Injury to vent area - how to remove stuck on urine?

[Chick Magnet Chris]

Hi,

My 8 week old unknown breed hen appeared to suffer an injury in our coop the other day. None of my other birds (we have 11 girls total, 9 others that are also 8 weeks old, and one 1 year old Lakenvelder hen) are having any problems, and there's no evidence that any critter broke into our coop.

She has a dime-sized skin tear area next to her vent, and it appears that maybe the vent/cloaca opening was torn somewhat, or maybe she has a prolapse. . .?? She is eating, drinking and acting fine now. but was very quiet the first day or two. We have her isolated from the other birds.

Our 8 x 24 foot coop has a dirt floor, plywood walls and chicken wire on one entire wall (we cover it with clear plastic in the winter). There are no areas I can see where she could have torn herself - the edges of the chicken wire are secured. There are plenty of wooden perches in the coop, but the little girls are still crowding together on the floor in a huddle. They jump up onto the perches during the day, but don't roost there at night yet.

I have been rinsing the area under warm water daily, and putting Povidone on it. I also got 4 days worth of lincomycin injections (antibiotic) from my vet - today is day 4.

She seems to be pooping normally, but the white/yellowish urine part just drips out of her and sticks to her skin and feathers. We've trimmed away most of the feathers around the vent to help her stay cleaner, but the urine still gets caked onto her skin.

Questions:

1.) Can an 8 week old baby suffer a prolapse? The skin tear next to the vent makes me think this is an injury, not a prolapse, but I guess I'm not sure.
2.) Could a prolapse cause her to poop normally but have the urine part of the poop build up on her underside?
3.) Is there anything I can use to soften and remove the caked on urine? Even holding her under warm water coming out of the faucet
doesn't make it possible to get all the caked on urine off.
4.) Once I do manage to get all the urine off, is there something I can put on her skin to help keep the urine from sticking to it, and to protect the skin a little better? (like diaper rash ointment maybe?)
5.) Should I get more days of antibiotic from my vet? The wound along side the vend is healing ok. The urine caking up on her is a bigger problem.
6.) What could have caused this to happen?


Help! I love our chickens, and while she's acting ok now, the buildup of urine on her underside will be hard on her - it's really irritating her skin.
Thanks,
Mary and Christopher H.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
Could possibly the other chickens have pecked her and caused this wound, if there is a small redness anywhere on one of the flock that the others can see they will peck till it is really bad, possibly even killing their flock member. good thing to keep her away from the flock till she is healed. As for cleaning the urine which they do both at once, chickens don't just urinate. You might just have to let her soak in something like epsom salt water[warm] for a time say 30 mins or more then see if this caked problem comes off. trimming the feathers is good and I think if you put something on her skin that would coat it and help protect it would be fine as long as it doesn't have pain relief ending in caine. Maybe try something with aloe or even vaseline to cover and protect the skin. If she was constipated she could possibly get a prolaspe from straining. Let us know how she does and hoping all turns out well for her. Did you think she had an infection was the reason for the antibiotic?

 

[Chick Magnet Chris]

We just gave the lincomycin antibiotic injections to help make sure she doesn't get an infection. I'm going to try to get some pictures. After looking at her again, I'm really thinking prolapse now. I'm a real newbie at this, so need as much advice as I can get.
Thanks.