Hen missing a huge chunk of her back... bigger than a deck of cards

[oilcan]

The poor thing is a victim of henpecking. I am just sick about this.

Yesterday we noticed that a hen we knew was at the bottom of the order has been seriously damaged by her flock. It was hard to see the wound because she has long feathers covering most of the damage. I don't have pictures but I will try to get some today. In short, she is missing a huge chunk of flesh from her back, near the joint of her right leg. Possibly part of the leg is missing. She seems to be walking ok and she laid an egg overnight. (We sequestered her yesterday once we realized how bad the problem is.)

So part of what we are trying to figure out is, is it even possible to recover from a wound this bad? Should we just cull her to be merciful at this point? If she does pull through, will the flock just do this again? Is the flock likely to do this again to a different hen? Or was this probably some fluke?

She is a Wyandotte, I think... (We got the 25 brown layer mix and I'm not always sure which breeds are which, sorry!) and she is a year old.

 

[hennyannie]

She can recover from that wound. I had a hen get a huge hole eat in her back, I applied blood stop and blu-kote and seperated her and you cant tell it happened now. When i reintroduced her to the flock I put a roo with her and then put both back in a larger pen with the flock. It went well.

 

[Judy]

Sorry you are going through this. Chickens are little dinosaurs.

Chickens heal remarkably well. If you get her healed she will be at the bottom of the pecking order when reintroduced, though -- so something will have to be done to reduce the possibility of her, or another, getting the same treatment. Really, no one but you can decide whether to nurse the wound or cull.

The 3 usual causes of severe pecking/feather pulling are too little space, too little protein in the feed, and/or boredom. Really the boredom is usually a function of too little space. If you feed scratch or cracked corn as a main part of the diet rather than an occasional treat, that is also a common cause.

Sometimes I've recommended that someone just open their pen and let the chickens wander in the woods, pasture, whatever. Even when this really exposes them to predators. If the cannibalism is bad enough they're going to die of it anyway.

We have a few threads in the FAQ section that address these issues; I'll link them for you.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=34705
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=31291
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=36139
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=30486

 

[oilcan]

Quote:
We can't have Roos where we live, but thanks for the encouragement about the healing!

 

[oilcan]

Quote:
Dinosaurs! Of course!

You have given me a lot to think about here... a lot of good options. Thank you for taking the time.

 

[aukuma]

I had this happen to a silkie. I actually took her to the vet. They could not close the wound since there was so much skin missing. They gave me Chlorhexidine solution to scrub her wound twice a day. I was told not to put anything else on it. (I had been using blu kote) I scrubbed it twice a day untill it had a hard scab. She picked the scab herself so I scrubbed it when it was open and it scabbed over again. The hole is now about the size of a dime, but she keeps picking the scab.

I also separated her, she's in the house wearing a diaper. Its been a month.

 

[Picky Chicky]

The causes of injury aren't related, but here's what we've been dealing with...

We had a bear attack our chickens two Monday's ago, and our dog stopped the bears (momma and her cub) just before they killed the rooster. His feathers had been ripped out on most of his back (about the size of the top of your hand), and when we found him, the wound had already scabbed over. We watched him closely figuring there wasn't much we could do (this was our first time ever having an injured chicken in the two+ years we've been raising them - luck I guess). I suppose sitting back and waiting was a very bad idea.

Yesterday we had to put him down because the would had "caved in"?? And inside of the wound there were hundreds of black bugs and maggots. He seemed so healthy otherwise - we had no idea the wound was festering under the scab. I almost lost my breakfast when I watched him happily eating the bugs out of his wound.

My brother (ever the medic) came by and "dispatched" him. He said he wasn't sure if it was the bugs that did it, or the bear, but you could see the rooster's internal organs. None of us understands how in the world he made it so long. Aside from the scabbed wound (prior to it caving in), he seemed to be happy and healthy. Crowing, eating, drinking and "carrying on" with his ladies.

Makes me recall the story of "Mike the Headless Chicken" - just my story was a lot more nasty.

I get the worst chicken mommy of the year award.

 

[oilcan]

Oh dear! What a terrible story! I will stay on top of the wound... there is very little scabbing over at this time, so I think we are safe on that count.

 

[mothersin2ition]

we have a hen we call "zombie chicken" because she was seriously injured to the point that the flesh was gone on the back of her head, all the way down to the bone. I quarantined her from the others and wouldn't you know it, she healed up!! The back of her head is still bald, it never did grow feathers back but that was about 2 years ago and she is still healthy as can be today. We just couldn't believe that she survived that serious of an injury. My husband wanted to put her out of her misery but I said no, lets see if she makes it.... I'm so glad we gave her the chance. So, like the others said, stay on top of cleaning the wound and she could very easily recover. Good luck!