Hurt Chick :(

[Necklace]

Hello.. I have two baby chicks.. they are 3 weeks old... one of my hens hatched them and they were doing fine in the pen with all the other hens and my rooster. Today I went to bed them down for the night and one of the babies looks like it was attacked by one of the others.

all along her neck and back.. right between the wings is broken and red.. all feathers are gone and I can see the muscle.. I brought both of the chicks inside.. Momma was not happy. I put some neosporin on the area and I know it probably hurts her. I have both of them inside on a heating pad.. The hurt baby is staying still.

I know I need to just watch her and keep the area medicated... is there anything else I can do for her? any other medicine that I could use to help her?

 

[azygous]

Did you clean the wounds real well? You need to clean them twice a day, morning and before bed. You did the right thing using antibiotic ointment, but if you can, get a product from the feed store called Vetericyn. (I never know if I'm spelling it right.) Spray it on the wounds before you smooth on the ointment. It aids in growing new tissue.

Make sure you administer to the wounds until they completely heal, and do not let the wounds dry out. New tissue growth is dependent on being kept moist.

I had a chick get badly scalped at three weeks, and she healed nicely. It was a very bad open wound that required six weeks to close.

My chick was scalped by a curious rooster with biting problems. Yours was probably injured by an adult "disciplining" the chick, causing a wound in the fragile skin, and others probably were curious about the blood and made it worse.

Chicks are tough. It should heal and be okay. Is there a way to return the chicks to the mama, but keep them separate from the others, yet still in view of the flock? It really disrupts things to remove them from the flock. Re-integration can be such a pain. I kept my chick with the others, and the wound never did get infected. Just takes the chick up twice a day to clean and dress the wound and return it to the broody.

 

[azygous]

Play it by ear. It would be best to keep the chicks and broody with the flock, but partitioned somehow so the chick doesn't attract the attention of adults who want to mess with the wound.

It will be a lot less stressful for the broody to be penned than for the chicks to be taken away from her. Can you gerry-rig a temp pen in a portion of one of the pens?

 

[azygous]

Can you post pictures of the wounds on this injured chick? Maybe it will help us get some more ideas as to how quickly we might expect the chick to heal.

I suppose you have no real alternative other than to keep the broody and chicks segregated inside at this time. The first priority is to keep the chick safe until the wounds are well on their way to healing, and to keep chicks and broody together for their well being. After all, she will do a superior job of keeping them safe and warm. They need her and she needs them.

Let's do that and see how things progress. We'll address re-integration later.

 

[azygous]

Thanks for posting the pic. That's very helpful. It probably looks really bad to you because this is such a tiny chick, but it appears to me it will heal just fine if you keep it clean and moist. Chicks grow back new skin very rapidly.

Yes, bring the mama hen inside with her babies. She's not done raising them, and she needs to be with them so she won't lose interest. But keep a close eye on her. In some cases, the broody might reject an injured chicks or try to kill it. If she does anything to make you believe she might hurt the chick, then she'll need to go back outside.

Hang in there! You'll get through this!

 

[azygous]

When you're at the feed store, pick up some Poultry Nutri-drench also. That injured chick sounds like it's slipping and not eating enough to keep growing. They very quickly fall behind in growth at this age if they don't consume enough.

 

[Necklace]

UPDATE: The baby chick healed up a lot faster then I thought.. we had her inside for about a week and I took her back outside to Momma to see how she reacts to the baby since she has been gone for awhile.. Well to put it short.. She is the BEST Momma Chicken in the world.. she heard her baby peeping and starting going crazy.. now Momma and both babies are trucking around outside and the hurt one is almost all the way healed.. just a few feathers on the top of her wing still need to come in. she has picked up on her growth.. she is almost the same size as her sister .

I think the Broodyness has spread to another hen.. she has been planted on an egg for about 2 weeks now.. she is not one of my passive hens so I am hoping that my other hen with the chicks now helps out protecting them.. if not I will have to take it from her.

I LOVE baby chickies running around.. they are so much fun..

 

[Necklace]

I have two pens both are occupied though.. I have the large pen where they all sleep and I have a smaller pen where my two Naked Neck hens are at.. I had to separate them because they were getting picked on by the others..

I thought about moving them out of the small cage and putting momma and the babies in there but I would not be able to get to them to clean the wound.. The cage is in the shape of an L and I can not reach into the back of the cage. so I don't think that will work

I do have a small rabbit cage that I could put in the main pen. I am not sure how Momma would like it she has been leading them around outside for the past week.. :/

 

[Necklace]

The main pen is not big enough to section off. They only stay in there at night.. during the day they run around the yard. The only way to do that would be to put the rabbit hutch in there.. I would have no problem locking momma and babies up at night in the hutch but during the day she wants to take the babies out and run around the yard. I have tried blocking them in the big cage but they jump to well and get out every time.
I can not barricade the main door to high because the other hens go in to lay there eggs then get out. ugh.. I just do not know I have been thinking about it and I can not think of any way to keep them safe outside with momma . :/

 

[Necklace]

This is the baby.. she was sleeping so I did not want to pick her up and move her the wound goes up the back of her neck a little. I feel so bad for her..

I did not bring momma inside she is out in the pen with the other chickens should I bring her in too?