Kodiakchickens scalped chick - Final post page 6

[Barn Maid Ann]

Wow, I just read this thread from start to finish. The will to live is an amazing thing. A bit of TLC goes a long way, too! I am so glad to hear the little chick is doing well!

We had to nurse one of our chicks, starting at about 3 or 4 weeks. It was before I discovered BYC and I don't really know what was wrong. She went off food and had a limp and was lethargic.
Your heart just goes out to the little things and you can't just stand by.
We ended up getting a small bottle of amoxi drops from the vet and hand fed her for weeks. She was half the size of the other chicks for a very long time, even after she got well. She is fine today (fully grown) and very very tame and still loves to be hand fed! lol

 

[BigBen]

I've been following this thread from the beginning. At first I thought you guys were crazy... bringing a chicken into the house and nursing it.
It made me start to second guess weather or not I wanted to start raising chickens.
Then I thought about it and realized that they become part of the family and that you can bond with them like any other pet.
I love animals and the thought of bonding..so, now I'm back on board and looking forward to raising chickens even more.
Thanks and keep up the good work.

 

[Opa]

BigBen- Glad to see you're back, although I'm not surprised as 20900 other member will tell you "No one can resist chickens".

 

[kodiakchicken]

Hi again, everyone.

Thanks for all the good support.

We went off the neosporin for a bit before I got the recommendation to keep doing it, so her skin is a little dried out, but otherwise she's doing well. We moved her tote out to the garage the other night and she's doing great. I let her visit with the other young chicks for awhile and none of them even seemed to notice that she had an injury, but I'm not taking the chance of putting her in with them until she's healed.

These photos are from last night. You can see how her eye is opened. She's got quite the little personality. I think we're going to call her Twitter, because when she was in our room, when we'd go to bed at night she wouldn't cheep, she'd twitter us a pretty little song.

Feel free to tell me what you think of the healing. The yellow is just plain skull with no meat on it. You can kind of see the skin way down on the back of her neck. Some of the feathers are missing off her neck, but mainly they are just not fluffy yet.

Thanks again for all the help! I'll keep updating as she heals.

 

[Poohbear]

If you get a chance, get some Corona Ointment for horses. Keep a little dabbed on her head. It will heal just fine. Keep a watch on her eyes to make sure they don't get stuck shut. Just wipe with warm water.You did a FANTASTIC job with her! Congrats!

 

[nerfy]

Just found this thread, dang, chickens can be so nasty!
Looks like you are doing a great job with her. She looks a lot better than the first pics. Hope she makes it!

 

[kodiakchicken]

Just another update on my scalped chicken!

We've named her Twitter after the pretty little twittering songs she sings for us. She's doing AMAZING!!! She's bright-eyed, full of energy and personality.

I think I mentioned before, she's back out in the garage so she can talk to the other chickens, but she's in her own tote because the others would peck at her injury if we didn't keep them separated. However, when we feed and water in the morning and evening we take the screens off the top of the totes and let them all fly up and roost on the edges and she's the first one up there and is perfectly comfortable hanging with the others. The other night she decided she wanted to eat out of their food bowl instead of hers (I guess "the grass is always greener" theory applies with chickens too) and flew down into the midst of the eleven other hungry chicks. Except for one rooster who wouldn't leave her alone, nobody paid any attention to her wound.

Last night we noticed that several of her scabs are starting to work off and the skin at the back of her neck that had shrunk back so far is beginning to climb back up over the back of her skull. Yay!!!

Her feathers are still an icky mess from getting pecked at, blood and neosporin but otherwise there appears to be no permanent damage. She's constantly preening (more than any chicken I've ever seen) and I've thought about giving her a bath. Any suggestions on how to bathe a 6 week old chick?

She's quite the character, as she completely expects to be held but is very strong willed and doesn't like us to mess with her (hence the delay in the bath so far). When we put neosporin on her head or try to hold her still to inspect something, she's bobbing and weaving and you can just seen the exasperation on her face. She's never mean about it though - not ever pecking or flying away.

Thank you all for your help. It still absolutely amazes me that she lived through this and I'm so glad nobody said "cull". To think I might have taken such a bright, happy life unnecessarily is very sad.

This is probably my final update untiil Twitter is completely healed. From here on out it's just a waiting game for the skin to completely cover her head and feathers to grow back (hopefully!). If the feathers don't come back I'll just have to have one of you crafty folks knit her a chicken hat!

Thanks again,

Erin

 

[Mrs MIA]

Keep up the good work... stay dry!!!!!

 

[halo]

What an amazing recovery. Just when you think that chickens are difficult to raise and seem to drop dead over nothing, you see a story like this and see how TOUGH they are. What a pretty girl, Im so glad it ended up well.

 

[nerfy]

Sounds like she is on the road to recovery. You did a great job.