Chicken First-Aid Kit
As much as we all love our chickens and ducks, something is bound to happen and it is always good to be prepared! From bumblefoot, injury from other birds, frostbite and many more, being prepared can make dealing with these concerns much easier and less stressful!
While I always recommend seeking medical attention for any sick or injured pet, it can be difficult to find a veterinary clinic that will see farm birds. Thankfully many clinics are open to helping when they can and are even starting to see ducks and chicken! Chicken people are savvy though and most things can be treated at home especially with a fully stocked first-aid kit.
Here is what we keep in our chicken first-aid box:
Great for open wounds and bumble foot
This solution can be made into a scrub, rinse or spray, it is a great antiseptic and antibacterial used on wounds
Apply to wounds to help with healing
🐾 Vaseline
On very cold days add a little vaseline to your chickens combs and waddles to help prevent frostbite
🐾 Vet Wrap
Cover wounds, wrap feet, and correct angel wing
Add to water to help replenish birds that are going through a lot of stress, help beat the heat, great to add to chicks water
Use to soak feet that have bumblefoot, cuts on feet, soak egg bound hens, helps swelling, inflammation and soothe the skin
Almost nothing phases a chicken keeper but, it is always good to protect yourself while handling a sick or injured bird and you want to keep any wounds as clean as possible.
Can be used to remove objects from wounds and feet.
Chickens don’t like to sit still, I really like to have bandage scissors on hand along with a regular pair of scissors, bandage scissors have a blunt side so you can get close to feathers and skin without causing damage and accidentally causing more injury
Cut overgrown nails, most chickens are pretty good at keeping their nails short from scratching and walking around. They can also be used to cut an overgrown beak and correct scissor beak, chickens will also naturally keep their beaks short but an underlying condition may result in either of these.
Used to stop bleeding of broken nails and beaks
Please do not apply this to open wounds
Outside of your first aid kit some kind of hospital set up can help you keep an eye on your bird and their recovery. This should be a dry, warm area where the sick or injured bird can be by itself and doesn’t have to move much to reach food and water. You can find our raised brooder we built HERE. Other options you could use are a small dog kennel, plastic rabbit cages, I have even seen people use totes and they work great for them!
Hopefully you won’t have to use your first-aid kit very often or at least for a long time but being prepared will save you the headache of scrambling around trying to find what you need. I have added all of these products to our amazon storefront under the “Chicken MUST haves” category.
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