NEW EMERGENCY

[Our Simple Life]

Help please! I have a young pullet that has been very badly pecked. All of the feathers and skin have been pecked off of her head and the skin is torn down the back of her neck with some loose skin at the sides. This happened Monday morning and this is what I have done so far :
Cleaned the areas with water, hydrogen peroxide and Theracyin.
Applied Preparation H mixed with aspirin to the area.
Gave fluids of Sav a chick in addition to regular water every hour for the first 24 hours.
She is being kept separate in a small cat carrier in the house.

She began eating a little and drinking on her own mid morning today.I purchased some Duramycin and will begin administering today.
The skin on the side of her neck is loose. My concern is that infection will set in the area. Should I trim it off, close it with a butterfly closure or just leave it alone.

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC. I would stop the peroxide, Prep H and aspirin on the wound. Apply the Theracyn twice a day or apply some bacitracin or plain neosporin ointment for wound treatment until the skin starts to close. You might want to give her a little more room to stand up and have room for her food and water. Pictures of the wound can help. Most of the time even large wounds will close on their own eventually. Antibiotics are not usually necessary, but if used, I would give her some plain yogurt in her food for probiotics.

 

[triplepurpose]

chickens have a robust constitution and can heal quite well from seemingly ghastly injuries even with only basic treatments (or no treatment) sometimes. in my humble (and admitedly very much non-veterinary, if modestly veteran) experience, the least invasive interventions are often just as effective if not more so (eg, homeopathic remedies).

unfortunately, by removing her from the coop though, you may likely only exacerbated the problems when it comes time to reintroduce her to the flock. also, being alone in "solitary confinement" is unnatural and stressful in itself for a chicken (gregariously social animal) and stress is counterproductive to healing. when isolating a bullied chicken, it should be kepted in the coop where it can still see and be seen by the rest and still effectively "be with them." removing it for any length of time only lowers its place in the pecking order, because it will be seen as an outsider by the flock. people are often rightly advised against introducing just one chicken to an established flock--but the same goes for reintroducing. but you can avoid all these problems by not removing the affected bird in the first place, just isolating it by a transparent barrier so it cannot physically be attacked while recovering.

the only time i would ever completely remove a chicken from the flock is when there is a concern of infectious disease transmission (which is often pointless anyway because by the time symptons are noticeable others have already been exposed anyway).

hope that helps. good luck!

 

[Our Simple Life]

 

[Our Simple Life]

Thank you both so much for your responses! I have stopped the Prep H and aspirin mixture. Did that mainly because there was so much swelling was hard to tell how extensive the wounds were. I was introducing her along with her two hatch mates. I pulled the other two from the flock and have them in an area where she can visit with them several times a day so she doesn't feel so isolated. The area behind her right eye began swelling this afternoon. Thank you again and any suggestions?

 

[Our Simple Life]

Also I have moved her to a large crate so that she has more room.She seemed like she was in shock and was not moving yesterday. Today she has been a little more active although she is very unsteady on her feet.

 

[Eggcessive]

Hopefully, with some rest, she will get back to normal. I would place her crate inside the coop with the others soon so that you don't have to reintroduce her later. They can look at each other, but she will stay safe.Here are a couple of threads with pecking injuries and pictures of how they healed:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1141144/yikes-large-wound-on-hen
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/678198/chicks-head-pecked-to-the-bone
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1124132/barred-rock-attacked

 

[Our Simple Life]

Hopefully, with some rest, she will get back to normal. I would place her crate inside the coop with the others soon so that you don't have to reintroduce her later. They can look at each other, but she will stay safe.Here are a couple of threads with pecking injuries and pictures of how they healed:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1141144/yikes-large-wound-on-hen
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/678198/chicks-head-pecked-to-the-bone
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1124132/barred-rock-attacked

Hi Eggcessive- thanks for your suggestion and the links. I have her set up in a crate right next to her hatch mates so they can see each other and socialize. I was integrating all 3 into the flock when this happened so when/if the time comes I will start the process of integrating again. Honestly, right now I am worried about her surviving. She does seem a bit better,is eating but still not drinking alot on her own.

 

[azygous]

Everyone seems to be neglecting why this pullet was targeted in the first place. It's not usually out of the blue that the flock gangs up on a single individual and tries to tear them apart. If a chicken is sick, very often we don't notice it until something like this happens to call our attention to the victim.

The very fact that she isn't responding to treatment, but may be getting worse instead, points to an underlying condition that the flock has picked up on. They react to a sick member by trying to keep the flock healthy by eliminating the unhealthy individual. So pay attention to this pullet in respect to her likely being sick, not merely injured.

 

[Our Simple Life]

Everyone seems to be neglecting why this pullet was targeted in the first place. It's not usually out of the blue that the flock gangs up on a single individual and tries to tear them apart. If a chicken is sick, very often we don't notice it until something like this happens to call our attention to the victim.

The very fact that she isn't responding to treatment, but may be getting worse instead, points to an underlying condition that the flock has picked up on. They react to a sick member by trying to keep the flock healthy by eliminating the unhealthy individual. So pay attention to this pullet in respect to her likely being sick, not merely injured.

Thank you and will do. Had not thought about that.She is only 8 weeks old but had shown no signs of being sick. My thinking was that she was the smallest of all 3 pullets introduced and the one that went after her was the low hen on the totem pole; she was the only one with blood on her beak.