HELP! What's wrong with our chick? Open wound under her wing...

[switters]

(Sorry for the double post - I put this in the Raising Baby Chicks forum before I noticed this one)

We noticed tonight that our white leghorn chick (5 days old) has what appears to be an open wound under her left wing. She is pecking at it relentlessly and there is some dried blood around it. She only has this problem under one wing. I'm not sure how long it's been there, but we only noticed it tonight. None of the other chicks seems to have the problem.

Do you know what this is? What do we do about it? We want to take care of our little gal - please help!

 

[silkiechicken]

It probably got hurt at some point and the irritation caused it to pick at itself. If you can find anti pick, pick no more, blue kote, or the like to put on the wound, it should discourage picking and heal up.

 

[switters]

Thanks for your reply. Where would I find those products? We put some hydrogen peroxide on it, but that's all we had lying around. It's Saturday night at 11:30, so not too many stores are open!

Should we isolate her? I noticed the other chicks are starting to peck at her wound also. She's getting picked on / pecked more now that she's wounded.

 

[silkiechicken]

Yes, isolate her from the rest so it doesn't get picked to death.

Don't continually use H2O2 as it also kills good tissue. If you have neosporin that would do in a pinch too. Anti pick meds for birds can be found at pet stores, while blue kote and hot pick can be found at the feed stores.

 

[threehorses]

When I see something like this under a bird's wing, I always like to rule out parasites. Mites can often get on a bird (you won't see them because they only get on the birds at night and then unfrequently) and cause exactly this type of irritation. They can even leave a sort of debris that looks like dried blood. They definitely will cause a bird to pick at itself and create a larger wound type situation.

Here's a bit of something I just typed to another poster who is having issues with his bird. It might be of help to you:

"In the mean time I would also recommend that you thoroughly examine every inch of the bird for mites and lice. They're both nearly microscopic, so using a flashlight (to see better), over a light pillowcase or sheet, ruffling through their feathers will help. Check a couple of times once the birds are up on their roosts (lights on then, of course) as mites often stay off the bird for days unless feeding. So you have to check multiple times to catch them. They're sneaky!

"When you look, pay careful attention under the wings (skin, feathers, fluff, everything), the vent, and the back of the neck as parasites love those warm, moist, and blood-infused places. IF you find parasites, let us know and we can tell yo u how to treat both the chickens and premises to stop the parasite cycle.

"Parasites should be ruled out as they can irritate the skin into redness and deplume a bird."

Please feel free to say if you have any questions about the above, and your findings. Thank you!

 

[Hollywood Chickens]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=193608&p=1

here is a thread with a similar problem

 

[switters]

Thanks everyone for your replies. Last night we found some Neosporin and did put that under her wing and on the top edge of her wing, both of which are now pecked completely raw. (There is an area under her wing about the size of the dime with no fur on it at all - just the pink flesh is visible. There is now also an area on the top edge of her wing closest to her body where the pink flesh is visible).

Unfortunately, that did not stop her from pecking at it. The other chicks were pecking at her too so we isolated her in the brooder. Our brooder is quite large (7x2'), and has two 250 watt bulbs, so what we did is just create a barrier inside of it and put the wounded chick on one side with some food, water, grit and a heat lamp of her own.

She didn't like this. She was chirping loudly for a long time after we put her there, and pecking at the barrier as if to try to get back to the other side with her sisters. Her were on the other side pecking at the barrier too. But we did keep her isolated out of fear of what would happen if we put her back with the others.

This morning when I woke up, the wounded chick was sleeping with her beak wedged right up against the border separating her from the other chicks, and three of her sisters were sleeping in the same position facing her on the other side of the border. Heartbreaking!

Today I'm going to try to check her for parasites and mites as suggested. Do I need a magnifying glass, or are they visible to the naked eye. If this chick had them, wouldn't all the others? At present none of the other chicks have the same problem.

Also, I'm going to go to a pet or feed store to get some Pick No More or Blue Kote or something similar, because the Neosporin clearly isn't stopping her from pecking herself. Question: do I need to clean the Neosporin off of her before applying the anti-pick medicine? Will the anti-pick medicine help heal the wound, or just stop her from picking?

Thanks again for helping us out with this. We're very distressed!

 

[switters]

We just checked her again and the raw, fleshy part under her wing is now much larger. It's beginning to take over her entire right side:

NOTE: if you're wondering about the green color, that's from a paste made from plaintain leaf (which has antibiotic properties) that we made before we went out and got Neosporin

We couldn't find any obvious mites or parasites. I'm not exactly sure what either of them would look like, but we couldn't see any critters moving around on her.

Part of what's so hard about this for us is that we have absolutely no idea what caused this, and why it seems to be getting worse.

Our next-step is the anti-pick medicine as soon as we can find it. It's Sunday morning and all the stores are still closed.

 

[silkiechicken]

She may be picking on herself and making it worse. Most anti picks just taste bad so just spray it on top of the wound. Some say that even vicks vapor rub will work as an antipick if you can't find the real stuff. Keep the antibiotic ointment on the wound and just spray or coat that over with the hot pick/anti pick stuff.

Mites or lice can be seen by the naked eye and are probably 0.5-1.5 mm in size. More likly than not, the wound is from a sharp toe nail that got her just right or being scraped against something and then picked open.

 

[switters]

Okay, so the anti-pick medicine is just to stop the picking and I should continue to use the Neosporin.

When is it safe to reintroduce her to the flock? She seems to be very upset by the isolation.