Oh no, another chicken.... Black Wound?!

[Bossmode]

Hello folks,

Not again... after having one chicken die a week and a half ago from a serious infection (bumble foot thread), I now have another injured chicken, this time one of my 6 month olds... I am starting to feel like a bad chicken keeper!

I noticed her being sleepy most of the day a while ago, I figured it might have been because of the lice issue I had, thankfully I have dealt with the lice issue and have clean chickens now! (Thanks to the chicken that passed as she made me aware of that, RIP )

Now I did not want to wait around as she was still sleepy up to this day, and get her assessed by the Vet before it might be too late again, -so the wife took her in yesterday. She was eating and drinking OK in the coop but just slept in the corner all day.

The vet inspected her and did not find anything, heart rate was fine and breathing was okay as well.
The vet took another closer look at her and ended up finding a nasty wound under her left wing!

The vet was not sure if it is an infection or if it could be a tumor?! Anyways, we are giving her anti-biotics since yesterday orally and been cleaning her 'wound' with anti-septic water and been putting 3 anti-biotic ointment on it. She is still drinking water with vitamins, Gatorade and eating scrambled eggs and chick crumble not crazy amounts but atleast eating.

She is standing most of the day because i think her wound hurts, and only opens her eyes a little bit now and then, and goes back to sleep standing.

The vet told us to soak the 'scab' and try to remove it?! It is not working as it is rock hard and i don't want to cut it off as the vet did say not to perform surgery on her... i don't even know what it is?

It seems a bit better today with treatment than it did yesterday, and she is a little bit more perky and awake which is good. But still hurtn, not sure what to do? Please any suggestions?
If it is an infection wouldn't we have to cut the scab off so the ointment would be getting to the wound? It hurts her alot so I don't know if that we can do?

 

[Bossmode]

 

[glassdragonfly]

Sorry for your hen. I would clean it and put antibiotic on it. It might soften that up. Chickens have a way of getting themselves into trouble.

 

[Skippersnh]

It looks like it's going to be a few days before you can start working on that scab it's going to hurt hurt right now

 

[Bossmode]

So just keep giving her antibiotics orally every day, clean wound 3x a day and apply 3 antibiotics ointment? Will the scab soften up from the ointment and cleaning every day?

I don't want to lose another chicken, she has been so sleepy really fighting something. I hope the oral antibiotics will help her wound heal. (If it is not a tumor)

 

[Aunt Angus]

I am so sorry!
Hopefully you caught it in time to prevent disaster. Poor thing!

That's an easy thing to miss. My chickens HATE when I check their wings, so I don't check them often as I probably should, I have to admit. You are not a bad chicken owner. Chickens are notorious for hiding whatever is wrong with them (seeing as how everything wants to eat them all the time) until it's gotten so bad there's very little we can do.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Just keep soaking, cleaning and giving the antibiotics. Warm Epson salt baths will help to soften the scab but it won't be an instant thing. Just keep doing what you're doing.

 

[----------]

epsom salts does wonders .if you could let her soak in it and make sure you dry her good even using a blow dryer on low moving it back anf forth as not to burn her will make her feel better too

 

[NatJ]

Scabs are part of the body's healing process. If there's not already an infection underneath the scab, then it helps keep out other germs that could cause one.

So I would not be in any hurry to try to pick the scab off--it will certainly come off in its own time, as the wound heals. (I say this partly because you already saw the vet, the chicken is on antibiotics, and the vet said not to do any surgery.)

Did your vet consider whether the chicken just got injured somehow? They can be pretty good at getting hurt even when we think conditions are safe. If this is an injury, then time and avoiding infection should be all that's needed.

 

[Bossmode]

The vet did not appear very knowledgeable about chickens by the sounds of it. We don't know where the injury came from.
We have roughly 30 chickens in that barn area, they free run during the day, tho this little one did never leave the coop yet as as it has been too cozzy in there and temperatures are dropping outside.

In 3 years of having chickens I have not seen a wound like this on any of my birds.
It's a mystery wound... maybe from another chicken and it started to get infected and got larger with time, she has been too young to breed too, so I don't think it is from a mating rooster.