Chickens are very independent animals, these birds can look for and find their own food if they have to, they can get all the exercise that they need, and, they can sleep while upright.
All of these activities require the bird to have a set of working legs.
Knowing this, if your chicken’s leg is broken at the hip then the bird’s quality of life will decrease, this article looks into why this happens and what to do
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Chicken has a broken leg at the hip
Injuries are painful and require some time to heal from, this is true for humans and for chickens. If your bird has a broken hip this is what you need to know:
Can a bird survive with a broken hip?
If the bird can’t reach its food and water sources then the bird can indeed die of a broken hip, so no, a bird can’t survive with a broken hip
In addition, if the bird is injured, and the other flock members realize that the bird is injured, then the flock members will attack the injured bird by pecking at it. The injured bird may succumb to its pecking injuries.
What to do with a bird with a broken hip?
The recommended course of action to take, when dealing with a bird with a broken hip, is to take the bird to the vet. But, if you can’t take the bird to the vet then you can treat the bird’s broken leg at home
This is what to do:
What to do before treating the bird:
The first thing that you should do about a bird with a broken hip is catch the bird. Catch the bird quickly and confidently trying your best to avoid the bird moving too much. Too much movement can cause the bird to injure itself even more.
The next step in helping the bird is to treat it for dehydration, stress, or shock, this will improve the chances of the bird surviving the stress of the broken leg.
If necessary, if there is an open wound at the bird’s leg, you’d need to remove the feathers in the area using tweezers and flush the wound with Nolvasan or Betadine, this will help to remove any foreign material in the area.
You would then need to splint the bird’s leg and put the bird in a sling
How to splint the bird’s leg:
Start off by positioning the bird’s leg and hip in the correct position. Be very careful to correctly align the bird’s bones to their original position.
Place a splint on the bird’s leg to keep it straight. You can use a popsicle stick as a splint, cut the splint as needed to fit the bird’s leg, and then file the ends of the splint to keep the splint from digging into the bird’s leg or body.
Add some padding, like a cotton round, onto the bird’s leg and then wrap the bird’s leg and padding to the bird’s body using gauze or vet tape, vet tape is sometimes called “Hurt Free” in pharmacies.
Using padding between the splint and the bird’s leg is important as this padding will help to keep lacerations or pressure points from developing on the bird’s leg.
Once you’ve cleaned the chicken up and put the leg in the splint you can place the bird in a sling.
Putting the bird in a sling:
Putting the bird into a sling will help the bird’s leg heal, the sling keeps weight off of the leg which will help in recovery. The bird also needs to be put in a sling as it can’t function with just one leg.
You can construct a sling in a small bird cage that the bird can recover in. Start off by tieing a piece of canvas to the four sides of the bird’s cage and create holes in the canvas for the bird’s legs and tail to fit through.
Attach the canvas high enough to where the bird’s legs can touch the floor, don’t attach the canvas too low to where pressure is applied to the bird’s legs.
Put the bird in the sling once it is created.
You can offer the bird low-dose aspirin during its recovery but not too much that the bird doesn’t feel any pain anymore and starts to use its leg as though it isn’t injured.
The bird needs to feel some pain to ensure that it doesn’t put weight on the leg and injure itself even more
What to do during recovery:
Once you’ve splinted the fracture avoid manipulating the bird’s leg even further, let the hip set in peace. However, would need to splint the bird’s leg if swelling develops in the area.
The bird will need supportive care after you splint the leg, supportive care includes isolating the bird, and offering fresh clean water, and fresh food, that the bird can reach in its cage.
Medium-sized birds, like chickens, usually need about 10 days to heal their injuries, but, the bigger the bone the more time it will take to heal.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other chicken related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Mold In Chicken Coop, Chicken Missing Its Top Beak, Chicken Beak Peeling, Growth On Chicken Beak, Baby Chick Not Moving