Are there signs to watch for w/ canabalism? Deep wound...

[Useph]

Hi everyone, I've been reading these forums for help and advice for months, but now I find I have to ask for help.

My chicken, Henmiony, has a terrible gash in her neck. I found her yesterday, sluggish and quiet in her nest, and fear I may have neglected discovering her wound earlier since she just started laying, and has been broody.

She's usually very feisty, but I scooped her up too easily without much fuss, so I was super worried. Right away you can see scabby damp featherless skin on her neck, which had me very concerned (and feeling horrible for not seeing sooner-- how had I missed this for so long as for there to be scabs?). Even worse, my friend over visiting, a pediatrician, helped look her over and when she gently lifted her neck feathers above the damp area, found the gash. It was gruesome... I'll describe it briefly as white fatty tissue, pink muscle, and... just a deep, awful wound.


I have a dog, an English pointer, who so far has avoided the chickens (for 7 months now) like they're ghosts and she's Pac Woman. BUT last winter she had been left alone with my last two hens and fatally mauled her. (I know where the blame lies there, and I feel very bad about it.)

Henmiony also has a sister, who I thought was very easy going and the less feisty of the two, nut today as I was letting Henmione out for some sunshine and fresh air, Wendizzle came running over as if to start right in on poor Henmiony's neck.

Could canabalism have done this? How could I have failed to notice it? Or do you think maybe I'm wilfully ignoring the elephant in the room, my dog, with her innocent little butter-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth expression?

I also worry that I'm missing maybe a root cause -- could the scabby area be perhaps depluming mite-caused, and the scabs and missing feathers (and even canabalism?) be the final result?

As for treatment... electrolytes for shock/blood loss, soluble tetracycline as a systematic antibiotic to fight or forestall infection, and later today I plan on dressing her wound with Red Kite, recommended over the phone by a vet (who didn't give much for her chances).


I know I've screwed up, but any advice now
, and telling me how I screwed up and if there's anything else I can do for her... I'm thankful for any and all advice.

I tried to get a zoomed in picture today without disturbing her any more, so I'll try to upload that.

Thanks,
Useph

 

[CMV]

Don't use Red Kote. Use Blukote instead. Chickens go nuts for the color red.

 

[ChickenKid11]

Do you have a Ag store near by (Murdoch's, Tractor Supply, ect) if so get a thing called Bluekote, this is a cleaner and it keeps the area blue so Cannabalism. Then if you can separate her for 5-7 days depending if she recovers quickly separating her puts her out of stress and it help prevent Cannabalism. Just ask more questions if you need more help. Oh ya if you do not have bluekote or have it wash the area with water, if you dont have bluekote use Neosporin and if just use Neosporin you HAVE to separate her sorry this is a little confusing........... Hope she gets better!

 

[bobj8435]

I know this is very late in making a reply. I hope that your girl survived ok. I did find that Blu Kote spray is good to cover the wound
and as a preventative you can get Rooster Booster Poultry Pick No More in a liquid form from web site livestock concepts.com
and this should help in treatment and prevention.

Myself , I recently had problems with my Rhode Island Reds pecking on one of my Australorps , which made a serious wound to her
back end. We treated it with peroxide and a deluted solution of iodine. After seperation from the flock in a dog cage she seems to be
healing very well. We did leave the wound open air to heal better as we did not have the Blu Kote to spray on it. Spunky little gal
seems to be happy alone to heal. This is the first incident in which one hen was injured so severe, yet I know they have to establish
their pecking order , yet their order seems a bit severe to me. I plan to find the pair of Lorps a new home flock to avoid future trouble.
I am not sure if the Reds have become more agressive since they have started laying eggs, yet they were all bought as chicks and raised
together in boxes in March of this year.

This is our first attempt at raising poultry and maybe we made a mistake at trying three breeds of hens? Time will tell I guess. We also
have experienced a severe drought here in central Indiana , but so far no casulties from the 100+ degree heat.

Good luck with your girls.

Bob J Atlanta, Ind.

 

[CMV]

I know this is very late in making a reply. I hope that your girl survived ok. I did find that Blu Kote spray is good to cover the wound
and as a preventative you can get Rooster Booster Poultry Pick No More in a liquid form from web site livestock concepts.com
and this should help in treatment and prevention.

Myself , I recently had problems with my Rhode Island Reds pecking on one of my Australorps , which made a serious wound to her
back end. We treated it with peroxide and a deluted solution of iodine. After seperation from the flock in a dog cage she seems to be
healing very well. We did leave the wound open air to heal better as we did not have the Blu Kote to spray on it. Spunky little gal
seems to be happy alone to heal. This is the first incident in which one hen was injured so severe, yet I know they have to establish
their pecking order , yet their order seems a bit severe to me. I plan to find the pair of Lorps a new home flock to avoid future trouble.
I am not sure if the Reds have become more agressive since they have started laying eggs, yet they were all bought as chicks and raised
together in boxes in March of this year.

This is our first attempt at raising poultry and maybe we made a mistake at trying three breeds of hens? Time will tell I guess. We also
have experienced a severe drought here in central Indiana , but so far no casulties from the 100+ degree heat.

Good luck with your girls.

Bob J Atlanta, Ind.

RIRs are known to be more aggressive than most backyard breeds. You can have a mixed flock, but you need to get birds of similar temperament. I have EEs, BOs, GLWs, BRs and I used to have JGs, GCs and RIRs. The only birds I had issues with were the RIRs which were all culled for aggression and feather picking. I refuse to ever keep RIRs again after my experiences with them.

 

[bobj8435]

Thanks for the comment. As new to the hobby of raising chickens we did not know about the agressive beahvior of the RIR. I did find one today that was acting mean to my juvenile rooster
and I yanked her out and we had a time out session and so far after putting her back she seems to be behaving. We are learning the art of chicken doctoring and find that my rooster after a leg injury was able to take childrens Tylenol and he seems to like it. He is somewhat crippled from what ever he did to his leg , but still trying to do his roosterly duties.

Thanks again and I have enjoyed reading the posts here.
Bob

 

[CMV]

Thanks for the comment. As new to the hobby of raising chickens we did not know about the agressive beahvior of the RIR. I did find one today that was acting mean to my juvenile rooster
and I yanked her out and we had a time out session and so far after putting her back she seems to be behaving. We are learning the art of chicken doctoring and find that my rooster after a leg injury was able to take childrens Tylenol and he seems to like it. He is somewhat crippled from what ever he did to his leg , but still trying to do his roosterly duties.

Thanks again and I have enjoyed reading the posts here.
Bob

Tylenol is not appropriate for chickens. Pain relief can be achieved using aspirin- 325 mg/gal of water.