Underwear Chick Has Exposed Tailbone

[REDdragon95]

Hello, about two or three weeks ago one of our buff orphington hens hatched a chick of her own kind and an adopted egg from our barred rock hen. Sadly two other chickens didn't make it out of their eggs, but such is life. The underwear chick was healthy but I found the barred chick crawling in the floor of the coop with a big gash behind its eye. I took them both inside and sprayed the one with bluekote. Now, after a few weeks and a full set of feathers, I tried to move them outside as the barred chick has fully healed and has an awesome scar to boot.

I tried to introduce the barred hen to the two chicks (She pecked a few times, but then settled in with them) and left them that night. The next day, I found that the chicks had gotten out and tried to track them down through our wooded area begind the house. As it was full of weeds, they managed to slip away. Now, at this time the underwear chick did not have their injury. I had managed to almost scoop my hand under them so I got a good look. I am guessing that this was midday. That night, I went outside to fix the door to their shack (We had a shack for broilers, no broilers currently, and a coop for our layers. The chicks are in the shack.) I saw the chicks had returned, but did not look any closer at them as I was working in the door. I reintroduced the barred hen to the chicks area and shut up the door for the night.

Earlier today, I went out to check on them and found that the underwear chick's tail was halfway ripped off and they had a back of exposed skin halfway up their back and spreading under their wingtips. The bone is clearly visible and is hanging down. I took them inside, sprayed it all with bluekote, and removed the barred hen. Currently, the chick is out there with the barred chick. I am extremely doubtful that the tail will heal to any extent and I can try to take a picture tomorrow.

I don't know what caused the injury, but I doubt it was pecking. The known threats are the barred hen (Normal hen behaviour, and apparently she had found a clutch of eggs hidden in the shack so she may have gotten protective), a fully grown German Shorthair (Normally leaves the chickens alone but occassionally "plays" with them when she is particularly hyper), a few months old German Shepard (Chases the hens all the time and is the likely suspect), five outdoor cats, and a wooded area with the occassional pest such as raccoons or a bird of prey.

The patch of skin had healed over and besides a couple of feathers stuck in the wound, it seemed red and healthy with no odd green spots. My mother told me not to try and clean it and I complied as it didn't seem too terribly dirty anyways. My biggest concern is the tail. It looks as if someone were to take a knife from the back of your knee right up to the patella and let it hang open right there. It seems to just has a bit of skin holding the tailbone on, and I feel like even if it were to heal over, its opened up enough that anything could rip it off anyways.

What would be the best course of action here? Keep my eye on it and continue using bluekote? Finish the operator's attempt and take the tail off? Tell the chick to look into the sunset due to the risk of infection?

Sorry for the long post, I look forward to any replies.

Here is the picture of a healed up Rogers, the barred chick. I may or may not have recently gone off on a Golden Age of Piracy binge that inspired the name.

 

[Tesumph]

Pictures would be immensely helpful.
Going to have to disagree with your mom here, cleaning is definitely necessary, preferably with betadine and a saline rinse. If the bone is undamaged then there is a good chance of recovery, but if the bone is already severed and it’s only hanging on by skin then the rest needs to come off. Either way, with exposed bone that chick needs to heal indoors without a doubt.
Keeping the wound moist with ointment or honey and wrapping it until the skin grafts back down is a vague first step, but that is without seeing pictures.

Your setup sounds a little concerning.. do you often lose birds to these dogs? Can you set up a fence or at least a protected area for the broody?

 

[REDdragon95]

The shack has an enclosure outside of it with a tall fence and chicken wire, I didn't notice but there was a small gap they could sneak through. Dance, the shorthair, completely ignores the chickens barring the occasional sniff. The puppy has been around for a few weeks and hasn't yet hurt the hens though she chased one of the underwears a week ago. The cats all ignore the chickens too but they would probably be really interested in the chicks if they weren't in the shed or enclosure.

The board in the back of the enclosure is normally blocking off the entrance. I put it in front of the door for a bit as it had a buildup of dirt and hay before I cleared it out. We used the area for a pig a couple months ago.

 

[REDdragon95]

The barred hen is back in the coop with the other hens. I moved the eggs from the shack into their laying boxes and she's sitting on them now.

 

[REDdragon95]

We let our chickens roam about our property. The dog and cats ignore them, and the puppy is starting to leave them alone as well. She was actually somewhat terrified of them when we first got her.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would tempted to soak the red chick’s lower parts in Epsom salts water or weak betadine, to soften and clean the crud off her tail area. Then dry her well and apply plain Neosporin ointment twice a day. Keep her warm until she is totally dry. Vetericyn Wound Spray is very good to use daily to clean the wound, then repeat the Neo Ointment. Good luck.