A Chicken Put Back Together Again

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chicken radThis is Little B, a young chicken who took a bad step and broke her leg running around the yard.  This radiograph shows two interesting things. Little B has a broken femur, which is circled in red. It also appears that she is about to lay an egg! She promptly laid it later that night.  

chicken 1This fracture is not likely to heal well on it's own, so the doctors put a pin through the broken fragments to line them up again, and connected it all together on the outside of the body with an "external fixator". In this picture Little B is sporting her fancy external fixator.

 

chicken 2The next day she was able to bear a little weight on that leg. We will be seeing her again to check the fixator and make sure the bone is healing well. Eventually, we will remove the pin and the fixtor. With luck, it should all heal in a few weeks and she will be back out with her flock!