Chicken attack

[Watermom]

Hello, one of my silkies got attacked Sunday and I found her Monday morning. They literally ripped out her tail feathers and started eating her alive. She has no skin left on the backend it’s just all flesh. I washed it and starting to put an antiseptic spray on it she’s in a confined dog crate I’m spoon, feeding her water and a little bit of food. What she takes I’m just wondering will the skin grow back over the wound this opened wound or is she just sitting there suffering I will attach a picture. Thanks for all your help.

 

[-Eridanus-]

I'm so sorry this happened to you!

 

[-Eridanus-]

@Eggcessive​

@sourland​

@oldhenlikesdogs​

@21hens-incharge ​

@TwoCrows​

Sadly, I'm a little inexperienced with this kind of thing. Tagging a few people who might be of more help than me. I'll be crossing my fingers for your hen!!!!

 

[-Eridanus-]

azygous​

 

[Jenbirdee]

after rinsing it with either a saline solution or povidone iodine 10% and water or a chlorhexidine solution- then keep it moist with an antibiotic ointment that doesn’t have pain relief. be generous with it. keep her in dark quiet place and give electrolyte solution to treat shock.

 

[PatriciafromCO]

This is going to be a bit gory. I had a gsd that would grab my African geese who reached into her kennel. She would rip their skin off like a glove from the base of their necks right to their beaks. All that was left was just raw explosed flesh. the skin did grow completely back and re-feather, and the skin even rememberd the dark stripe that African geese have.

Im not a vet, was a newbie in the fowl at the time. I used what I had and what I though would help. First protect them from the rest of the flock. I had the Xlg wired dog crates and let them stay in the main area with us in the house because I thought they would do better in a social stimulating settinig over being alone isolated some there. "able to watch TV lol with us"

I got a spray mister and kept the deskin area moist. ( natural protectors, antiseptic, anti inflamitory, nurturing to the skin) ( honey, aloe, and skin stitcher/anti inflamitory herbs (cant spell it chandulua) you can brew the herbs into a tea and use that in the sprayer)and I did use olive oil, because it can be good for the skin. No professional reason it's what I had and thought would help.

Unflavored Pedialyte that I could keep in their water dish be light a little goes a long way, also some of the brew herbs they can also drink.

Arnica (pain and trama ) I had the first aid homeopathic kit that had the little pellets. and I could put them in their mouth to disolve.

NR compound from natural rearing website. powder capsules that you can break open and sprinkle on their crumbles in the morning. Give them a small portion of food so they will eat it all.

Kept the area moist with no covering. once time passes that they not going to go into shock. Amazing how animals thrive through the worst of things like nothing happen. Taking over dog beds and dog toys watching tv with us is heart warming that they possess such personalities. Once the raw meat look had calm down they went back out into my small flock as long as no one bothered them. Geese are a strong caring social family group. Not sure if chickens would be the same.

Last interesting thing because this is a goose. Any time the area would start to scab over. the goose would soak it in the water dishes, and then pick the scabs off? Im not sure I understand except maybe something to do with ?? preventing scaring??? Every goose that had this happen to, did the same thing. so it has to be something they know to do. Amazing they lived very long life spans and often revisted the house as if they owned it lol ...

sorry so long and very unprofessonally based. I cherished my African geese dearly it was worth trying as long as they were of good spirits to also give it a try.

 

[Watermom]

after rinsing it with either a saline solution or povidone iodine 10% and water or a chlorhexidine solution- then keep it moist with an antibiotic ointment that doesn’t have pain relief. be generous with it. keep her in dark quiet place and give electrolyte solution to treat shock.

OK not to sound stupid but if I keep anointment on her, how am I gonna spray her down with that anabiotic spray that’s not gonna penetrate through the ointment and then I’ve read that people wash it off every two days or some thing wouldn’t that hurt the bird, and that ointment doesn’t wash off very easy.

 

[Jenbirdee]

OK not to sound stupid but if I keep anointment on her, how am I gonna spray her down with that anabiotic spray that’s not gonna penetrate through the ointment and then I’ve read that people wash it off every two days or some thing wouldn’t that hurt the bird, and that ointment doesn’t wash off very easy.

you can just use the ointment 2x a day now . and trim away any feathers that are getting into the wound so they don’t stick in there.

 

[FunClucks]

So, I raise meat birds as well as pet eggers. There was a 4-5 lb meat bird (much smaller than the rest of the flock, but not a runt) who had been mated by the rooster(s) to such an extent that it removed the entirety of the skin on most of her back, the top portion of her rear, and extending down both flanks. Most of the damage was hidden by her feathers. Once I suspected something was up I took a look, and that's what I found - she had bloody gashes and partially healed scabs all over. Scabs were full of dirt and who knows what, but were solid. If I'd known sooner what was up with her, I'd have stopped it, but I didn't know. She was walking around somewhat tenderly, but still quite active and eating just fine. I put her in an isolation cage for a month, and then put her with a hen only flock for a few more months. By then most of the damage had healed, skin at the edges of the scabs looked really healthy, and most of the scabbing had healed over, and scabs were starting to pop off. She stopped laying for a month or so, but that was it. She went back to laying while still having massive scabbing. I think the damage would have healed completely in 4-6 months. Feathers were even re-growing.

When she was first injured I considered processing her due to pain, but she seemed to be moving around and eating and drinking fine. After being in isolation for just a week, she had perked up significantly. I didn't put any medicine on her wounds at all, just isolation. I was going to put some Neosporin, but by the time I found the tube, she had scabbed up, so I just left her alone.

Had another hen with a 1" hole in the back of her neck from a chicken-on-chicken attack, where you could see neck muscle, and the wound moved and opened whenever the chicken moved her head. I isolated her, sprayed the wound with Vetericyn as it was a fresh wound and I thought that might do some good, clean out any contaminants. She seemed in pain/depressed when I found her but was still eating/drinking. She perked up in a few days and was back to normal activity. Over the course of a month it healed up so well you can barely even see a scar, and all the feathers grew back.

I say all this to say, don't stress about the medicine too much, what type and how often to apply. I've had several wounded chickens heal up just fine without any at all. Neosporin or Vetericyn are helpful. if you have medical skills to help the wound, or can do stitches or something, and are able to provide medical care, have at it. But chickens are amazingly resilient and can heal on their own from many things that if they were people or dogs I'd be a lot more concerned about.

You can always give her time and see how she does. Of course she's in pain, but it's really up to you whether you think it's too much pain and it's time to end things. As long as she's walking about and eating and drinking by herself, I'd give her a chance to recover. Give her a few days to a week and see if she perks up a bit. Don't be surprised if it takes about 6 months to fully heal. Now, if she was in poor health to start with, or it looked like she wouldn't make a full recovery, then I'd consider end of life options.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

OK not to sound stupid but if I keep anointment on her, how am I gonna spray her down with that anabiotic spray that’s not gonna penetrate through the ointment and then I’ve read that people wash it off every two days or some thing wouldn’t that hurt the bird, and that ointment doesn’t wash off very easy.

The ointment will absorb into the skin. So twice a day, what I would do is spray it good with a sterile saline solution to cleanse it, then with the antibiotic spray, then coat it with the ointment again. When we had an injured bird we just did the saline, then the triple antibiotic ointment, then sprayed with Veterycin gel, I don't know if that's antibiotic or not but it formed like a protective gel over the wound and kept it moist. She healed up just fine.