Case Study: Broken Leg 2

This latest case study involves a family committed to both their daughter’s aspirations to become a vet and to getting the care required to fix their hen’s injury. Kudos to them, and their vet, for giving Raven a chance at having a normal life.

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Raven, Easter Egger, 21 Months old

Day 1: Our daughter, Lily, brought to our attention that Raven was immobile and hiding. The injury had to have happened earlier that day as she was roosting with the others in the morning. I have a lot of experience caring for various injuries, and we could feel the break pretty easily. Raven is a pretty tame bird and was allowing us to try to line up the break, but just by feel we could tell it was pretty bad and we were unable to align it in order to put a splint on. I texted my vet who discussed the possibility of doing an external fixation, but would need to see her in person to determine if that was possible.

Having grown up around animals my whole life (I’m 46) I have had to put down dozens of animals for various reasons. Culling Raven from the flock would have been an easy thing to do, but we also saw the opportunity to learn something from this.  I had no idea a chicken’s leg could be pinned. Our 12-year-old daughter Lily excels in the animal and agricultural sciences and has a goal of being a vet and owning an animal rescue one day. We are by no means rich people, so my wife and I had a sit down with her. The discussion was about the care that Raven would need, and if we were going to spend this money, then we would want her to monitor Raven and handle the aftercare. We also wanted her to share the X-rays with her science teacher and 4H discussing what we were doing to care for her, so she could truly have an educational experience. The opportunity for Lily was fantastic and next year in school she is registered for an Agricultural Sciences class with subtopics in Veterinary Science and Veterinary Surgery (as an 8th grader). We hope that through Future Farmers Of America (FFA) and 4H and other resources that she can get some college scholarships, making this expenditure an afterthought.

Day 2: Our veterinarian, Dr. Jammie VerGiesen, saw Raven that morning and did a radiograph with indicated “a simple comminuted, closed transverse fracture at the distal metaphysis of the left tibiotarsus”. In other words, a clean break in her upper leg. He gave us options on care, which included pinning the leg, or amputation. It was highly unlikely this would heal on its own, especially being with the rest of the flock. Though the cost estimate was much higher than we wanted to spend, curiosity got the best of us, and with an opportunity for our daughter to be a part of the process (everything except the surgery) and for her to handle the aftercare, we decided to have the leg pinned.

Lily was there for the assessment, radiograph and interpretation, discussion of our options, and was given the aftercare instructions directly.

The vet technician plucked feathers off Raven’s leg and we were given an estimated time of 25-30 minutes for the surgery. It took an hour, as Dr. Jammie had to struggle with getting the two parts of the bone lined up properly and then pinned the leg with an external fixator device. Raven came out of surgery drooling a little and groggy, but traveled home well.

Week 1: The aftercare consisted of Meloxicam (1.5mg/ml: 0.8ml) pain medication in liquid form that Raven took each evening for a week, as well as 62.5mg Clavamox, an anti-inflammatory pill twice a day for two weeks. She was separated from the flock for a few weeks. On nicer days we put her kennel near them so she had some company.

Week 2: The plaster that held the pins in the leg had worn loose and fell off. The pins stayed in place, but would poke her body, so Dr. Jammie actually stopped at our house and fixed the issue right in our garage for no charge. It’s great having an amazing vet.

Week 4: We had another radiograph done. The healing was noticeable with new bone developing at the break, but it wasn’t strong enough yet.

Week 6: The pins were removed. Raven made a full recovery.

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From a practical standpoint, the cost of just over $1000 was not worth it, but we looked beyond that. Nine times out of ten this is a cull situation. Thankfully we have an excellent and honest vet. He’s been to our farm a few times for our goats and he’s never done anything without giving us an idea of cost. Yes, we overpaid for the value of what the animal can return to us in a monetary sense, but we saw the value in the learning opportunity. If the payback is Lily getting a scholarship, I’ll call this an expensive lottery ticket.

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Many thanks to Joe, Shelby and Lilian Moore for sharing their story and photos, used with permission, and to Dr. Jammie VerGiesen of the Hometown Veterinary Clinic, Oconto Falls, Wisconsin for performing the surgery to give Raven quality of life.