chickens skull completly exposed big bullie slowly eating her to death

[shmancyfoo]

Its not my chicken but i saved it from my friends coop while she's away. She is about three months old, tiny red funky looking red with curly feathers. my friend was trying to integrate her into the flock and she has been picked at slowly until her feathers, and skin are completly gone and her skull is fully exposed on the whole top of her head, it looks like there is a small pin sized hole on the top of the skull too. I was just wandering if i should put some kind of dressing on it or something but don't want to do anything that will hurt her, I just feel like she needs some kind of salve and gauze but don't want to make it worse. HELP!!!!

 

[WriterofWords]

Isolate her where she's safe, I've never treated anything that bad, peeled skin yes but not a hole in the skull. Someone else will be along that can help you more but under no circumstances should she be put back in there.

 

[Tigerjane]

She needs to be seperated ASAP, and I would call a vet and ask for advice first thing in the morning.

 

[easttxchick]

Wow that is horrible-good for you for rescuing her!
Gee, that is a poser-if there is a hole in her skull, I would think you would have to be VERY CAREFUL treating her wounds.
The only thing I can suggest is CAREFULLY clean the wound with as little water as possible and I think I would try to cover just the exposed part to keep chance of infection down.
If you have electrolytes, put her some in her water and I would also add some PolyViSol without iron 1x a day to some mashed up boiled egg.
Keep her someplace quiet and dark(and comfortable temp. wise-out of the heat to avoid infection as much as possible). Whatever you do, don't let her around any other chickens right now-they'll finish her off. She needs to be isolated until/if that wound on her head heals.
Darn I wish I knew more to tell you-this sounds pretty serious.
Good luck to you.

 

[shmancyfoo]

Yes when I rescued her from my friends coop I brought her home and put her in a separate cage so she's safe now but i'm just worried about her. I'm not sure if she's going to make it. I have cleaned the wound with water and I guess I'll just tend to her in the morning when I can call a vet to see about bandaging the wound. thanks for the help

 

[Warfrost]

Pretty callous for trying to integrate a hen into the flock without supervision. If it weren't for you she'd have come back to a rotting half-eaten corpse in her coop. She needs to read up on how to go about properly integrating a bird into an established flock, and be home while she does it(I know- that's harsh, but it's pretty obvious to tell when the "newcomer" isn't going to be liked right away).

I think she will probably be fine- no vet needed(and good luck finding a vet that really has a clue about chickens). If she is acting normally, not lethargic or anything, just put a bit of Blue Kote(the kind you daub on) on her head(it's pretty inexpensive- you can get it from a feed store). She'll have a purple head for awhile, but it will protect anything exposed. I don't think it needs to be covered- air will keep it dry. Besides, she'll probably pull off any wrap you put on.

Do NOT put her back in with the flock. They will kill her. To them she is just an intruder, and they'll peck her till she dies. Keep her in a tub inside with some food and water and she will eventually heal up. She may not grow feathers on her head again, but that shouldn't preclude her from being otherwise perfectly healthy.

good luck

 

[imtc]

I have a polish that came to me bald too that was getting picked at quite a bit where her whole head looked like a bloody mess. I put "rooster booster" on it (that messy purple stuff) and that would keep them from picking at it and I think soothes and protects the wound. Mine wasn't skinned though so don't know about that...she just was picked bald and pretty raw. (still is having difficulty growing feathers back) but otherwise doing well and has integrated well with my flock.

 

[Beekissed]

I found this great stuff at the feed store called NuStock for animal wounds, fungal infections, etc. I had a meaty chick that had been scalped and almost fileted by the rooster...just an accidental thing....but I placed this NuStock on the wounds and they healed pretty quickly. This stuff is supposed to be good for regrowing hair on affected areas.

When I processed them, the scar from the wound in his flank was still evident under the skin~which had healed quickly~in the muscle tissue, but the head had healed so well that I couldn't tell it had ever been laid open and flapping like it had been. Both areas had been very deep and both healed over within a week...no infection.

 

[Tigerjane]

how is she doing?