6 wk cockerel badly scalped..what else can i do?

[kimntep]

This poor little guy. My daughter went out about 3 hours ago to check on everyone and he was hunkered in a corner with most of his scalp gone from right behind his comb thru halfway down his neck and a flap of skin was covering one eye. It obviously happened late in the night or early this morning because they were cared for at 5 pm yesterday and the wounds were already dry and difficult to deal with. I used a bowl of warm water, betadine, cotton balls and q-tips, sterilized tweezers and small scissors. I had to get under that flap of skin that covered his eye with a q-tip and I noticed that each time I tried to pry it up his mouth would open a bit. I finally got it up and as I pulled a 1 1/2" long piece of the end came out of his mouth! I had to moisten everything pretty well with the warm water just to be able to clean his little head. My husband thinks he got his head stuck thru the wire as we have no metal feeders and there's no sign of anything else weird going on or a predator being around. He has not eaten or drank that I know of, but I do have him in a crate in a warm corner, covered with a blanket. He has food in there and I put electrolytes and a little antibiotic powder in his water. His breathing seemed very labored, but when I last checked on him about 15 min. ago, he seems to be resting comfortably, roosting atop the teddy bear that I put in with him. I didn't do neosporin..didn't know to do that until I checked here..but he seems comfortable for now, so should I do that or see how he does thru the night?? I know they can be very resilient, but this is pretty bad. Will try to post pics in the a.m.

 

[dandydoodle]

do you have a pic?

 

[kimntep]

The pictures don't really do it justice. He still has a lot of dried blood in his head and neck feathers and since he's so dark in color, it's really tough to see the extent of the injury. What concerns me most is the fact that his head looks so dried up now. Is that going to cause more damage to the tissue even tho it needs air to heal??

He just stands hunched down, shivering a little, but not as much now as he was. He was resting before I woke him up to take pics. He seems somewhat alert at times, but not moving around much unless he has to. He has talked to me a little and was very grumpy when I doused his head with betadine..other than that he's pretty out of it.

 

[jamesnoldsr]

You could try and sew him up. I had a hen that was scalped by the other chickens and I used a sewing needle and waxed dental floss to sew her head up. The skin was a little stretched at first but loosened up after a little while. Chickens are remarkably resilient and if given half a chance will recover.

 

[kimntep]

The skin is gone. There's nothing to sew and the surrounding skin has already dried out so badly that I couldn't stretch it if I tried. I talked to a friend this morning who's a vet and she said what we are doing is all that can be done at this point. He's warm and clean now, vetrycin on the wounds and I've gotten some medicated water into him. He's pooped 3 times overnight, so that's a good sign and the labored breathing is probably an air sac under the skin that was pulled away from the muscle. We'll watch him close and do all we can. I sure don't want to lose him!