Chicken First-Aid...
Last week while bringing in the chickens for the night, I noticed smears of blood on the back of one of our white hens. I was immediately concerned that she had been pecked/attacked by our other chickens or even a predator.
I looked around and noticed a second white hen had almost the same amount of blood on the same area of her back.
I was boggled for a minute.
I decided to pick one of the hens up and investigate it. I looked her over and saw the blood was only on the surface of her feathers and there was no visible source.
So, how did it get there?
I looked around the coop and after a few minutes I noticed on the roost where Buckbeak our rooster was standing was a small little blood puddle.
I immediately took a closer look and sure enough, he had blood on his feet and lower legs.
I picked him up and as I looked at it I could see on his one foot, the back toenail was broke off and about half as long as the other.
Now what am I supposed to do?
I was by myself out in the coop, his poor toenail was dripping blood and I had nothing with me to address his need.
My solution?
Bring him in the house, why not!?
I carried him inside so very carefully (I had this fear he would wiggle out of my arms and get loose in the yard and I'd have a terrible time trying to get an injured rooster back into the safety of his run).
I got to the door and my daughter (~H~) came running to my assistance!
First, I needed to get the blood off his legs to be sure he was only bleeding from the one spot so ~H~ got me damp paper towel to wipe off the blood. As far as I could see the source of the blood was from the one spot (the toenail).
I remembered a potential solution from reading posts on THIS forum (amazing site/forum!). The posts were about how to stop bleeding if you were to trim rooster spurs and how sometimes accidental bleeding of the spur occurs or when an accident/injury has occured with the long spur to cause blood. Someone had mentioned using flour or "Quick Stop" blood clotting help.
In my rush to get the blood stopped and not having any of the "Quick Stop" I went with the flour. My daughter got me a bowl of it and I tried to put Buckbeak's back toenail into the flour.....not easy! He didn't want to relax his feet (kept them clenched) and every time he shifted in my arms/lap the flour/blood blob would come off and not clot.
Needless to say, it wasn't looking like it was going to work well at all.
By this point, I had blood and flour on my jacket, pants and floor! It was quickly becoming a quite the mess!
He wasn't bleeding too badly, but it just wasn't stopping and I was beginning to get a bit concerned.
After fighting with the flour method for about 20 minutes, my super smart - quick thinking daughter remembered she had seen on a "German Shorthaired Pointer - Puppy" DVD that they recommended cornstarch if your puppy/dog had a toenail bleed. I was so impressed with her recalling of that tip by continuing to try to come up with a solution to our problem even though she saw me addressing it (but not succeeding). Way proud of her!
She ran to the kitchen and brought me the box of cornstarch. I poured a bit on the toenail after wiping the excess flour/blood blob off and waited to see if this worked better.
After re-applying (without wiping) a couple times it seemed to be working. Things had definitely slowed down. I continued to sit with him in my arms for about 15 more minutes with the cornstarch on his toenail just to be sure it was stopped for good.
I checked it over and it looked good.
Thank goodness it worked!
Yay!
Buckbeak was going to get to go back into the coup with his ladies!
Below: Buckbeak and I hanging out in our bathroom mending his toenail! Such a good rooster!
**I know I have read people put antibiotic ointments/meds on wounds but for this I chose not to. Instead I have kept a really close eye on it and things are perfectly back to normal and he's happy as can be! Also, a vet friend of mine mentioned that silver nitrate cautery sticks can stop bleeding from toenail bleeds etc. I will have to look into them for the future!**
