Nasty head wound

[blwest13]

Please help! I am a new chicken owner (7 months) I have a 1 year old chicken with a worsening head injury. I noticed she had what appeared to be a patch of dried blood on the back of her head a little over a week ago. The injury was a straight all the way through laceration which I think was a pecking injury. I caught her and used diluted betadine, vetiricyn, and triple antibiotic ointment on it for a few days straight. I felt like (gentle) scrubbing was doing more harm than good so I decided to just do vetiricyn and triple antibiotic for awhile and let the scab fall off on its own as I read on a forum.
Well…we went out of town and our pet sitter has chickens. She said she sprayed vetiricyn twice and didn’t mention anything about the wound (tbf not sure how closely she looked at it to begin with).
The chicken has been kept in a horse stall and briefly had another chicken who is getting picked on who seemed attached to the injured one with it but the sitter saw some feathers in the stall and took out the non-injured one. I think they were together for 24h or so. In hindsight I know this was a bad idea due to the chicken with a bloody scab but I was worried I’d end up with two bloody chickens if not.
Anyway, got home today and chickens head looks awful. No flies, maggots, smell, or puss that I can tell. She is very feisty and wouldn’t let me catch her even at 9:30pm. I can’t tell how much she is eating or drinking bc I’ve been gone.
I couldn’t get a great pic bc she wouldn’t let me catch her but I’ll post it. When we left the scab was about the size of a quarter I think. This almost looks necrotic?!?!?! OR the 24h with the other chicken made it way worse.
Either way. What can I do? What signs do I look for to tell me she won’t recover from this? Like I said she’s still feisty but I know they are stoic. Thanks in advance!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'd like to see some up close photos before you do much of anything to the wound.
Are you sure it's necrotic or just scabbed over with some dirt and debris in it.

Wait until dark, then grab her off the roost. Swaddle her in a towel if you need to, to capture her wings. A red headlamp works well when grabbing chickens at night. If you turn on normal lights, they can see.

 

[blwest13]

Can you get a good close up of the wound? I've treated a few head injuries, & many flesh wounds.

I will try to tonight! We had just gotten home from out of town and I had to do baby and toddler bath and bed so I didn’t have time to chase her around all evening but I will try today!
I also think I’m going to move her into a dog crate in the garage or our basement because it is cooler than the horse stall. So that should help with care

 

[Wyorp Rock]

If she's by herself, moving about and eating/drinking, then I'd leave her in the stall. Crating is cramped.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Can you get a good close up of the wound? I've treated a few head injuries, & many flesh wounds.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

To catch her, locate her in the coop. Once you're sure where she is, shut the light off and catch her that way. With one hand, hold her legs gently to give you better grip of her. Keep her upright and use your arm if possible to stop her from flapping.

Now to her injury. She needs to be completely separated from all birds till she heals. To remove the scab, get a wet paper towel and gently hold it on there until the scab loosings down. You might need to replace the paper towel as you do that. (I don't think she'll cooperate for that, but if you wanted to try it.)

Make a Saline rinse. Boil 1 quart of water for 10 minutes and add 2 teaspoons of salt and disolve. Use only after it's been completely cooled off to at least room temperature. Rinse her wound at least twice a day and apply Neosporin to her wound if you have it. (Walmart sells a Neosporin spray, which I recommend so you don't need to touch her wound.)

She should heal, but she might not grow back her feathers. If she does, depending on the injury, they might come back white. Nothing to worry about, but expect instead.

 

[blwest13]

I'd like to see some up close photos before you do much of anything to the wound.
Are you sure it's necrotic or just scabbed over with some dirt and debris in it.

Wait until dark, then grab her off the roost. Swaddle her in a towel if you need to, to capture her wings. A red headlamp works well when grabbing chickens at night. If you turn on normal lights, they can see.

I did not know that about the red light, thanks! She is in a 12x12 horse stall by herself and it was very dark but I had to turn on a flashlight so I could see her. I’ll try a red light tonight and get some better pics.

 

[blwest13]

To catch her, locate her in the coop. Once you're sure where she is, shut the light off and catch her that way. With one hand, hold her legs gently to give you better grip of her. Keep her upright and use your arm if possible to stop her from flapping.

Now to her injury. She needs to be completely separated from all birds till she heals. To remove the scab, get a wet paper towel and gently hold it on there until the scab loosings down. You might need to replace the paper towel as you do that. (I don't think she'll cooperate for that, but if you wanted to try it.)

Make a Saline rinse. Boil 1 quart of water for 10 minutes and add 2 teaspoons of salt and disolve. Use only after it's been completely cooled off to at least room temperature. Rinse her wound at least twice a day and apply Neosporin to her wound if you have it. (Walmart sells a Neosporin spray, which I recommend so you don't need to touch her wound.)

She should heal, but she might not grow back her feathers. If she does, depending on the injury, they might come back white. Nothing to worry about, but expect instead.

She is in a 12x12 horse stall by herself with a wheelbarrow to roost on, some stone dust for bathing, shavings on the floor, etc. I did my best with what I had to make her cozy. I will grab some saline at work as I am a nurse practitioner. I’m pretty familiar with human wounds but chickens just seem like this weird mix of fragile but also resilient

I’ll try to grab some better pics tonight!

 

[Eggcessive]

Chicken wound care is pretty much the same, if you are a nurse practitioner. Saline is the mildest to clean. Many chicken people buy the expensive Vetericyn, but saline is fine. Vetericyn has the hydrogel that many human wound treatments have. Triple antibiotic or plain Neosporin ointment is pretty standard twice a day, until healing occurs. Do you have a rooster who may be hurting her or the other hen?

 

[blwest13]

I'd like to see some up close photos before you do much of anything to the wound.
Are you sure it's necrotic or just scabbed over with some dirt and debris in it.

Wait until dark, then grab her off the roost. Swaddle her in a towel if you need to, to capture her wings. A red headlamp works well when grabbing chickens at night. If you turn on normal lights, they can see.

Can you get a good close up of the wound? I've treated a few head injuries, & many flesh wounds.

To me, I think it looks o.k. she's just got a bit of dust/dirt stuck in it.

Me, I'd just monitor the wound, spread a bit of ointment around the edges to help keep it moist, she's going to get itchy. You know how scab edges get itchy when healing?

I've had hens ripped open like this by roosters. After they scab over, I usually just monitor and apply ointment or cream around the scab, yes, they will get dirt stuck all over and look like a hot mess. If they got to looking too messy, I'd just give them a quick swabbing cleanup with Chlorhexidine or spray with Banixx (Your Vetericyn would work fine).

Show photos of your coop/set, especially the inside and all the birds if you can. They are getting beat up like early in the mornings? Maybe fighting over nesting boxes? I've never had hens rip open another like this, I've only had roosters do this, so one or more of your hens is ganging up or mounting them.

I have seen one of the hens mounting her since the injury started. My husband says he has seen a separate one do it as well. They don’t tend to lay until late morning but the door opens at 6:15 currently and prior it was a little later and my husband always said she were making a big racket when he was leaving for work. I’ll get some coop pictures!

To me, I think it looks o.k. she's just got a bit of dust/dirt stuck in it.

Me, I'd just monitor the wound, spread a bit of ointment around the edges to help keep it moist, she's going to get itchy. You know how scab edges get itchy when healing?

I've had hens ripped open like this by roosters. After they scab over, I usually just monitor and apply ointment or cream around the scab, yes, they will get dirt stuck all over and look like a hot mess. If they got to looking too messy, I'd just give them a quick swabbing cleanup with Chlorhexidine or spray with Banixx (Your Vetericyn would work fine).

Show photos of your coop/set, especially the inside and all the birds if you can. They are getting beat up like early in the mornings? Maybe fighting over nesting boxes? I've never had hens rip open another like this, I've only had roosters do this, so one or more of your hens is ganging up or mounting them.

There are 12 hens in a 6x8 I think it is. 8 nesting boxes but they tend to use two at a time. I have three food trays and at least two waters out all the time. They free range during the day and coop door is on a timer for 6:15am-9:30pm open currently (in KY). When the injured one got loose for a hot second last week one immediately jumped on top of her and she crouched down and just let it happen like she was being mounted.
Not sure how much it matters but the ones that are getting picked on are about a year old and the rest of the flock are 3 to 4 years old. I did not own them when they were introduced to each other and I got them about seven months ago and 1-2 have always gotten picked on. Since then two of them have died. One from predator and one from osteomyelitis and they pretty much immediately picked two more to pick on from that younger group.