Head Pecked Raw Please Help Me !

[Jyester]

Hi just a quick update two days on from the attack. I have separated the wee ones together and the injured one seems to be ok. The other little one is fine and the injury is drying up.

It's eating and drinking fine ... I did notice his head and the wound was going a little green colour and I have started applying an antiseptic tea tree based solution which is apparently specially for animals as it only contains natural plant extracts. I ordered it online here as I couldnt find blu-kote in the UK??

http://www.smallholdersupplies.co.uk/Productdetail.asp?Id=400

The thing I wanted to know was how should I apply this and how often? A few of you suggested cleaning the chicks head but the little one doesnt seem to want to stay still when i hold it and try to put this stuff on. he/she seems to want to escape and is making a high pitch chirping noise which i take it is a distress call. Should I just apply it to a dry clean cloth and dab it on? 1nce, 2wice 3 times a day? I'm not quite sure and is there also a good way to hold a chick still so as not to distress it when applying the treatment?

Also I was wondering if these head feathers would ever grow back or will this poor one be bald for the rest of his days?

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Hi, hey I have a whole post on this too. My 3 Polish were being pecked to death.
What I came to find from everyone elses posts is that this is very common with the Polish. Their crests attract pecking and they are very submissive birds.
A few will say to just let them find their pecking order, and some will say to seperate.
If there is any blood show though, you really should seperate because chickens will really hurt and possible kill any bird with blood show on them.
Mine have been seperated and it is alot more trouble than I would like. I am going to make them a little pen of their own and let them free range.
Good luck to you and welcome to BYC!

P.S. Yes they will grow back, my guy has little stubble growing in now.

 

[lalaland]

Yes, they sometimes don't like being held and peep as if you are murdering them.

I'm a little worried about the head going green - do you think it is getting infected? Treat it as you would your own finger if you had a cut that was going green, again begin careful that any antiseptic salve or ointment doesn't have any ingredients with "caine" in the words.

You could try a little bit of hydrogen peroxide - not sure what the strenght percentage is in the UK, so you might need to dilute it with water - if should fizz quite a bit and works on the gunky part. If you don't get any fizz, you would have diluted it too much. You could put a few drops on the head wound., and keep repeating until the fizzing is neglible. Don't let it get in the eyes. And then apply an antibiotic ointment just as you would on your own cuts.

I'm all for natural stuff, but not sure the tea tree oil will help if what you have is an infection. It works very well with fungal issues.

Try just holding the chick against your chest til it calms down - remember to move very very slowly as anything moving rapidly will stress it and scare it - that includes your hands! a darker room might help, but it is best if you can see what you are doing clearly.

Usually, to treat a chicken you put a towel over its head, but of course, that won't work here as that is where you are focused on!

good luck, and keep us updated!

 

[Biddieacres]

I am wondering if you can wrap the little one in a small towel. That is how we calm my cat when doing any procedure. I also wrapped my henpecked chicken in a towel when working on her. Then the wings are tucked down nicely and just keep trying to dab that spot.