Chick with head sore

[LavenderMotherHen]

My 1.5 week old chick developed a sore on the back of her head. It started out small and developed into a irritated sore. What can I do? She’s itching it like crazy and I’ve never seen the other chicks bothering her. I’d like to keep them together if possible

 

[Eggcessive]

Is the chick in a brooder with a heat lamp? What color is the heat lamp bulb? If you can get BluKote or Wound Kote spray at your feed store, that might help disinfect and hide the wound. A red lamp can help decrease pecking, although they can be too hot. How many chicks do you have in how mypuch space? Are all the same age chicks?

 

[LaFleche]

I don't know if they are common where you live, but could this stem from a bot fly larva?

 

[LavenderMotherHen]

Is the chick in a brooder with a heat lamp? What color is the heat lamp bulb? If you can get BluKote or Wound Kote spray at your feed store, that might help disinfect and hide the wound. A red lamp can help decrease pecking, although they can be too hot. How many chicks do you have in how mypuch space? Are all the same age chicks?

We aren’t using a heat lamp, we have been using the heat plate from rentacoop. There are 3 chicks in a metal trough- like the ones at tractor supply. They are all the same age.

 

[LavenderMotherHen]

I don't know if they are common where you live, but could this stem from a bot fly larva?

I’ve never heard of it. I will look into it

 

[Eggcessive]

Do they seem to be pecking each other? I would assume that is a peck injury. Are they outside or inside? You will probably want to cover that brooder with screen wire or 1/2 inch hardware cloth to protect them from something getting in, or they may start jumping up to the side at about 3 weeks.

 

[LavenderMotherHen]

Do they seem to be pecking each other? I would assume that is a peck injury. Are they outside or inside? You will probably want to cover that brooder with screen wire or 1/2 inch hardware cloth to protect them from something getting in, or they may start jumping up to the side at about 3 weeks.

I’ve never seen them peck at each other. They are inside our house- and I’ve got a plan to cover it soon. We don’t have any indoor pets

 

[LavenderMotherHen]

The good news is that I put blue kote on it and they don’t even notice. My biggest worry was pecking so I feel better about that. I am going to move them downstairs tonight so they can sleep in peace because I think that our late night TV and lights on is causing some stress

 

[Banana01]

I don't know if they are common where you live, but could this stem from a bot fly larva?

Ugh that was my thought when I saw that wound. I sort of got a flashback and it scares me because I had two worms in my head last year and that wound looked like that, the way it is swollen and the pinsize hole. I also don't know of small chicks to have such a pecking force to cause bleeding, but that depends on the breeds I guess. Flybot is common around lifestock and cattle. The fly lays it's eggs on the mosquito legs, which get transmited to a host when a mosquito lands and bites.

So the larvae can be fatal even to humans, the egg hatches and the worm eats away at the inside. The one in my neck and head started as a mosquito bite, but as the weeks went on it was a dull aching pain. The pain then turned sharp and unbearable. Doctors couldn't even help me because they didn't diagnose it properly.

Enough stories. I would treat immediately just in case. The chick will succomb faster than a human.

Treatment is to put a dab of vaseline over the wound which suffocates them. The worm should then poke their head out and you can pull it with tweazers. It really sounds like such an easy treatment for such a horrible disease. My neighbors father died of flybot larvae after a year. But he raised cattle. The pain went away at first, then he died suddenly after one year of no symptoms. You have to wonder if somehow an insect managed to get to your baby indoors.

There is a chance it is a larvae that hatched and is now a worm based on it looking like this after a week. Read online about treatment, but the vaseline and tweezers is most reliable at least for humans. The pain is unbearable when the worm is full grown your chick will suffer if it is flybot and you don't act.

 

[-Clementine-]

Ugh that was my thought when I saw that wound. I sort of got a flashback and it scares me because I had two worms in my head last year and that wound looked like that, the way it is swollen and the pinsize hole. I also don't know of small chicks to have such a pecking force to cause bleeding, but that depends on the breeds I guess. Flybot is common around lifestock and cattle. The fly lays it's eggs on the mosquito legs, which get transmited to a host when a mosquito lands and bites.

So the larvae can be fatal even to humans, the egg hatches and the worm eats away at the inside. The one in my neck and head started as a mosquito bite, but as the weeks went on it was a dull aching pain. The pain then turned sharp and unbearable. Doctors couldn't even help me because they didn't diagnose it properly.

Enough stories. I would treat immediately just in case. The chick will succomb faster than a human.

Treatment is to put a dab of vaseline over the wound which suffocates them. The worm should then poke their head out and you can pull it with tweazers. It really sounds like such an easy treatment for such a horrible disease. My neighbors father died of flybot larvae after a year. But he raised cattle. The pain went away at first, then he died suddenly after one year of no symptoms. You have to wonder if somehow an insect managed to get to your baby indoors.

There is a chance it is a larvae that hatched and is now a worm based on it looking like this after a week. Read online about treatment, but the vaseline and tweezers is most reliable at least for humans. The pain is unbearable whem the worm is full grown your chick will suffer if it is flybot and you don't act.

These flybots sound scary