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!
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!