chicken with back of head skin ripped off... HELP!

[Autumn D]

this morning i went to check on the chickens to see one of my black japanese girls back of the head skin ripped clean of. its hard to look at. just yesterday she was fine, missing some feathers on her head, but fine. i have never experiance canibalism this great before. there are four birds sharing one big cage. we put hydergan peroxide on the wound already. need anwsers now! the flys will not stop attacking her. HELP! PLEASE! thanks for your input.

 

[redmouse]

I've had a chick with its head pecked off at the back, and she made it to a ripe old age, so while it might look gruesome, it doen't have to mean it's fatal.

So is there any skin left to do anything with or is it all gone? What I did was keep her seperate, keep her clean and keep the wound covered so the flies cant get to it. I used a combination of pure aloe vera gel and this stuff called camrosa (don't know if I'm allowed to say brands, sorry if I'm not) which worked almost like magic and healed the wound up really fast. She will need tlc and a dose of good luck, but there's hope for her.

 

[redmouse]

I'll add that this was because I didn't have a sympathetic vetenary clinic, if you do then maybe a trip to them would be a plan. Mine just joked that it'd be chicken dinner tonight! So I had a go myself

 

[Autumn D]

thanks, at least the size of a quater was ripped off, she is a banty, we think it may of been a rat or weasle or just a bad case of canibilism

 

[froggiesheins]

Isolate her, keep her housing clean clean clean, you can try wet to dry wrapping, yes on the head is a real challenge to keep on...been there and done this.

Wet to dry is just like how it sounds...start with sterile guaze and saurate a piece with saline and place it over the wound, you want it crumpled a little, not all flat , the next piece is wet, but wring it a little more, the next piece is moist, then cover with several dry pieces and wrap in place. You do not need to wash this wound as you remove the guaze it will self debrede, when you change the dressing. Keeping the wound moist will also aid healing as new cells can travel and fill in the hole faster. The outer layer is dry to prevent heat loss through evaporation from the surface area. Don't use hydrogen peroxide on any wound, or alcohol, it will merely cause pain and kill healthy cells, actually burning new tissue growth...the best cleaning is rinsing or irrigation with sterile saline. I like vetericyn spray..it works! Do wet to dry and hold it in place with paper tape or thin strips of vet wrap ...eventually it will draw close, figure on it taking about a month to close up completely.
I hope this is helpful....

 

[galanie]

A triple antibiotic without any "caine" or any other pain killer in it will work very well too. All of the "-caine" pain killers are deadly to chickens.

 

[ARod0108]

OMG!!!! The same thing has happened to one of my girlfriends daughters chickens. At first we thought it was attacked by another racoon and maybe the dog scared it off before it could finish. Her left wing and back was tore up, feathers being everywhere. We fixed her up the best we could. We believe the other chickens now have been the ones after her, her left wing is gone down to the bone and all that is on her back of her neck is muscle no meat. We made a trip to the local co-op for some meds (shots) and stuff called blue-koat. It keeps flies off her but paints her wounds blue, she has been seperated from the others and seems to be coming along. Now looking forward to her laying us some golden eggs.

 

[chickenzoo]

Spray the wound with.blue kote. apply some Swat ointment to the wound and separate her until it heals. Apply bluekote to any bear skin to avoid picking at it. Birds heal quickly.