Scalped hen..graphic pic

[sred98]

I had this happen with my hen, I thought at first that I was seeing brain matter, because it caught her under part of her pea comb, so I was seeing the fatty tissue from that. I think it looked a whole lot worse than it was. I cleaned it out really well with saline (used contact solution) and triple antibiotic ointment. After several days it healed over and now you can't tell it was there.

The triple antibiotic ointment kind of held it together so it didn't flop open. I also kept her quiet and away from the other animals for the first few days.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Shelly

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Oh that is terrible! Poor baby! I had a polish hen in with my D'uccle's and she was fine for the first few weeks and than she started getting nasty with them for some reason. The Mille's are just so quiet and sweet I suppose they are easy to boss around

I hope they are ok! Good luck.

 

[Patchesnposies]

A long, long time ago when I was a kid, my dad had a few chickens in a pen in the backyard behind the garage in our suburban neighborhood in southern California. Thinking back on the arrangement I think it was way too small a pen for all the hens he kept in there.

At any rate, there was one hen who kept getting picked on and she ended up scalped very similarly to the pic posted by the OP. My dad gave her the run of the yard and that hen ended up healing completely, but always had the bare spot where her skull showed. The rest of the flesh grew tight again. She just always sported the monk look. I suppose there must have been some sort of membrane covering it, dunno. I was a kid!

The funny thing is we had an old dog who slept in an milk crate and this hen would roost on the egde with him at night and lay her eggs in there during the day. They really took to each other.

This post brought back that memory!

She should be fine. I pray it is so!

Deb

 

[elaucht]

OMG poor thing you might want to try using some sterristrips to close the scalp you can buy them at any drug store you could also use the glue from bandaid it works great on cuts in our home, good luck.

 

[silkiechicken]

If you do glue it, don't seal it shut. It needs to be able to drain.

 

[Bisqit&Gravy]

Thanks everyone! I've been a tech for 15 yrs but have never worked with chickens. I knew some good advice would be hereAfter more looking at it, I sutured it close. I could easiely see it closing up everywhere but where the bone was showing since there was nothing over it. I had suture here and some lidocaine. She wouldn't let me do it and was screaming and thrashing around in the towel until I got the lidocaine. I cleaned it very well and removed the dried up edges and pulled tissue together that was under the skin. For drainage I cut a finger off the hubbys tattoo gloves so now she has a drain tube in it. It looks really good. She is with the the other MF hen that's beat up too. So far neither is picking on the other.

Thankfully she's the MF that doesn't run from me and will be very easy to clean

 

[silkiechicken]

Be careful with things like lidocane and pain relievers used on mammals. There have been a few cases on this board that application of even pain relief neosporin has caused cardiac arrest in their birds. It's toxic to them.

Good luck!

 

[Bisqit&Gravy]

Oh I used very little and diluted it.

 

[Sierra pachie bars]

Looks exactly like the wound my Sara got not to long ago. Some of you might remember my post. I am so shocked but she has made a full recovery. I gave her loads of TLC. I took everyone's advice here which was golden ! I kept her inside in a dark warm place for about three days. I also used Fura-Zone which is used for horses. It is a thick bright colored goop. But I think it really helped her. See how she looks now almost got her feathers back and the skin has been growing over the bone. Amazing ! Family and friends told me she would not make it. Well shes a happy girly now. Excuse date on first pic. I always forget to reset date on cam

Picture of boo boo

And now !!

 

[dlhunicorn]

Bird skin is very thin and often the sutures will not hold... often a feather on each side is crosed over to bring the skin together and with a dot of superglue (applied to the feather not the skin or wound) is then used to hold the two feathers together.
I reccommend this product:
http://www.jefferspet.com/product/granulex174-v-22839.cfm