Injured and sick chick

[mocastkj]

Hi, I have a chick approximately 8 weeks old. A little over a week ago, she escaped the coop and our dog tried to kill her. We got her away from the dog, but not without a significant injury under her wing, near where her leg meets her body. We have treated that wound, it is scabbed over now and she is running, walking, eating, drinking, scratching and behaving just fine. However, we returned home from vacation yesterday and found that she has lost feathers - mostly on her back and neck- and she has runny, basically clear, diarrhea. The person taking care of her thought it was maybe mites. We have never had problems with a mite infestation or any other bug infestation, so we're not sure what to do for her. Any ideas of what the cause could be and how to treat? TIA

 

[TinyBirds]

Are there other chickens with her that could be pecking at her? She could be being bullied.

 

[mocastkj]

No - we have isolated her as she recovers from the large wound she received. We have let her have supervised visits with the other 2 chicks we have every evening and most mornings. This is out in our backyard with us carefully watching all of them.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Maybe you could post pictures. In any case, my first thought would be that the other chickens are picking on her. They tend to do that to any chicken that is injured or acting different. She may have an infection from her injury. I would separate her to be sure she gets enough to eat and drink.if you have a vet that treats poultry, they could tell you more.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hi @mocastkj Welcome To BYC

How hot is it where you are?

The runny poop could be from overheating. Hot weather and drinking a lot of water can bring on the runny poop. Keep watch on her, if she continues to have poop consistently like this even when the weather has cooled or she becomes lethargic, then you will want to have a fecal sample tested.

She has new feathers coming in - I see pin feathers getting ready to unfurl. She is 8wks old, she will be going through some "mini-molts" losing/regrowing feathers as she grows.

 

[mocastkj]

I tried to get a few photos. I think it's hard to see- but you can see that her neck looks all bedraggled, which is from the loss of feathers. The poop picture was taken this morning about 15 minutes after she dropped it. When she dropped it, it looked clear like water.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Those bedraggled feathers are still in the sheath - once the sheath is shed, the feathers will unfurl

 

[Wyorp Rock]

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2011/12/molting-what-is-it-and-how-to-help.html
http://countrysidenetwork.com/daily/poultry/feed-health/when-do-chickens-molt-video/