chick hurt by hens **Graphic pics of Injury**

[Amastacia]

one of my chicks, a 6 week old Polish, got out of the enclosure i had her and the other 14 chicks in in the coop with my 8 hens. apparently they didn't like that, and her head and neck got pretty seriously pecked. i found her when i went to let the hens out to free range, and she was laying on her side not moving. i brought her in, put her in a box, and looked that the wounds as much as i could. they wounds look clean but are pretty nasty. the one lower on the neck looks really swollen.



since i brought her in, she has shifted from laying on her side to laying upright, and i gave her a dish of water with sugar in it, which she doesn't seem to have drank any of yet. i know i need to put some antibiotic on the wounds, but wasn't sure if i should use an ointment or just spray her with BluKote.

she will obviously be kept by herself until she heals. and i will be making up elecrolyte water for her.

is there anything else i should be doing for her?

 

[bucky52]

poor baby, hens can be so brutal.i had the same thing happened to one of my chicks last year.i put some neoprene on,than some blue-coat.to this day she still has blue-co ate on her head.its been a year since that happened I just inter grated her and the rest of her flock in with the older hens.the blue-co ate did not stop one of her flock mates from pecking her.i just kept the wound clean,than put gobs of Vaseline on it.
best of luck.

 

[Amastacia]

well, she is acting more alert. i don't know if she's drinking anything yet, but i did give her a little food too. she is standing up and looking at me when i go over to the box, which now has a towel over it to help keep her in and flies out. my main concern right now is the wound on her neck is really big. i don't know if there is a point when a wound is too big for blukote to be a good idea, and similarly i don't really like the idea on putting an ointment on something like that. any suggestions?

 

[caferacer]

I had a similar injury on a younger chick (maybe 4 weeks) several years ago, except that it was a possum attack through the wire enclosure. I rinsed the injured area, and isolated the chick in a clean area. I also made sure the chick was good and warm at all times.

The chick healed up relatively quickly, and grew to maturity without any problems. It always had a small bald spot on the back of its head. But it ended up fine.

Rinsing the area with hydrogen peroxide wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

[Amastacia]

well i sprayed her with BluKote (anyone else always turn everything in the area purple when using blukote?

). she is eating, i believe drinking but haven't actually seen it, and she has pooped. it was really watery, but i'm assuming that is stress related. she is now in a spare rabbit cage with a piece of cardboard to stand on (i didn't like the idea of making her stand on the cage wire) with plan food and water. she is acting ok so i'm hoping for full recovery now. she looks so much better than she did when i found her. i will of course keep an eye on the wound for signs of infections or flies and make sure she keeps eating and drinking properly. i don't tend to feed treats (other than random bread and veggie scraps from the kitchen) and the chicks haven't really had any so she doesn't really know what to do with anything other than crumble, otherwise i would be spoiling her random with goodies. i will be trying some anyway.

i'm afraid this chick is about to become a pet. that wasn't the plan. but having lost the other Polish chick (within a week of hatching), i am a bit partial to this one anyway. and she is soooo cute

.

 

[3chickchicks]

Poor baby.
Usually an iodine based cleanser works better for routine cleaning. hydrogen peroxide kills healthy tissue so it will work for the initial cleaning, but I wouldn't use it over and over. I'm speaking from a medicine point of view. I'm not sure if iodine is toxic to chickens. I doubt it.

 

[Amastacia]

so far so good. the injured area looks clean, and she is eating and drinking and alert. i'm fairly confident she will be fine, though she might end up with a bald spot.

 

[GranmaEm]

Poor Polish mites. Some hens just don't like their hairdo's.

I had wonderful success with Vetericyn as a final step in the injured Polish hen I took care of. Looking at your patient's wounds, I think you'd get a similar great result.