They pecked a HOLE in her ear!**Update: HELP! Wry Neck???

[OmAnNom]

We have two gold sex links hens. My dh surprised me with a 6ish month Silkie from a flock swap; we quarantined her and slowly introduced them. Things were pretty bad for a while, the sex-links were viciouse. Well I thought things were getting better but when I came back from the store the sex-links had pecked a huge HOLE in the baby's ear!!! WHAT DO I DO WITH IT?! How do I clean it? Does it need an antibiotic? What one? I'm so heart broken. She was calm and acting normal, and staying on the opposite side of the yard from the sex-links. Should I just leave her be?

Advice welcomed.

 

[OmAnNom]

She's asleep in her kennel inside the coop. Is it safe to leave her outside with an open wound like that? Will she get an infection? Her bedding and the coop are kept extrodinarely clean.

 

[coopmstr1985]

Hello, sorry to hear about your poor little silkie

. I would first segregate your lady. If she is actively bleeding or the wound is in an obvious spot as in this case, it may make your GSL pick at her more. From there you can use something like peroxide or iodine to clean a typical cut, not sure if I would use it on her ear. Only treat with peroxide or iodine the first time as they will slow the cut from healing. You could probably skip this step if the cut is not to terribly bad and your bird is otherwise healthy. Antibiotics are a good idea, they are available at most local feed stores and easily mixed with the chickens water. These types of injuries are pretty common. This Past week our Rhode Island Red picked the feathers off of our Sultans feet. Once his feet started bleeding it perpetuated the pecking until he lost all of his feet feathers. If they continue to not get along you may have to seperate them permanetly. It sounds like you give your ladies plenty of room to roam, so I wouldn't think boredom is a factor in pecking. If you think boredom is a cause, give them perches, swings, balls, poultry blocks, etc to play with and help cure boredom. I hope they get their pecking order figured out. But if they don't it would give you a reason to get your silkie a roommate!

Hope this helps and keep updating so we know how your girl is doing.

 

[OmAnNom]

I had quarantined her and moved her inside last night to keep an eye on her. The wound appears clean and had begun to scab over to heal, so I did not use an astringent to clean as I didn't want to slow the healing process. I've been giving her antibiotics in her water.

Yesterday: she walked around with her head and neck at a 90 deg angle, with the wounded side facing up to the sky. She would straighten her head and neck to eat and run through the yard. I brought her inside in the afternoon when it began to rain heavily (so I wouldn't have to go back and forth in the rain should she need anything).

Today: she walks around (rather, scoots backwards and falls) with her head and neck turned 180 degrees acting like she doesn't know what way is up. The wound has continued to heal, but her symptoms are worst. Has this permanently damaged her equilibrium???? When I pick her up she swings her head in circles (again, like she's trying to right herself), and stops when I put my hand under her head to support it at a 90 degree. She eats, but not like yesterday - she does not straighten her head and neck past the 90 degrees and is being hand fed. She does allow me to straighten it and touch her, the neck itself does not appear hurt or damaged visually or to the touch.

She is so pathetic looking, my heart is breaking for her and I need to know what else I can do? Can this be fixed?? Or do I need to put her out of her misery?

 

[Ksane]

She may have gotten something from the sex links that she'd never been exposed to, that's not uncommon. There's several diseases that cause it and it may have nothing to do with her injury. It's possible the injury happened *afterwards.

 

[OmAnNom]

I hadn't thought of that. What could she have gotten that would make her crook her neck all crazy?

 

[OmAnNom]

So......I just set her outside and now she's standing up straight.

I was doing some byc research and it sounds like Wry Neck symptoms. Thoughts???

 

[OmAnNom]

The Silkie is significantly better, but still having bouts of what I think is "wry neck." Has anyone here has a situation like this? Was is caused from the trauma or is it genetic?

 

[Ksane]

Here's a quick link:
https://www.google.com/search?q=cro....,cf.osb&fp=6327a0124aa40453&biw=1366&bih=582
My daughter has a Polish who's had 2 episodes of it (wry neck). He was a week old the 1st time and a few wks ago when he was 3mo old. Polish and Silkies are said to be predisposed to it because of their vaulted skulls. I don't know that for a fact, people just say it all the time. My daughter gives hers 1/2 dropper full of PolyViSol baby vitamins (no iron) plus 5 or 6 drops of Vit E daily. She splits the PolyViSol dose up into 2-3 doses per day. For some really strange reason the bird has gotten better each time

 

[Impress]

Let me just throw some information on vaulted skulls in here so you kind of have an idea what that means. Silkies have holes in their skulls. Big open holes leading straight to their little brains. So any trauma or bonks or bumps or well, any head anything, can lead them to go all wonky. I have had one kill itself jumping up into a roost before, they are pretty delicate.