How to stop self harm - chicken with ear injury keeps reopening wound. Help!

[Skylark47]

Hello everyone! Thanks in advance for any advice you can give. I've got a lovely little hen, 3 years old, who has been having a rough go of it the past couple months. Most urgently, I'm looking for advice on how to keep her from reopening a wound on her ear that she caused by scratching it. Every time I clean up the blood, treat the wound, and leave for a few hours she reopens it.

Here is the backstory: I moved into a house in September that had an existing coop and 4 hens (ages 3 and 5) that seemed healthy and safe in their coop. I took over as carer for them when their previous owner moved. This hen is the smallest and likely bottom of the pecking order. In early October she had something going on with her eye, an infection or a scratch, and was a bit lethargic. I had a vet look at it and they gave her antibiotics and we treated with Terramycin for nearly a month. I seemed stable but never fully got better. Then it started getting worse about a month ago and there was a sudden injury moment where she either scratched it or was pecked at by the other girls and it was very bloody. We cleaned it up and gave her more Terramycin, and she otherwise seemed okay, energetic and happy to eat treats from my hand and run about. Then twice that week I noticed a lot of blood in the roost when I checked in on them in the mornings. Her eye didn't look bloody though so it was strange. But the eye did look a lot worse and we weren't sure she even still had an eye or if it was just tissue left.

We had the vet come out again and in the process they found the source of the mystery blood - two wounds on her chest, well covered by her feathers. We immediately separated her into a makeshift hospital in our spare bathroom so she could heal up. It seems likely she's being pecked by the older hens and maybe with the eye injury they went into more attack mode? She's been in the hospital now for a week - a large dog crate, with soft bedding and dog training pads over the bedding to make it easy to clean. She has a small roosting bar and clip on food and water and we've been adding Nutridrench supplement to the water as per the vet. We also have more Terramycin for the eye, as well as a pill and shots we are administering to help aid her recovery.

And all that has been going well - but five days ago she randomly opened up a cut on her ear by scratching (the one next to the bad eye) and it bleeds a lot and she just keeps reopening it. I'm not sure what to do at this point. I've seen a few people mention a makeshift cone situation but I'm not sure how well that will work in the crate? Her nails were also clipped by the vet and my partner and I then filed them softer with an emory board, but still she's been able to open the wound. I've tried three or four times to wrap some gauze and med tape around the talon and foot (but in a way she has full flexibility) to soften the force but she's still been able to get it off. We had a day of relief yesterday and then today I walked in and she did it again. I feel I can barely leave her alone now, which is challenging with all the other life things. I even found some neoprene chicken booties online but the shipping time is another week.

So...long story, but does anyone have any advice on how to help keep her from scratching her ear? She's such a sweet girl and I've grown very attached to her in these near three months of care, but I'm just not sure what to do anymore.

Thanks for reading and any help you can give!

 

[SmiYa0126]

Hi! Is it drying out?

 

[DonyaQuick]

Is it possible there's something else amiss near the injury that is being a significant source of irritation - like an ingrown feather or bit of something that got down her ear canal that she's trying to fix by scratching?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Welcome To BYC

Can you post photos of the hen, her face and her ear?

Thanks!

 

[Skylark47]

Is it possible there's something else amiss near the injury that is being a significant source of irritation - like an ingrown feather or bit of something that got down her ear canal that she's trying to fix by scratching?

I can't see anything obvious around it, but I'm also pretty new to chickens so not sure I'd recognize something looking wrong on her ear. I thought maybe it was just itchiness due to the medicine for the eye injury and then once she cut it, the scabbing over became itchy so she kept scratching. But I'm not sure!

 

[Skylark47]

Welcome To BYC

Can you post photos of the hen, her face and her ear?

Thanks!

Here are some photos I just took. I tried to clean her up as best I could yesterday and she managed to not scratch in the night so it at least healed for half a day. But this morning her good eye looks like it has a blood blister in it of some kind and she hasn't eaten since yesterday and won't eat the raspberries that she normally does. I'm worried all the scratching or bonking her head on the pen while fluffing caused something else. Right side is the one with the cut ear, though hard to tell with it clean.

 

[townchicks]

It looks as if there is pus forming under the eye, that may need to be squeezed out. There are directions here to do that, but I am very bad with tech, and don't know how to post a link, but if you do a search you should be able to find it. To stop the scratching, you can make a donut e-collar. Take an old sock and cut the toe off, roll it up to form a donut. It needs to be big enough to keep her foot from contacting her face. Wrap the donut with sturdy tape, medical, electrical, duct, what ever you have that won't be shredded by her feet. Then take a shoelace or something similar, tie it to the donut, slide the donut over her head with the ties on top. Slide each end of the shoelace under each wing, and tie them in the middle, across her back. That should keep it in place. Keep using the Terramycin in her eye for now, until you get help from those better qualified to help on that end. Good luck.

 

[Skylark47]

It looks as if there is pus forming under the eye, that may need to be squeezed out. There are directions here to do that, but I am very bad with tech, and don't know how to post a link, but if you do a search you should be able to find it. To stop the scratching, you can make a donut e-collar. Take an old sock and cut the toe off, roll it up to form a donut. It needs to be big enough to keep her foot from contacting her face. Wrap the donut with sturdy tape, medical, electrical, duct, what ever you have that won't be shredded by her feet. Then take a shoelace or something similar, tie it to the donut, slide the donut over her head with the ties on top. Slide each end of the shoelace under each wing, and tie them in the middle, across her back. That should keep it in place. Keep using the Terramycin in her eye for now, until you get help from those better qualified to help on that end. Good luck.

Thank you! I hadn't heard of the donut method for a collar, I will try that and see if it helps.

 

[Skylark47]

Hi! Is it drying out?

@SmiYa0126 she did make it through the night without reopening it, but only because she seems to be in a daze. She is getting a lot of medicine, but today is the first day she isn't eating and her other eye suddenly looks weird so it may be a deeper issue. But the ear does look scabbed over today. The new eye darkness is worrisome to me, like maybe she has an internal head thing going on?

 

[Skylark47]

Hello everyone! Thanks in advance for any advice you can give. I've got a lovely little hen, 3 years old, who has been having a rough go of it the past couple months. Most urgently, I'm looking for advice on how to keep her from reopening a wound on her ear that she caused by scratching it. Every time I clean up the blood, treat the wound, and leave for a few hours she reopens it.

Here is the backstory: I moved into a house in September that had an existing coop and 4 hens (ages 3 and 5) that seemed healthy and safe in their coop. I took over as carer for them when their previous owner moved. This hen is the smallest and likely bottom of the pecking order. In early October she had something going on with her eye, an infection or a scratch, and was a bit lethargic. I had a vet look at it and they gave her antibiotics and we treated with Terramycin for nearly a month. I seemed stable but never fully got better. Then it started getting worse about a month ago and there was a sudden injury moment where she either scratched it or was pecked at by the other girls and it was very bloody. We cleaned it up and gave her more Terramycin, and she otherwise seemed okay, energetic and happy to eat treats from my hand and run about. Then twice that week I noticed a lot of blood in the roost when I checked in on them in the mornings. Her eye didn't look bloody though so it was strange. But the eye did look a lot worse and we weren't sure she even still had an eye or if it was just tissue left.

We had the vet come out again and in the process they found the source of the mystery blood - two wounds on her chest, well covered by her feathers. We immediately separated her into a makeshift hospital in our spare bathroom so she could heal up. It seems likely she's being pecked by the older hens and maybe with the eye injury they went into more attack mode? She's been in the hospital now for a week - a large dog crate, with soft bedding and dog training pads over the bedding to make it easy to clean. She has a small roosting bar and clip on food and water and we've been adding Nutridrench supplement to the water as per the vet. We also have more Terramycin for the eye, as well as a pill and shots we are administering to help aid her recovery.

And all that has been going well - but five days ago she randomly opened up a cut on her ear by scratching (the one next to the bad eye) and it bleeds a lot and she just keeps reopening it. I'm not sure what to do at this point. I've seen a few people mention a makeshift cone situation but I'm not sure how well that will work in the crate? Her nails were also clipped by the vet and my partner and I then filed them softer with an emory board, but still she's been able to open the wound. I've tried three or four times to wrap some gauze and med tape around the talon and foot (but in a way she has full flexibility) to soften the force but she's still been able to get it off. We had a day of relief yesterday and then today I walked in and she did it again. I feel I can barely leave her alone now, which is challenging with all the other life things. I even found some neoprene chicken booties online but the shipping time is another week.

So...long story, but does anyone have any advice on how to help keep her from scratching her ear? She's such a sweet girl and I've grown very attached to her in these near three months of care, but I'm just not sure what to do anymore.

Thanks for reading and any help you can give!

Hi friends, small update that Eunice made it through last night without reopening the wound, so small win. However now her good eye looks weird, like kind of dark as if there is blood behind it. She seems to be in a daze and has barely moved since yesterday afternoon. And for the first time she hasn't eaten, neither her normal feed or her fruit treats (she normally LOVES watermelon and raspberries but hasn't touched either). Now I'm really worried she has something internal, like a head injury. Just not sure what to do at this point. Monitoring her closely today to see if there are any improvements.