Hen with ripped skin- probably an attack.

[Aurynsdream]

Saturday night I was under the weather and my parents took care of my birds.
For about a month now the birds have been behaving like their planning a coup.

Before we never had problems getting them to come into the coop at night, we would call, shake the can full of oats and they would come home running.
Welll for the last three weeks its been an ordeal to get them to come in at night.

After 45 minutes of attempts, coherision and physically trying to get one of the hens home, she continued to refuse so they left her outside (I've done that before with no problems, for the same reasons).

Well she was still alive and well the next morning so everyone assumed no harm no foul.

Yesterday afternoon while I was feeding them I noticed her shoulder was weird.
I picked her up.
The best discription I can give is its like if someone took a really sharp knife, and ran it along the shoulder of her left wing, cutting the skin open. You know when a chicken opens up its wing- there is that patch of skin that covers the shoulder, but then when the wing is closed that same patch of skin is taut and doesnt actually rest on top of any flesh- that piece of skin.
It seems to have bled a bit, and the skin dried and retracted from the flesh.
I felt her crop, crest, ears and waddle and she wasnt hot. She went about her day normally, eating, drinking, sleeping, taking dust baths she just seemed a little slower and retired for the evening earlier than the others.

I slathered betadine all over the wound and surrounding areas, she didnt even flinch.

I don't know what else to do.
She seemed just fine this morning, was taking a dust bath.
What else can I do??
will I lose her to this??

I extended and felt her wing and it was just fine, not dislocated, no injuries that I could feel or see.

 

[dlhunicorn]

Do you have a roo? (might be from him)
if not
do you have a cat? (will have to take further action if you think it might possibly be from a cat scratch)
One last thing...have a GOOD look around and see if htere is anything sharp that might have done this (very easy to miss)
Your birds may not be wanting to go in the coop perhaps because of mites. Have a good clean and treat / spray for mites and lice with a pyrethrim/permethrin insecticide (ensure your birds are well away when you do this and remove bedding and all food and drink from the area>replace with clean bedding)

 

[Aurynsdream]

I had a roo until about 4 days ago- he kept attacking all of us, so I gave him to someone for their dinner table.
This whole not wanting to go in thing started about the same time that the roo started attacking us, I can gurantee that he was the ring leader in the coup d'etat .

We do not have a cat, the neighbors have all kinds of cats that run wild but they wont come into our yard because my guineas make short work of them, they are very protective of the chickens.

I will clean the coop again tomorrow (i have class till 9 pm tonight).
I have DE all over the coop so I didn't think I could have mites, but I guess you never know.
They have no problem staying in their coop at night, they go in on their own, its getting them back in the run thats the problem.