Ursuline Chick
Rest in Peace 1957-2024
Our hen had all the skin torn off her right thigh, it looked like a skinless chicken thigh you would buy in the market. @Overo Mare was very helpful, I cleaned everything well in the beginning and applied generic antibiotic ointment. The generic brand just sat in clumps and the hen would peck at it and eat it. We switched to Name brand Neospoin, it melted from the hen's body heat and went in to the gashes and such. We did this every day, so it was a bit time consuming spending at least a few times a day making sure she was clean and covered in Neosporin. It took about 3 months for skin to grow back and cover the thigh. We feed a lot of scrambled egg and spiked her water with pediolyte (50-50).When DW's hen was attacked by a possum a year ago and peeled the skin from one side and did major muscle tears at the butt.
She finially was returned to the flock after months in the ICU (den).
Takeway was, 'triple antibiotic ointment', aka neosporin. Lots of it slathered on the open wounds.
In this case the brand name was better than the 'walmart' budget product because the neo would disolve quicker but the cheaper brand would clump and the hen would eat it off the wound.
I'm not opposed to generic and would use it on myself, but for chickens the name brand worked better.
PS, The hen fared better than the possum.
She is fine now, running with the rest of the flock as though nothing happened. The only difference is that her right thigh feathers look like fluffy butt feathers now.