Neck injury - Skin Missing

[Ourgimpflock]

Good day everyone. New to chicken keeping here (hatched April+May 2024) asking for help as we now have the first major injury in our flock. Looking for your ideas and recommendations as to what may have happened and how we should proceed with her care in the days ahead.

We checked on our 10 girls and rooster last night to make sure all made it inside the coop safe. All were very good. Then this AM one of the girls was staying to the back of the run not wanting to come to us or outside. When we approached closer to her we noticed blood all over her neck and then saw she had no skin, no feathers, and some visible muscle exposed. A patch about 2" wide and 3" long that sits right at the back of the neck. We were not able to find blood, skin, a fight scene, etc in the coop or the run. We can't even find any holes from a weasel or similar entering and exiting. Could this have been caused by another hen or the roo? We do have weasels around almost a year since we saw one but just last month we had a rabbit pass away in the back yard. Its neck and face were eaten nearly to the bone and the rest was left untouched for our kids to find..

So we have taken her inside with us, washed the injury with saline water and vetericyn plus then we added neosporin to a gauze wrap and covered. She is lethargic but still alert. Please pray with us on her full and speedy recovery? Add any of your thoughts tips advice to help her please!

 

[GodLovesU]

I had something similar happen to one of my friends hens.I think her other chickens/turkeys did it.She put it down.Will pray for your poor girl!

 

[alinas2010]

So sorry about your hen. I will pray for her recovery and for your family. Edited to add, also welcome to BYC!

Great job rinsing the wound. Immediately treat her for shock using an electrolyte solution with some sugar mixed in. Room temp Gatorade or nutridrench with some water and sugar mixed in will work, also. You may have to dip her beak in to get her interested in it or dribble some on her beak so she takes it in. Don’t put any directly in her beak or you risk her aspirating it. Then keep her somewhere warm, dark and quiet to recover.

When treating the wound, rinse twice daily with Vetericyn and slather in and pack the wound with triple antibiotic ointment without pain relief. Make sure the ointment is always covering the wound to keep it moist. No need for a gauze cover as sometimes they cause more issues than not covering at all. Also try trimming the feathers away from the wound for sanitary reasons.

You’re right to keep her separated from the flock and inside until healed, especially since flies can be an issue this time of year.

She may be slow to come back around to eating and drinking. You can offer scrambled eggs and watered down chicken feed and she may go for that but don’t be alarmed if it takes a few days. Try to push fluids a bit more. Her injury is likely recoverable if infection doesn’t set in, but will take time, care and patience for weeks of healing. Not sure what could’ve caused the injury, perhaps mating? Injuries in the back of the head/neck area can also be commonly seen in bullying-type situations. Is she a lower ranking hen? Always a possibility she escaped a predator, as well.

 

[Ourgimpflock]

Thanks for all your tips and prayers! We're 2 days in and right now she is coming along well!! We cleaned her up with chlorhexidine trimmed feathers then were able to glue it and it doesn't look too bad! We have been switching between vetericyn, silver honey, and ointment each a time or two per day. She's in the house with us, just caged in the kitchen when we can't watch her. Back to drinking and eating nearly as well as she ever has also! We're giving her Poultry Cell once a day with her food and water mix to make a mash. She's been eating all of that plus had eggs mealworms and also eating her dry food. Here's updated pics we just took as we were spraying her with silver honey and putting her away for the night.

As to what we believe happened we do have 5 hens 1 rooster born this April, a month before our other 6 hens that were born this May. This one is one of those younger 6 and has been the top of the young ones from the start. We now do believe either the rooster (which just a week or two ago started trying to mate with a few hens) or an older hen is most likely to blame. None of the birds seem to bully but one of them definitely did so here. We found no holes into the coop or run and we are covered in 1/2 hardware cloth. Watching them closer now and have been praying this doesn't happen to another.

 

[alinas2010]

Thanks for all your tips and prayers! We're 2 days in and right now she is coming along well!! We cleaned her up with chlorhexidine trimmed feathers then were able to glue it and it doesn't look too bad! We have been switching between vetericyn, silver honey, and ointment each a time or two per day. She's in the house with us, just caged in the kitchen when we can't watch her. Back to drinking and eating nearly as well as she ever has also! We're giving her Poultry Cell once a day with her food and water mix to make a mash. She's been eating all of that plus had eggs mealworms and also eating her dry food. Here's updated pics we just took as we were spraying her with silver honey and putting her away for the night.

As to what we believe happened we do have 5 hens 1 rooster born this April, a month before our other 6 hens that were born this May. This one is one of those younger 6 and has been the top of the young ones from the start. We now do believe either the rooster (which just a week or two ago started trying to mate with a few hens) or an older hen is most likely to blame. None of the birds seem to bully but one of them definitely did so here. We found no holes into the coop or run and we are covered in 1/2 hardware cloth. Watching them closer now and have been praying this doesn't happen to another.

Oh wow it doesn’t look bad at all. And she is a darling! I’m glad to hear that she is doing well. Great that her appetite is returned quickly, too.

I’m surprised you were able to superglue that! I’ve never tried it myself but it seems to be doing good. Do watch that it doesn’t start to swell and need a small incision for draining, with being such a deep wound all sealed up. I’m interested to see how it does with the super glue, keep us updated