Immediate Help - Hen in pool=Wet cold hen

[IntheClouds]

I came home this afternoon greeted by the men w/a hen they pulled out of the 50 degree or lower swimming pool. Had been floating above water for maybe 30 minutes. Still alive, drying out in warm towels & shots of warm air w/hair dryer. Holding in my lap as I type. Anyone else know what I should do other than keep drying her out,warming her etc ? She's probably in hyperthermia or shock or both. Still blinking on occasion & raising her tail feathers. I'd opt for a quick butcher, but the men can't take that. Do I have it covered for the moment ? anything else I need to be doing ? I can also box her with a lamp if needed. Brahma Buff Orpington mix if that helps.

 

[num]

Grain of salt- I'm speaking from a general pet health perspective, dunno about hens in particular.

Make sure that you warm her slowly. Warming up too fast can cause destruction of tissue. Give her a lukewarm bath (not too hot though, something like 70 degrees F is ideal) for about 15-20 minutes, or if you have hot water packs, you can put those around her underneath the towels. The packs can go a bit warmer than the bath, around 85 degrees F, test on the inside of your wrist.

Try to keep her hydrated as well.

Good luck!

 

[IntheClouds]

Thanks num,
re-inforcing what I thought. Not giving her a bath , trying to dry her out. But circulating ambient air around her some to warm & dry. & I'm warming her a bit underthe towel. She's starting to gick a bit now. So that is promising, I think. Chickens are weird but fun. She could either be in her death throws or coming out of cold & shock.

Thanks for the support. The men in my family can't handle blood. Go figure.

 

[ski diva]

Is there anything madder than a wet hen?

Sorry...couldn't resist.

Hope she's okay. Really.

 

[Pequenita]

I don't have any hen hypothermia tips, but I have to comment that even though this is the miscellaneous section of the boards, I never thought I'd be reading about a hypothermic hen.

Hope she's okay. You can't turn her into dinner after you've held her in your lap as you typed.

 

[IntheClouds]

Is there anything madder than a wet hen?

Sorry...couldn't resist.

Hope she's okay. Really.

No, nothing madder than a wet hen except, a hen that thinks another has stepped outside the pecking order !!! Geez, the pecking order is a true & serious thing. Never believed it till I started keeping chickens.

It's not the wet, she was almost freezing. Therefore acting totallly dead. No movement, flop her on the counter, blow dry her... dead, dead, dead, but, she'll flick an eyelid open once in a while. It's been 3 hours now. She's dry, warmed up. Flapping her wings, moving around, and..... just made a hole in the warm towel & sh** on my jeans, while I'm wearing them..... attacked the whippet pup & now outside & cuddled up with her roomies. If she's alive in the morning I guess we'll be eating the eggs.

 

[IntheClouds]

I don't have any hen hypothermia tips, but I have to comment that even though this is the miscellaneous section of the boards, I never thought I'd be reading about a hypothermic hen.

Hope she's okay. You can't turn her into dinner after you've held her in your lap as you typed.

Yeah, well, what else is there to do when your stuck with a dead wet hen & the men in the house look to you to fix it all? Life in my home gets pretty hilarious, often. My husband just cracks me up, sorta. He can go searching for body parts to be put back on after a car wreck, but can't handle a cut or bloody nose on a family member. My medical decisions are handed over to my best friend, he's that bad.
Hen is now dry, squawking & pecking at the pup. So I just sent her to go cuddle with her flock. Yes, I could turn her into dinner or soup stock. After all, she didn't live for nothing. I would bless her & thank her for her nourishing life giving food. Animals truly are a gift to us all in a multitude of ways. But their carcasses should not be wasted out of sentiment (food type animals that is).

 

[ski diva]

It's a Thanksgiving Miracle!!!!!

She's lucky she isn't a turkey.

 

[Native Vail Gal]

OMG! I'm so glad I didn't see this thread until the good news arrived! I'm SOOOOOOO happy that it turned out that she is ok! I couldn't live in your house if the boys were walking around looking at her as dinner. Yikes!

Not really related, but kindof....I had an old boyfriend make me lobster for dinner once....but he didn't start cooking until I was there....and then he put the LIVE lobster in the boiling water! I thought I WAS GONNA DIE!!!! It actually Screamed!!! :Cry:

I've never had lobster!....AND I dumped him! :D (he was a jerk on so many other levels!)

 

[Robyn]

Not really related, but kindof....I had an old boyfriend make me lobster for dinner once....but he didn't start cooking until I was there....and then he put the LIVE lobster in the boiling water! I thought I WAS GONNA DIE!!!! It actually Screamed!!! :Cry:

I've never had lobster!....AND I dumped him! :D (he was a jerk on so many other levels!)

Uh, Kelly, I hate to be the one tell you this but that is the standard way to cook a lobster.

 

[Native Vail Gal]

Uh, Kelly, I hate to be the one tell you this but that is the standard way to cook a lobster.

I know....that's why I can't eat lobster. It really made me sad. :Cry:

 

[IntheClouds]

OMG! I'm so glad I didn't see this thread until the good news arrived! I'm SOOOOOOO happy that it turned out that she is ok! I couldn't live in your house if the boys were walking around looking at her as dinner. Yikes!

Not really related, but kindof....I had an old boyfriend make me lobster for dinner once....but he didn't start cooking until I was there....and then he put the LIVE lobster in the boiling water! I thought I WAS GONNA DIE!!!! It actually Screamed!!! :Cry:

I've never had lobster!....AND I dumped him! :D (he was a jerk on so many other levels!)

Oh that is so funny !!! Just a slight miscue there. They hand me a dead cold wet chicken & want me to fix it all. Like bring her back to life, they even wanted me to perform CPR. I'm the one in my house that wanted to just fix her for dinner !! They would have freaked !!! Good thing for her she could still move her eyelids a bit convincing me she wasnt dead. (one of the dogs ate the stethescope so who can hear a faint heart beat ?)
If you knew my men, you would know why the whole thing was almost hystericaly funny. Many times I've had to walk to the stables & just bust up laughing at them where they couldn't hear me.

I've heard that about lobsters. There are even spiders that scream when poison is sprayed on them. ewwww achh ! I can't really kill spiders now after that time. We move them outside, except for a blackwidow or scorpion..Those get shop vac'd up if they wander inside.

 

[IntheClouds]

It's a Thanksgiving Miracle!!!!!

She's lucky she isn't a turkey.

Yep, she's lucky.

 

[num]

Glad she's okay.

Black widows are native around your area?

 

[altagirl]

Glad she's okay.

Black widows are native around your area?

I've seen plenty of them in Utah, and have seen them in Germany and elsewhere. I just pulled up a range map and apparently they're really widespread.

They're native to everywhere in the lighter beige color:

 

[Pequenita]

(one of the dogs ate the stethescope so who can hear a faint heart beat ?)

This thread has got to be one of the funniest on TheSkiDiva.com in a long time. I sort of wish you had taken pictures of the wet hen being all fashionably blow-dried and styled.

Anyway, now I'm curious: Is the hen still able to lay eggs?

 

[tradygirl]

^^^^Agreed. This thread kicks butt!

A frozen hen floating in a pool, a range map for black widows, chicken CPR, screaming lobsters, and really cheesy hen jokes.

I seriously thought it was a troll when I first saw the name of the thread, but of course it was just another typical diva problem, and more typical diva solutions.

 

[Native Vail Gal]

^^^^Agreed. This thread kicks butt!

A frozen hen floating in a pool, a range map for black widows, chicken CPR, screaming lobsters, and really cheesy hen jokes.

Ok....now THAT made me laugh!!!!!!! :ROTF:

 

[IntheClouds]

This thread has got to be one of the funniest on TheSkiDiva.com in a long time. I sort of wish you had taken pictures of the wet hen being all fashionably blow-dried and styled.

Anyway, now I'm curious: Is the hen still able to lay eggs?

Yeah, I can be relied upon for some pretty goofy stuff. A picture would have been really good. Wish I'd thought of that. Usually my son takes those weird animal photos, but he was too busy being worried & praying for the chicken to think of that. When I see you in Solitude I'll tell you why it's so darn funny. I don't want my written words to come back & haunt me, so I can't tell here.

I would think she could still lay, but they have all cut back since the chill set in 2 weeks ago, or was it daylight savings ?

 

[IntheClouds]

^^^^Agreed. This thread kicks butt!

A frozen hen floating in a pool, a range map for black widows, chicken CPR, screaming lobsters, and really cheesy hen jokes.

I seriously thought it was a troll when I first saw the name of the thread, but of course it was just another typical diva problem, and more typical diva solutions.

You know, I wouldn't have thought of posting it, but I kept thinking about Gloria"s thread of having it bad with being skunked while I was blowdrying the hen & she wasn't coming around. So I put it out there to help with my patience & I needed more encouragement than I was getting from the upset men. We oughta have a wild/wacky/goofy thread just for laughs.