Chicken’s scabs not healing—it’s been more than half a year

[Laylashens]

I see a lot of lice nits in the scabs, so hopefully the NuStock cream will help take care of some of those.

Have you dusted her with a Permethrin based poultry dust?

As for the scabs. I'm not sure what's causing those, if it's severe infection from the lice coupled with skin irritation and feather cysts, breast blister or if she has some type of cancer.

With such a build up of scabs, I'm not sure if they can safely be removed all at once. Perhaps, a little at a time to soften them up.

I'm going to tag in @azygous for her thoughts, but I'd definitely treat for lice to help her feel more comfortable.

Thank you. I haven’t done permethrin yet but I think we have some hiding in the house somewhere so I will try and find it tomorrow. I’ll also give her a warm soak with some hibiclens mixed in. I also bought some more Nu Stock to apply every few days.

As for the original injury/wound, we have no idea what happened but it seemed to happen suddenly. One day she was completely normal and her spunky self, and then the next we immediately saw something was off, and found the scabs (much smaller than they are now) and some yellowy skin. The biggest one between her legs didn’t even look like it was there, or it was too small to notice under her feathers. I found some more photos we took a few days after discovering the injury last June.

 

[mg15]

Around august of last year, one of our BOs who’s about 7 years old now got a big wound on her chest. We don’t know how it happened and it was already covered by a big bulky scab by the time we found it. It smelled infected and we gave her antibiotic injections for awhile, and she seemed to be improving a little. Compared to before though, she is much slower, but is still mentally sharp, and happily eats and drinks and walks around outside, albeit at a very slow pace. She’s been having some trouble getting down from the coop in the mornings lately, and is doing this funny walk where she brings her right leg up to rub it against where the scab is. She stands around a lot and doesn’t move. Her comb and wattle have also shrunk, and have gotten a lot more pale. I picked her up and examined her underside the other day, and I found that the scabs from last August were still there and just as large. No skin healing has taken place. I’m afraid to remove them, as they’re quite large and I don’t know just how deep they go, but if it can help her out and initiate a proper healing process, then it would be worth it. Any advice on how to go about this? I have included a photo of the scabs as well.

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Hi, my Japanese bantam started this same type of scabbing about 2 months ago. I took her to a chicken Veterinarian and he said that her Follicles of her feathers could of her feathers Will not produce feathers for her anymore . Her skin underneath all of those scabs have a little puss on them. He said that she has no underlying skin to grow any feathers.And it's just raw under there her scabs. And he said it would not be cured. He recommended giving her silver sulftwice a day and I and I do Soak her once a day in surgical.Surgical liquid liquid wash and also Iodine. She is thirteen years live In a cage and the. the kitchen. She is losing some weilate because of how much we mess with her.She doesn't like it, so we are going to tube.Feed her a little bit to bring up her immune system.

 

[Eggcessive]

@Laylashens is she doing any better? If you are still doing the daily warm soaks, I would use a washcloth to rub off a little of the softened scabs. It will take a lot of work to get her cleaned up. Honestly, I would consider putting her down, since she may be suffering.

To prevent the others from getting the lice, I would completely empty all of the bedding from the coop and nest boxes. Then spray the empty coop with permethrin and spray to roosts before adding new bedding. Permethrin spray or the garden dust can be used on the other chickens, and it may need to be repeated in 10 days on them to get the newly hatched eggs.

 

[Laylashens]

@Laylashens is she doing any better? If you are still doing the daily warm soaks, I would use a washcloth to rub off a little of the softened scabs. It will take a lot of work to get her cleaned up. Honestly, I would consider putting her down, since she may be suffering.

To prevent the others from getting the lice, I would completely empty all of the bedding from the coop and nest boxes. Then spray the empty coop with permethrin and spray to roosts before adding new bedding. Permethrin spray or the garden dust can be used on the other chickens, and it may need to be repeated in 10 days on them to get the newly hatched eggs.

Hi, sadly she died a few weeks ago after contracting flystrike. They ate off all the scabs and I was trying to soak her to get the maggots off but she was too weak and died right there and then. I do have two other chickens now that are acting weird but they don’t seem to be related. One has balance issues and keeps falling over but acts perfectly normal otherwise. The other walks funny, drools a bit, and keeps trying to push something out. I checked and there is no egg that is stuck. I’ll make separate threads for those and tag you all in them.

 

[Laylashens]

Hi, sadly she died a few weeks ago after contracting flystrike. They ate off all the scabs and I was trying to soak her to get the maggots off but she was too weak and died right there and then. I do have two other chickens now that are acting weird but they don’t seem to be related. One has balance issues and keeps falling over but acts perfectly normal otherwise. The other walks funny, drools a bit, and keeps trying to push something out. I checked and there is no egg that is stuck. I’ll make separate threads for those and tag you all in them.

I also treated the coop with permethrin to prevent any more lice issues, and none of the hens themselves seem to have bad lice, as they are able to dust bathe.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry that you lost her. Did you figure out what the scabs came from? It sounds like she had a horrible time with the lice, the maggots, and then the others who were eating her scabs. I would have separated her from the others.
I would check them again, because lice are hard to get rid of, and if one had them, they all probably have some. Look under vents and on the skin for fast moving tan bugs. The lice eggs are white to gray clumps at the base of feathers. Permethrin should be used on the chickens at least twice every 10 days, since it kills live lice, and then the eggs hatch , and the cycle begins again.

 

[Laylashens]

Sorry that you lost her. Did you figure out what the scabs came from? It sounds like she had a horrible time with the lice, the maggots, and then the others who were eating her scabs. I would have separated her from the others.
I would check them again, because lice are hard to get rid of, and if one had them, they all probably have some. Look under vents and on the skin for fast moving tan bugs. The lice eggs are white to gray clumps at the base of feathers. Permethrin should be used on the chickens at least twice every 10 days, since it kills live lice, and then the eggs hatch , and the cycle begins again.

Sorry I meant that the maggots ate off her scabs, not the other chickens. The rest of the girls were very kind to her, fortunately, as she was the oldest of the flock and the matriarch. We did isolate her but then she got the flystrike which caused them to come off.

I’ll go out today and check out the lice situation as well. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Eggcessive]

The permethrin spray when used on the coop walls, roosts and nest boxes for lice, can help to keep flies out of the coop for about 30 days. Permethrin 10 concentrate in pint or quart containers (Martin or Gordons brands) is sold by TSC and online. It is mixed with water 1 tsp per quart or 4 tsp per gallon in a garden sprayer or spray bottle, and is pretty economical, starting around $10 for the pint.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/gordons-permethrin-10-livestock-and-premise-spray-32-oz