holes in chickens back???

[mack13]

Hi everyone,

so my family and i have started raising meat birds to sell. we have about 170 at this point and we keep having a bunch of mystery deaths.

Lately, we think we've diagnosed some of the flock as coccidiosis and will start treatment today. But a fair number of them have almost a flesh eating disease.

Right on their back, not at the vest but an inch beside it, some chickens get a literally hole in their body cavity. One of them was small, the other was massive and you could see inside of it. They were acting completely fine and totally unbothered by this??? Which is perplexing but I put them down anyways. It didn't seem like they were being picked on or pecked by the others, just several with literal holes or slices in their backs, the same place. One was bleeding and had a clear discharge, but the other wasn't.

We have them in an enclosed space with no feasible ways predators can get in. There's nothing being attacked. I have no clue.

I've tried everything, no clue what is going on and I'm so upset.

 

[nuthatched]

Can you get pictures?

 

[janiedoe]

We would love to help you, but to do so, we need pictures of the wounds and your chicken housing.

 

[Eggcessive]

It has to be them picking on each other or they are injuring themselves, possibly on something sharp or pecking themselves. How much room do they have? Are they getting out to roam around? What amount of protein is in your feed? Pictures would be good if you can post any. If you see another small hole, separate the chicken and observe them.

 

[FunClucks]

So I had a possibly similar problem, but it wasn't holes for me, it was slices in their skin on their rear end next to their tails. What was happening for us was they didn't have enough space at the feeder in the brooder - I started them out on a 15 lb round feeder, and after about 1-2 weeks they had grown wide enough that everyone couldn't eat at once. I was feeding 12 hrs on during the day, no food at night, so come morning they were "famished" with hunger. They would attack the feeder, and those who didn't get a spot first off would frantically climb over those that did, slicing their rear ends up with their claws. I had to introduce a second feeder (i used a long trough chick feeder) at the other end of the brooder first, then quickly insert the round feeder with the majority of their daily ration in the other end. That way, the time they were all competing was super short and they all had enough length of feeder to match the width of their shoulders. Even so, they'd go back and forth and still compete some until their crops were filled. After half an hour everyone had calmed down so I'd remove the trough feeder and leave the round one for the rest of the day - they weren't crazy after that first rush, and were more willing to take turns. Next time, I'll clip their claws as younger chicks and maybe prevent some of the injuries, also I'll know to do two feeders from the beginning.

After 4 weeks, my coop/covered run was done and the weather wasn't freezing, so I was able to put them outside where they had a 10 ft long gutter feeder (set into cinderblocks to raise it up). Everyone had plenty of space then, so most of the injuries stopped.

I had to put Neosporin twice a day on the slices for the next 2-3 weeks, but eventually everything healed. There were a few more slices occasionally, but nothing that broke skin, and most were minor after the move. Having more space was key.

I was raising 25 meat chickens in a 48"Long x 30" x33" dog crate brooder, two of them zip tied together to make a 8' run with the door removed between. Food on one end, water on the other with the light in the middle, and a ramp to connect the two crates with shelf liner over the ramp. I would have put them outside at 3 weeks if I could have.

Pic attached is of a 4 week chick runt - the others were twice as big at 4 weeks.

 

[HBGrace23]

Was the meat affected by this? We have several that have these slices and I’m wondering if it’s worth saving them at this point. It’s stayed cold here until this week, so we couldn’t get them out of the brooder and into the tractor until now.

 

[FunClucks]

Was the meat affected by this? We have several that have these slices and I’m wondering if it’s worth saving them at this point. It’s stayed cold here until this week, so we couldn’t get them out of the brooder and into the tractor until now.

I would save them. I figured once they heal up, the meat is fine (no infection in the bird = healthy meat). It's not like they were attacked by a predator, and might be infected with something transmissible to people. One of my chicks with a slice died of a heart attack prior to processing (dwarf? runt?), but the others with less severe injuries healed up fine and I ate them.