Unsecure chicken perches

[beach chick]

It's just occurred to me that I've never told this story to you omleteers before... so this is how my chickens broke my leg!

 

Jan 2010: about 6pm, dark, raining and windy. I go out to shut the cube, wearing garden clogs and forgetting the torch. negotiate my way to the girls, shut them in, back to electric fence. as I step out, I swivel, slip with my foot in a rut, fall flat on my face and hear a very sharp snapping noise. " *&^%" I think, "I've done something bad here". so obviously I stand up but as soon as I put any weight on my left leg I fall over again.

 

so I crawl back to the house - about 40m, through mud, rain etc and lie piteously on the porch floor moaning for help. DH and youngest come out and help me to the kitchen sofa, where they put a cushion under my foot. "Can you wriggle your toes?" says DH solicitously. "Oh well you've not broken anything then". He goes off to collect oldest from dance and I look at my football sized ankle and think mmmm, perhaps a call to NHS Direct?

 

nice lady says "well if you heard a noise you should probably get it x-rayed". I phone my mum to come and sit with the girls and announce to DH that we need to go to hospital. by now it's 7.45pm. he eventually gets home at midnight - I don't, because I am staying in for a while...

 

to cut a long story short - broken tibia; cracked ankle bone; a chip off another ankle bone - I have surgery the next day to insert a steel plate and 6 screws. 4 days in hospital, lots of morphine, 6 weeks on crutches and no driving, lots of physio - still it's all in working order now, and I'm still quite fond of the little beasts!!!

[Powerlady]

Sounds very painful!! poor you...you gotta love em!!!

[Goosey Lucy]

Oouch!

[mrs chook]

Yowsers!! Poor you

[beach chick]

it was pretty ouch, thank you for your sympathy! I did mean to post at the time but dont have a laptop and needed to keep elevating the leg, which meant 'puter time was pretty much limited to work...

[Gertie]

That sounds painful! I shall definitely not be going out unless armed with my torch!! Get well soon

[chick wiggle]

Good Grief! How did you keep quiet about that for so long! You poor thing, it must have been horrible for you. Im glad to hear its all better now though! Although, im surprised you didnt feast on roast chicken for a few weeks after!

 

(sorry, didnt mean it!!! )

[Plum]

Can't really blame it on the chickens just the netting. I've got my foot caught in it a few times and landed on my bum so now always use a gate

 

Glad you healed alright and hope you made your OH jump through hoops for being so dismissive.

 

My OH has fixed up 5 motion sensitive lights around the run for me this year. Going to be fun seeing whether the girls set them off.

[Egluntyne]

Blimey! Am glad you have made a full recovery.

[Steve the Gas]

Always thought that risk assessment was - common sense - until .............. now.

 

 

 

Glad you are better!!

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Wow, how awful . I hope your chickens laid you lots of eggs by way of apology .

 

Glad you're all mended now .

[Chucky1]

YOUCH! Poor you. Glad you've made a full recovery.

 

Found myself rubbing my leg as I read your story

[Chicken Shirl]

You must have a very high pain threshold I would have been screaming the place down. Glad your all mended and still loving those chooks.

 

Good idea to get some lighting Plum..............I think

[AmberSky]

omg

[A chickychickychick-ENN!!]

oook!

[beach chick]

there were a lot of suggestions from work colleagues that we should eat them... but of course not (although I did just a little).

we've now got some light up tentpegs for the guy ropes which are going on in a day or so. but my torch is my first thought ever since!!

[BocBoc]

Eek! Glad you're all recovered now (rushes off to Google "garden lights")

[beach chick]

cant do the quote thing but of course Plum was right on p.1 - twas the netting's fault, not the chickens! on the other hand, they DID dig the rut I slipped in... and I still trip over the netting even now

[MarkBevBen]

Oh no Beach Chick, that sounded awful - a lesson to us all about slipping over in the mud/rain/wind - wear sensible shoes me-thinks!

 

So glad to hear you've made a good recovery and hope your girls gave you lots of lovely eggs in return for your injuries!

[Medwriter]

I totally sympathise Beach Chick. I thought I was the only person who had broken their ankle while caring for chickens!!!

 

September 2008: I went out just after dark (with torch and wearing 'sensible' shoes) to shut the girls in for the night. I took the short route, which involved crossing a narrow stream (9 ins wide) that runs through the garden. As my right foot (first across the stream) landed it slipped under me, and as I fell I heard that cracking sound I tried to get up but realised it was impossible. I managed to crawl to the and close the door, but couldn't manage the gate into the run. I yelled for OH, who was cooking dinner, but got no response, so I then crawled back to the house the long way, which involved going backwards down a flight of steps. OH eventually appeared at the back door, wondering why I was taking so long to come in for dinner (I had been outside for about 20 mins) and found me in a quivering heap on the patio. I insisted he call an ambulance straight away, 'cos I realised that I needed to get my ankle X-rayed and I couldn't go any further without getting it into some sort of splint. (I had major surgery on my left ankle as a teenager, so had some idea of what I might be facing). The ambulance guys were great, with morphine that helped ease the journey to hospital.

 

Like you I ended up in hospital overnight. I had a fractured fibula and also cracked the base of my tibia, but fortunately I didn't need surgery. But I did have 3 months on crutches, followed by physio etc, during which OH had to do all chicken care, and as a result the girls got very few treats.

 

Fortunately I too made a full recovery, but it was a long time before I took the short cut to the again, and I never do it after dark now!!

[MarkBevBen]

Oh no Alison, you poor thing too!

 

I managed to break the base of my 5th metatarsal, by just 'going over' on my foot (admitedly I'd had a few champagnes ) and ended up in a cast for 8-weeks, so I'm accident prone at the best of times, nevermind in muddy/slippy conditions!

 

Keep safe everyone won't you

[beach chick]

oh medwriter, my partner in shame and pain!! 3 months on crutches is a long time, I was 6 weeks in a cast and then just crutches for another 6 weeks... makes you realise just how much you should appreciate your mobility while you've got it doesnt it! and now of course I am back to normal and running around like the proverbial chicken with two heads, I wish I'd made more of my incarceration!

[Chicken deficient]

Since reading your post, I haven't dared venture down the garden in the dark without a torch

[stoice]

Ouchie. You poor things.

 

No broken bones here but my girls caused my slipped disc. Well sort of.

March 2009: Was trying to scoop the girls back into their WIR. (They'd slipped out while i was topping up their mash). All sorted, girls fed and watered, but late for work now. Was dark. Was raining. Decking was wet. Very wet. Next thing i know I'm lying on my back, wind knocked out of me, back spasming, tears falling, and my dog who thinks I'm playing is barking and licking me all over.

Pain killers, physio, acupuncture and a year and a half later and it's still not right. Doc says backs are funny like that. Great.

Okay not really the girls fault but for all those people with decking - be careful this time of year, they can get very slimy and slippery.

[beach chick]

stoice, I sympathise, discs are AWFUL. is yours getting any better? I ended up having a discectomy (sp?) 9 years ago - honestly it was the best thing I ever did, not that it was very nice at the time as was an emergency, but I am pain-free now.