The Bad Egg

A Family of Injuries

Those of you who know me in real life — which, let’s face it, is probably all of you cause who else would read my chicken blog besides friends and family? — and follow me on Facebook, know that The S.O. injured himself while mountain biking last week. A week before that, we were horribly irresponsible and let The Dog run around on a bunch of jagged rocks at the lake. The rocks cut up his pads so bad he limped and needed to wear the Cone of Shame for a week. Just a few days ago, I managed to cut my hand pretty bad on a broken piece of glass.

Injury of the Week

The chickens are not immune to our bad luck. We’re not sure how it happened, but Wanda injured her foot at some point during the last week. Possibly she jumped off something a little too high, or maybe pinched her toe–I don’t know. What I do know is that one of her toes swelled and twisted a bit so that it doesn’t lie flat on the ground.

She’s still laying an egg every day, walks around ok and jumps up and down from her night perch, but leaving it alone has only increased the swelling and she has a bit of a limp.

I researched the forums on www.BackyardChickens.com to see what other people do with an injured, possibly infected, chicken foot (it’s a pretty common ailment). Many people suggest antibiotics, but I don’t want to go there if I can avoid it.

Cross-species First Aid Kit

After sorting through the various advice, and figuring our family has further injuries in our future, I took a trip to the local drugstore with the specific goal of only purchasing first aid supplies safe to use on ALL members of the family.

Yes, that’s right. I am putting together an all-purpose, cross-species, basic first aid kit.

Here’s what I have so far:

• Aspirin (just need to be careful about correct dosage for our various species and weights.)
• Hydrogen Peroxide
• Neosporin (MUST be original formula. The ‘with Pain Reliever’ version is lethal to chickens. Otherwise it’s fine to use on all members of our family–human, dog, chicken, cat–but should be wrapped well when used on dogs. It’s not healthy for a dog to ingest a lot of neosporin.)
• Cotton Balls
• Bandages (I got the kind that’s easy to cut to fit dog-sized paws, chicken-sized toes, and human-sized shins.)
• Bandage Tape
• VetWrap (self-stick)
• VetBond (super-glue meant to replace the need for stitches. Regular super-glue is toxic when it enters the human bloodstream. A prescription is needed to obtain medical grade super-glue for humans. VetBond has, from what I’ve researched online, the same formula as super-glue for humans, but because it’s for ‘animals’, you don’t need a prescription. Well, humans are animals too, especially when it means saving ourselves a trip to the emergency room. Just be super careful about really cleaning out the wound before sealing it over.)
• Latex Gloves (I got a nice big box of gloves. It makes me feel less when squeamish dealing with various family members blood and other liquids, plus, it’s just more sanitary.)

I’m sure I will add to the above list over time, but it’s a good enough start for now.

One specialty item I added just for Wanda’s toe was a razor blade. I will need to cut into her foot soon and take out the infection.

Stay tuned …

Our chickens have not yet used the nest we set up. I’ve found the eggs on the floor of the coop, on the ground outside the coop and in a plant pot.  It makes me wonder if there are more eggs around the backyard that I just haven’t found yet.

I’ve read in multiple places that chickens like to lay eggs in places where chickens have already laid eggs … get that?

Some people use golf balls to great success, but we decided to go to the local magic store here in Sacramento and bought two fake eggs.  The only color the magic store had was white, hopefully they’ll work anyways. The plan is to place these two fake eggs in the nest as ‘guidance’.

If all goes as planned, the chickens won’t be able to resist laying their eggs alongside the fake ones.