2anxietyandbeyond
In the Brooder
- Jul 13, 2021
- 2
- 0
- 10
Hi all,
When one of my chicks was 3 weeks old she was bitten on the neck by a wild hedgehog. I didn't notice she'd been bitten until a couple of days later. She seemed subdued and the back of her neck was swollen from ear to ear. The skin seemed thickened in that area and there was extra skin on each side of her neck, creating a fold.
The actual bite was just two small holes and a little cut underneath. I cleaned and treated it but the wound became much bigger and she ended up with a big crater in her neck. Some of the skin became necrotic which I had to cut away. I think she went into shock a few times after tending her wound and I thought I would lose her. Even though her neck looked horrific at times she still ate and drank through her recovery.
After weeks of treatment, her wound looked so much better and was beginning to get smaller. Then I noticed a few pus filled scabs under her wings, on her abdomen and her thighs. They were white, brown and crusty just like a dry scab. I sprayed these with vetericyn but they weren't there before and they weren't from a new injury.
One day I came home to find her lying on her side, cold and barely alive with chick food stuck in her throat. I managed to scoop out the food so she wasn't choking but she was still gasping. I gave her water but it kept bubbling back up. There was a lot of sticky saliva that I also removed to keep her airways clear. She never recovered from this, I think she inhaled her food and she passed away.
Other than the physical bite which was definitely getting better, there was something else wrong with my little chick, does anyone know what? Could she have caught a disease from the hedgehog? She was six weeks old but much smaller than other chicks her age.
I'm in the UK if that makes a difference to what it could be.
I uploaded a video of her after she passed, showing the scabs and the thickened skin on her neck. I examined the scabs and they seemed to be just on the surface with healthy tissue underneath. The white bits were quite hard and I believe was pus.
*WARNING* It is a graphic video showing a deceased chick, not for the faint hearted.
When one of my chicks was 3 weeks old she was bitten on the neck by a wild hedgehog. I didn't notice she'd been bitten until a couple of days later. She seemed subdued and the back of her neck was swollen from ear to ear. The skin seemed thickened in that area and there was extra skin on each side of her neck, creating a fold.
The actual bite was just two small holes and a little cut underneath. I cleaned and treated it but the wound became much bigger and she ended up with a big crater in her neck. Some of the skin became necrotic which I had to cut away. I think she went into shock a few times after tending her wound and I thought I would lose her. Even though her neck looked horrific at times she still ate and drank through her recovery.
After weeks of treatment, her wound looked so much better and was beginning to get smaller. Then I noticed a few pus filled scabs under her wings, on her abdomen and her thighs. They were white, brown and crusty just like a dry scab. I sprayed these with vetericyn but they weren't there before and they weren't from a new injury.
One day I came home to find her lying on her side, cold and barely alive with chick food stuck in her throat. I managed to scoop out the food so she wasn't choking but she was still gasping. I gave her water but it kept bubbling back up. There was a lot of sticky saliva that I also removed to keep her airways clear. She never recovered from this, I think she inhaled her food and she passed away.
Other than the physical bite which was definitely getting better, there was something else wrong with my little chick, does anyone know what? Could she have caught a disease from the hedgehog? She was six weeks old but much smaller than other chicks her age.
I'm in the UK if that makes a difference to what it could be.
I uploaded a video of her after she passed, showing the scabs and the thickened skin on her neck. I examined the scabs and they seemed to be just on the surface with healthy tissue underneath. The white bits were quite hard and I believe was pus.
*WARNING* It is a graphic video showing a deceased chick, not for the faint hearted.
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