Injured chick

[shartnett5]

On of my 4 week old babies, "Zip" got attacked by an older hen. They were living side by side the past few weeks and she must have been let in by my daughter last night. She pecked Zip badly. I cleaned the wounds as best as she would let me and used some triple antibiotic cream. She is in the house in her "chicken hospital" or in my arms. She is eating and drinking but mostly sleeping. Kinda limply unless she is distributed. Any help or advise. Please. Trying to add photo. Its along her neck and top side near wing and back. Bloody and loss of feathers. Cannot tell if skin is torn. Looks like though. Wounds look wet from ointment

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Poor little one.

It sounds like you are treating the wounds well. If you find that feathers are getting into the wound, you can trim those back a bit - she's young and will be going through some mini molts yet, so she will be growing new feathers.

Encourage her to drink - injured chickens suffer from dehydration and shock. If you have them give her some poultry electrolytes for a day. (You can give Gatorade, Pedialyte or a little sugar water). Then switch to poultry vitamins for a couple of days. After she is hydrated, offer wet chick starter, you can also give some chopped egg or tuna to see if that will entice her.

Keep applying your ointment and watch for signs of infection - thick pus, odors, red hot inflamed skin.

Let us know how she is doing.

 

[shartnett5]

We are doing much better. Eating amd drinking and begging to be with me. We had outside time past few days but sje scream chirps like she is petrified. When i bring jer inside she settles. Today we are thinking to not add Neosporin as she is preening so much after it is on. So we are letting it all dry.

 

[shartnett5]

Sorry for the horrible spelling. She was on my arms. After she scabs and the wounds loom better when to I reintroduce her to her chick family. Suggestions on how? And someone suggested feather regrow food. She is 4 weeks. Is she old enough?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

We are doing much better. Eating amd drinking and begging to be with me. We had outside time past few days but sje scream chirps like she is petrified. When i bring jer inside she settles. Today we are thinking to not add Neosporin as she is preening so much after it is on. So we are letting it all dry. Sorry for the horrible spelling. She was on my arms. After she scabs and the wounds loom better when to I reintroduce her to her chick family. Suggestions on how? And someone suggested feather regrow food. She is 4 weeks. Is she old enough?

She looks like she is healing nicely. Since she's preening a lot after you put on the Neosporin, put it on 1x day - probably at night so she will be sleeping, not preening.

She will be growing in new feathers and going through some "mini molts" before she gets her big girl feathers. Chick Starter is fine and has the essential nutrition that she needs. Most "feather regrow feeds" contain too much calcium and are sometimes less protein than chick starter or flock raiser feeds.

You can add some poultry vitamins to her water a couple of times a week if you wish, but she seems to be coming along fine.

For integration, one of the best methods is "see-but-don't-touch" http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2011/06/integrating-new-flock-members-playpen.html

 

[shartnett5]

I do put it on at night. When do you know it is a good time to leave it alone to dry out? I have been using the additives in the water. Its hot and she has extra water. I thought so about the food but I thought to ask. First timer w chicks and all.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I would keep it slightly moist with ointment for a few more days, then start to taper it off.

Does she sleep completely in the dark or does she still have light/heat?

 

[shartnett5]

Sorry for the delay. So a lot has developed okjn the past week keeping me busy. "Zip" is doing fine. She was under the lamp. But now is not due to such warm weather. She is healing so well. And is the most attention seeking little bird.
I suspected at the time it wasnt the older hen who caused the injury. The spot on the neck and wing most injured looked too torn. The day of my ladt post I noticed another with an injury. The wing looked like something ripped a piece straight off downwards. It was almost a day old and on its way to healing. I checked the whole coop inside and out. Handled every bird looking for other signs. I dit not find any week spots where a predator was digging etc.
Either way we decided to rebuild a more predator safe coop. We bought supplies and planned it for 2 days out, while we were not seeing any other signs of mayhem. Then while rotortilling an area for a pool we took a break to say hi and check water. Found some shredded remains. So we hanged plans and got to work. Went to gather them up and put in a temporary run next to our work area, amd found another very fresh carcass. It has been a very rough 24 hours but newly built coop. They were shut up in coop over night and are not happy about it. Building run today but it is slow work w heat.
Seems like predator got chickens scared and they ran to out door area and were pulled through the one spot that I ran out of hardware cloth for. It was a steel fence 1 inch holes. I planned to big and home depot only had 4 rolls of 25 ft, day I went. The extra we needed came in already. We also got a motion sensor light.

Besides the update. I have questions. How high up do many of you use the hardware cloth? We are trenching and burying cinder blocks. It seems from neighbor that this predator is a smarty and has gotten through a few of her safeguards over time. Ideas or suggestions please.

 

[shartnett5]

Also predator is daytime a2md night time. The last chicken lost was midday, right after we shut rotortiller off and went up for water. Came back to wash rotortiller and saw dead bird. It came back for remains in trash a few hhoura after that.

Sorry for mis-types. My hand is numb from hammer and drill, saw, and staple gun

 

[Wyorp Rock]

@aart ? Suggestions for hardware cloth placement?


@shartnett5 I'm happy to hear that Zip is doing well!

So sorry about your losses. What a situation that you have been dealing with I would have a hard time speculating on what predator you have. Most can and do hunt during the daytime. We almost always associate possum, raccoon and fox as nocturnal, but I have seen all 3 actively hunting during the day.

I'm not very good about coop/run building so, hopefully someone else will chime in.

Thank you for the update.