tear than a puncture. If she made it through the rest of the night I would take it as a good sign.

When daylight came I got to put my vet tech skills to the test.  I called my friend who was also a vet tech to help me sew up my chicken.  We met up at her groom shop and got to work.  I didn't have proper suture supplies being as I no longer worked for a vet clinic, so I improvised with a sewing needle and thread soaked in rubbing alcohol.  The wound was a V shaped gash that was nearly an inch wide and a couple inches long.  My friend restrained the chicken while I stitched her up and we were both impressed by how well she took it.  Chickens can be extremely stoic.

When I was done I was pretty happy with how it looked.  It seemed to close up nicely and hopefully I will be able to pull her stitches in just a couple of weeks.  Until then she is getting her own space in the chick brooder cage.  Here she is limited by how much she can move around so that should help with healing.  She also won't have to contend with the rooster's innuendos of love or be bothered by the other hens.  Once the stitches come out she should be able to return to the flock.  I will have to keep checking the wound daily to make sure that she isn't developing an infection.  I am hoping that I can get away with not using antibiotics on her so that I can keep using her eggs.  She was unstressed enough that she even laid an egg right after we got home from getting sutured up.