advice for chicken with a head wound?

[AceWeasel]

so, a little over a week ago I found one of my hens, a sweet little silkie/orpington mix named Sweetie, with a very nasty head wound. skin was missing, you could see part of her skull, and half her face was bruised to the point one eye was swollen shut. I separated her and put some drawing salve on it (we were out of neosporin and that's what I use on stuff that neosporin doesn't help, part of my immune system is crappy enough open wounds on me can sometimes get infected quite easily) and put her in the largest hard side cat carrier we had, keeping an eye on her.

she's looking better now and she's graduated to a larger crate, but I'm still worried about her head. is there anything I'll need to take special care with if the skin doesn't grow back? may we need to take her inside in winter, since I'm in Michigan and winters can get pretty chilly (and the odd 100F day in summer isn't out of the normal either).

we do plan to try and get her use to wearing hats, my sister-in-law's mom may be willing to make some for us. she had such a cute crest on her and a cute hat for her would make up for her losing it. we're also getting rid of the roosters (both because of recent zoning changes which make keeping roosters a non-option and because I expect the one that's a horny enough little bugger he makes our drake look like a gentleman is probably where the injury started) and one of the more aggressive hens as well.

I'm just really worried about any possible complications that could come up, short term and long term (since she's looking better each day, she even laid an egg since it happened). I apologize for any incoherence, it's been rough for me lately, my health problems started flaring up, then Sweetie got injured, then two days after that our turkey started having health problems and had to be put down, and I'm still keeping a really close eye on Sweetie and it's all taking a toll on me.

 

[Ducksandchickens]

Can u post pics of the wound

 

[AceWeasel]

here's a pic. the salve I put on her is dark colored and still kind of sticking in places, we switched over to a poultry wound spray that I'm putting on with a dropper to make sure it doesn't get into her eyes. the swelling on the side of her face has gone down and it's an issue anymore, I'm mostly worried about the main part of the injury. she's perked up to the point she tried to make a break for it and almost ran into the main part of the house when I was getting ready to take that pic.

 

[AceWeasel]

she's perky and popped out another egg this morning, but I'm still worried about complications.

 

[AceWeasel]

still looking for advice/tips.

 

[Unexpected chicken lover]

That resembles a wound one of my (then) 2 month old chicks had from a very overzealous cockerel trying to mate with her. I treated with vetrycyn spray 4x daily and that was it. She hasn't grown feathers back yet, but she also hadn't molted yet so we shall see if they do then. She's perfectly healthy otherwise. I have yet to see how she does in winter as well but I'm hoping for the best

 

[AceWeasel]

That resembles a wound one of my (then) 2 month old chicks had from a very overzealous cockerel trying to mate with her. I treated with vetrycyn spray 4x daily and that was it. She hasn't grown feathers back yet, but she also hadn't molted yet so we shall see if they do then. She's perfectly healthy otherwise. I have yet to see how she does in winter as well but I'm hoping for the best

did she grow skin back? I'm not sure my Sweetie is getting much growing back and I'm worried her skull will still be exposed and if it stays exposed what kind of special care she may need.

I've dealt with chicks that got strips of skin taken off by blue jays before, but there was only flesh exposed when that happened, not bone like this. their scar tissue never got feathers on it, but they did at least have a nice thick layer of skin.

 

[Eggcessive]

I think there may be a chance that her feathers will grow in if the skin fills in and comes together as most wounds do. There may be a large scab form and eventually fall off, and that would be when the feathers start to regrow. The new feathers will be tempting to the others to want to pull out. That is when I would apply BluKote every other day to hide the wound. That is the way I dealt with 2 polish hens who were being pecked about the head a couple of times a year. The worst was nearly scalped by a young cockerel.

 

[Unexpected chicken lover]

Skin did grow back, just no feathers yet

 

[AceWeasel]

I got her crate in my room now since she's been complaining about being alone in the breezeway. having company seems to be perking her up even more. she's right near where my Pomeranian likes to lay down too, so even if I'm not around he probably will be.

some dogs I'd be worried about being near Sweetie, but not my pom, I've seen wild rabbits grazing not even three feet away from him without a care. he's also 14, almost completely toothless, and doesn't seem to realize he's a dog and dogs are facultative carnivores. he was rescued from a hoarder with around 50 dogs and who knows how many other critters and I think as far as he's concerned you're either a critter or a human. he use to be my mom's dog before she passed away.