Injured chick help?

[melcaara]

My 3 week old crested legbar chick has a wound on her chest. She's hen raised, I was outside checking on the babies and noticed a tiny speck of blood on my hand and discovered that she skin that covers her crop was torn. She's got a square inch of flesh showing, only damage seems to be to the skin. I took her inside, set her up in a fish tank with the heat light, probiotic water, and used a wet q tip to clean it some and check for further damage.

What should I do next? Maybe antibiotics? When can I put her back outside with her mom and siblings?

I removed her immediately to prevent any pecking but I'd rather not just separate her for the rest of her time indoors. Mother hen adopted 4 chicks that were already a week old alongside this one and the others she hatched so maybe she won't be rejected after a short break. For now I'm just making sure she's eating and drinking, rn she's asleep on paper towels under the heat lamp

 

[coach723]

Can you get some pictures of the injury? I would monitor for a while, make sure that the crop is not injured, food and water isn't leaking. If you have some plain neosporin or plain triple antibiotic ointment I would cover the wound with that.

 

[melcaara]

Can you get some pictures of the injury? I would monitor for a while, make sure that the crop is not injured, food and water isn't leaking. If you have some plain neosporin or plain triple antibiotic ointment I would cover the wound with that.

It looks worse rn because I just slathered it in ointment. It was dry originally and I didn't see any damage to the crop at all, I used the wet q tip to pick up the skin and peek just to be sure.

 

[coach723]

So in that picture is there a flap of skin covering the area? I'm just seeing lots of baby feathers/fuzz there. I would try to trim back any that are actually getting in the wound, to help keep it clean. A tiny pair of embroidery scissors would work.

 

[melcaara]

There is a piece of skin that can be put there, it's just unstretched and won't stay in place. I might try to trim them once she wakes up, all the handling probably stressed her

 

[coach723]

Let her rest. If there is a flap of skin then a a couple of small sutures might hold it in place. Or a tiny bit of super glue. You just don't want the skin to stick to the tissue below. If you do that then flush it out well first, make sure it's very clean before hand.

 

[My Bagurks]

I had a chick with an injury to his leg. Skin was torn, muscle was showing. I believe the mother hen tried to cull him. The wound was 3/4 of an inch by 1/2 inch on his upper leg. Looked pretty gruesome.

I have him some electrolyte water and neosporin-ed the wound for two days and found it had healed over already.

I did however, raise him by himself until he feathered out. Then I put him in a dog crate in the coop for a few weeks. He integrated fine. But he was socially awkward for a time. Hanging out by himself, seemed low on the pecking order but not bullied or beaten up. And since he matured, he has been completely normal. Very active with the ladies and doesn’t fight with the other roosters.