Bathing injured chicken....Can I and should I?

[Sunny Dawn]

I posted a thread about 3 weeks ago regarding my EE Roo who was attacked and severly injured. TO our entire family's surprise he is coming along quite nicely. Cleaning his wound daily with wound wash and then covering with layer of Neosporin followed by layer of SWAT. Problem Now is he is getting quite dirty. He cannot clean himself in a dust hole as he spends his life until healed in a large dog crate where he is safe...spends nights in our shed and outside in the crate during the day. His feathers are getting oily and dull plus some of them have gotten very greasy from the ointments.

Can I bathe him? When would you think would be okay to do this and how should I do it?

 

[Breac]

I've bathed my chickens a few times, and people who show their birds do it as well. It's okay to bathe a chicken, especially if he can't properly groom himself. It would probably be better to do it in the morning or afternoon so that he can dry off during the day and go to bed all nice and dry.

You can bathe a chicken in a sink if you want (that's usually how I do it). It's helpful if you can have someone helping you. One person holds the bird and another washes and scrubs him down. You can use pet shampoo if you want, but make sure to keep it away from his face and wound. Hold him under the running faucet and wet him down until he's fairly saturated. Use one hand to hold him and one hand to scrub (and apply pet shampoo). Wash, rinse, repeat until clean.

Once he's all free of grime, wrap him up in a towel and try to gently towel dry him a bit. He won't like it much and you probably won't be able to completely dry him, but you can get some of the excess moisture off.

Good Luck!

 

[Sunny Dawn]

Breac - thank you for that information. After cleaning his wound tonight it looks like the scab is starting to slough off on the edges. I think I will wait until next weekend and bathe him then. Headed to Dallas for a work conference on Sunday....he will be in my hubby's hands until I return. I do not want to leave him with an open wound in the event the bath would cause his scab (which covers his entire left side under his wing) to come off. I am so thankful we have him....My favorite ROO! He bought himself special treatment for the rest of his life here on my Sunny Farm!

THanks again - and I will post my outcome after he is all clean (maybe before and after shots LOL!)

Have a great weekend