A Chicken Keeper’s Life As Told Through Injuries 3

When I was a kid my mum, would advise me to stop my whining and fussing over my boo-boos. We’re of good British stock; translation: it’s a matter of pride to keep a stiff upper lip in the face of pain or adversity. Curiously though, she did like to show off any war-wounds that she had incurred. Many years ago, she sustained a substantial purple bruise on her thigh while tobogganing. To my horror, she would whip her pants down in front of anyone – including my grade 5 classmates – to show it off. Believe me, it took far too many days for that bruise to lose its shock appeal.

I’ve grown up to be a bit of a chip off the old block. If I sustain an injury – a paper cut, bruise, burn or a bleeder – I want the attention it deserves. I can’t tell you how disappointed I am to have a painful injury without much to show for it. The best ones are dramatic looking without the suffering. Nothing like milking something for all it’s worth.

Over the years I’ve experienced my share of chicken-related injuries: scratches, bites, cuts, slivers, falls, sprains and one hospital visit to be fitted with a temporary cast.

I know misery loves company so I’ve collected a number of similar issues experienced by other chicken keepers. Don’t look if you’re squeamish and if you’re a show-off send me your own story and photos that I will add to the next edition.

When the rooster wiggles and the Blukote fights back – Unknown

I got bitten by a squirrel while trying to get it out of the coop. – Sarah Martin

They all tripped me during treat time. -Christine Rivera

Stabbed myself a few nights ago making nesting boxes. First time I’ve ever gotten stitches. – Jade Fulop

I ran from my rooster and folded my foot in half. Two days later my husband tore his knee cap sliding off the roof. – Melissa Kendall

Flicking the hose off the fence giving them water. Metal nozzle flew up in the air came down on my forehead. Four stitches and a head CAT scan! – Leslie Cropper Mills

Windchill of -17F in Wisconsin today, so I ran out to grab any eggs to keep from freezing. Slipped/tripped coming out of the gate and smashed my face on the 2”x4” around the beautiful giant gate my fiancé built this summer. Possibly broke my nose but NOT the egg in my pocket. – Sarah Dulluhn

Dear coop builders: Please ensure you wear appropriate footwear and safety gear working on a project or using power tools. I got lazy today and went back to help my husband stretch some fence for our chicken yard. While messing with the fence pulling attachment, I dropped a 4′ steel bar on my foot, while I was wearing sandals. I know better. I fear there’s a walking boot in my future. – Liane Pomfret

This is what the rooster did to my fiancé. Three small holes and then 15 hours later. – Brittany Lauren Davis

I was coming out of the coop holding my granddaughter. There was a mole run that I stepped in with one foot and snap. Then the other and snap. I fell to the ground – didn’t drop the baby or break any eggs! I broke the same bone in each ankle. Do not wear flip flops! – Debbie Maggi

I broke my foot four days before my wedding. – Laura Ann

I fell on the ice carrying water and scratch to my flock. I got soaked from the water but didn’t break my hip. I had a huge bruise for two weeks. I’ve ordered shoe spikes to help walk on ice. Here is a picture of one day in our week long ice storm. It’s a long walk across that area to the chicken yard. It rained and it was so cold we had 3″ cover of ice on everything which took a week to melt.- Lora Ford Taylor

Seems innocent enough, right? Wrong. We have a new puppy, and he leaves everything, everywhere, including right next to the sliding glass door. We also have 23 chicks and 10 ducklings. I go out and check on them periodically because even on my best days, I’m still a helicopter mom. So back to the puppy. I was in a rush to get outside to help my fiancé unload a new-to-us refrigerator from the truck and there was the sharpest, biggest bone in all of the land right in line for me to smash my big toe into. Small cut, not horrible, but I wear flip flops constantly so I didn’t want it to get infected. We unloaded the fridge and I went inside to clean up and throw a bandaid on.

Headed back outside to be a helicopter mom and check on the babies and it’s an immediate mistake. I no sooner got past the gate on my way to the little coop to check on the babies and it’s on. Every single one of my 40 grown chickens starts attacking my foot. Not just a little, a lot, like it owes them money. I made it out just in time thankfully one second longer and they would and ripped it off, did a sacrificial dance and that would have been the end. Word to the wise, chickens hate the colour red. – Ashley Helwig

A quick PSA: Always wear eye protection around your chickens! Here are the before and after pics. We absolutely loved our rescue hen Shelby. She was better behaved than our lap dogs. She loved cuddles and loved being held, but the one thing she didn’t like was her reflection in my eye one evening. She pecked me right after I took off my sunglasses. Thank God, no infection, just a really bad deep scratch on my cornea. This was over almost a months ago. My eye is not healing well so I might have to have an amniotic membrane placed over the cornea to help with healing. So words to the wise… learn from my mistake! – Shasta Carr Johnson

I just wanted to share this with y’all. My daughter was playing in our coop the other night and spooked a hen that flew down from the roost, scratching her face. It was a pretty superficial scratch, but we cleaned it up and put some Neosporin on it. It seemed to heal up well, however my daughter got sick. We didn’t think much of it, just normal flu type symptoms: nausea, fever, diarrhea. However, a few days ago the scratch started getting red, with a red rash. It turns out she got cellulitis. I have been around farm animals and chickens my whole life and I really didn’t think it was a big deal. What we are thinking is that she got sick at the same time as the scratch and that’s why her immune system was compromised. But please y’all be careful with yourselves and your little ones! Get it checked out even if you think it’s no big deal! -Anonymous

Thanks to everyone who shared their stories and photos. Feature photo credit: Unknown If you’ve got something you’d like to contribute drop me a line via the ‘contact’ button on my homepage.

“Keeping chickens and keeping it real.”