How to treat 3 week old with significant injury?

[SycolinWoodsChickens]

We've been having picking problems with our new chicks. Thought we had everything calmed down and went to work.

When I got home it was horrible. About 2/3 of our chicks are bloody but one baby roo in particular has been picked clean from his throat all the way down one side of his body and wing. He probably is 1/3 picked clean and is bloody where they also got his skin.

He was shaking and in shock and I was able to get him out of that state, fed him some egg, gave him some water and gave him a hospital bin.

Normally I would wash the wounds, apply bacitricin and then blu-kote. But his injury is so extensive I"m not sure what to do.
If I just put bacitricin on him the shavings will stick to him and it seems like covering him with that much blu-kote might be too much for a 3 week old.


Any idea? I have to get him settled and get some sleep myself.

 

[ZooMummzy]

I'm sorry about your little guy

Poor thing! I personally would take him off shavings till he heals. Use paper towels or rag towels, anything that would allow you to treat his wounds without making them worse (with shavings). I definitely would rinse out his wounds and apply antibiotic cream. Other than keeping him warm and well fed, I think this is all you can do. Hopefully others will chime in....

 

[CMV]

With an injury that large you may find him getting chilled with so much ointment on him unless you have him under a heat lamp. I think I would opt for the Blukote. I would do as ZooMummzy suggested and put him on some old towels as bedding. Separate him from the flock and keep him separate until he heals. You need to figure out why this is happening. I am thinking that the babies might be too crowded.

Good luck.

 

[SycolinWoodsChickens]

Thanks for your replies.

I put towels over the wood shavings and applied oinment. The room was warm and he seems comfortable. He just wants to be held constantly...

The babies are in a 4.5' x 4.5'brooder for 24 birds. That is over the 1/2 foot per bird. Yesterday I had pulled 8 babies out and put them in a separate bin so there were only 16 birds in that space when they did this!

I'm pretty sure they are not overcrowded, or hot, or cold, or lacking protein. They have roosts, a sand box, and treats to scratch for in the wood shavings.

Any one have any other ideas? We may have to cull the worse offenders (we've already isolated one who has feathered picked everyone and my DH wants to cull her because we haven't been able to break her habit in two weeks).

The second light hit their brooder today they started up again! I'm not going to have any babies left at this rate and we have never had this issue in our brooders before!

P.S. the ones we separated (the 2 week olds) did not pick each other at all yesterday so we have narrowed the issue down to our 16 3 week olds.