Chicken lost the back of her neck?

[PonderingKiwi]

Hello! So, a little background.. we went outside today to try and catch the rooster. We were going to put Vaseline on his huge wattles. And we notice one of our ISA Browns is holding her head kinda funny and her neck looks wet. I pick her up to investigate (and she let me which was the first red flag) and it’s not wet.. it’s hard.. almost like glue. She’s bald on the back of her neck and has a ton of feather stuck in this hard substance holding her head close to her body. We bring her inside and put her in the tub.. I start gently trying to loosen the feathers with warm water while we try to figure out what it could possibly have been. We can’t come up with anything and the feathers aren’t loosening. I try some oil next and send my husband into the yard to look for anything sticky or out of the ordinary. He comes back in fairly quickly with the entire back of her neck. Her feathers weren’t pulled out.. her skin was pulled off entirely. He says he found it right by the fence in the back of the yard. So now we’re thinking.. ok.. so something grabbed her and tried to pull her through the fence maybe? The geese or our rooster must have scared it off before it could pull her head completely off. Instead of trying to loosen the feathers.. I just start clipping them as carefully as I can.. just enough to free her head so she can eat and drink. We washed it with antibacterial/antimicrobial soap, put some peroxide on it, dabbed it dry gently, put some antibiotic ointment on it, and put her in the chicken hospital with some food and chicken electrolyte water. These are our first chickens. Is there anything else we can do? Anything we should be doing? What do we do tomorrow? We don’t currently have vet money. She’s not bleeding. It clearly hurts but she doesn’t appear lethargic. Im just not sure how to help her or how to proceed so any advice is most welcome. I don’t want to lose her and I want to make her recovery as pleasant for her as possible. I’ll attach some pictures of her neck before and after I freed it, the flesh, and our chicken hospital. Thanks in advance

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Wow. Poor thing. I think you're probably right, a raccoon (most likely) tried to pull her through the fence. So far you've done everything right. Clean the wound, keep it moist with Neosporin Original ointment (should NOT have pain reliever in it), treat for shock, protect from flies.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

You'll want to keep this type of thing from happening again. Line your fence from the ground to 4' up with hardware cloth so predators can't reach through.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Oh, and no need to use peroxide again. You can make saline solution using 2 tsp salt and a pinch of baking soda to a quart of boiled and cooled water. Shake to dissolve. Use that for cleaning twice daily. Easiest to put it in a spray bottle. Then use the ointment and spray with Veterycin to protect it and keep it moist. It will heal from the edges to the center in a couple of weeks.

 

[PonderingKiwi]

Wow. Poor thing. I think you're probably right, a raccoon (most likely) tried to pull her through the fence. So far you've done everything right. Clean the wound, keep it moist with Neosporin Original ointment (should NOT have pain reliever in it), treat for shock, protect from flies.

Shoot. Why no pain reliever? I already used one with it

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Shoot. Why no pain reliever? I already used one with it

All the Educators advise against it. I'm not exactly sure but I think it's bad for chickens somehow. Let's ask @Eggcessive or @azygous to tell us, if either of them is up at this hour. Meanwhile, if you must put something on her to keep it moist until you can buy some without pain killer, use Vaseline (petroleum jelly) or even honey. Yes, honey. It's sterile and has antibiotic properties, I believe.

 

[PonderingKiwi]

All the Educators advise against it. I'm not exactly sure but I think it's bad for chickens somehow. Let's ask @Eggcessive or @azygous to tell us, if either of them is up at this hour. Meanwhile, if you must put something on her to keep it moist until you can buy some without pain killer, use Vaseline (petroleum jelly) or even honey. Yes, honey. It's sterile and has antibiotic properties, I believe.

Thank you for your help I just frantically googled it and someone on here said the -caine family of meds is extremely toxic to chickens, but Pramoxine HCI is alright. After a minor heart attack and racing to the bathroom.. our generic brand triple antibiotic ointment only has Pramoxine HCI in it so she’ll be ok! We have her inside so no flies. Should we bandage it? Is there a chicken pain killer? Surely that is incredibly painful.

I am so glad whatever it was didn’t rip her head off. I don’t think I’d have ever recovered we’re going to add more fencing to the fence for sure. We did see a coon running up a road a block away.. husband got out his .22 and we’re on coon watch. I assume it’ll be back now that it knows they’re here. It’s our first run in with a predator

 

[Lillith37]

Should we bandage it?

Keep the wound moist with ointment but leave it uncovered to heal.

 

[Lillith37]

Is there a chicken pain killer?

Tramadol is actually quite a safe painkiller for chickens but not sure if you could get that without a vet prescription.

 

[PonderingKiwi]

Thank you. I suppose I should ask if anyone has any idea on how to get the feathers unstuck? I clipped them, but I can’t get them off of her. It’s seriously like they’re glued to her. I don’t understand it