Scalped Silkie!

CrazyFowlFreak

Pine Hill Farm
11 Years
Apr 24, 2009
1,304
28
214
WV
I have a 5 month old Silkie that was scalped last night. We just found her. She is alive, but has been plucked on the back of her head and has an inch long gash across the back of her head. There are no vets around here that deal with chickens. What can I do for her, please? Should we put her down or can she be saved? I can post a pic if needed. Please help me.
 
Chickens can tolerate a lot more pain than we can and I have found that to be a good thing. That said, do not give up on her yet. Disinfect the wound and see if the flesh has a chance to grow back together again properly, if not she may need stitches. Isolate her so that the other birds won’t go after her. Keep her clam, get her some electrolytes and put her in a darkened cage in case she is in shock. Hope that helps.
 
separate her from the rest of the flock and clean her wound with an anti bacterial spray, or an iodine mix, apply neosporin daily. You can also feed her extra protein to help her re-grow her skin and feathers- scrambled or boiled eggs are always good. This happened to one of my girls also, she was scalped right down to her skull, and all of the skin on her neck was gone too, she recovered quickly, and even grew all her feathers back! So have faith, I think your girl will pull through.
 
I agree with the above.

It's amazing what a chicken can survive!

Just make sure the neosporin doesn't have the pain relief stuff in it. No lidocaine, benzocaine or any other "caine". It's poisonous to chickens.
 
This happened to one of my very young roosters about 6 months ago. It was shocking how badly he was injured but he was still alive. I collected him - he was in shock and did not try to move - and gently washed his head with peroxide and water being very careful of his ears and eyes. Then I just slathered him with neosporin ointment and put him in his own cage with a box filled with hay. He did not move for several hours and I decided if he was no better by morning I should put him to sleep. He held on and every day I washed him and put more antibiotic ointment on him and he slowly improved. I kept him away from the flock for months, until he had no more open wound then put him in with younger hens only. He is now huge and leads him 5 hens around the yard. I am careful not to have him out in the hot afternoon since he has no feathers on his head, just bright red skin. I call him Elvis because his comb was torn almost completely off but now hangs forward over one eye. His scalp was open all the way to the bone and I could see the lines on his skull but since he never got infected he did recover. Good luck with yours.
 
What everyone else has said-clean it up and put neosporin on, keep her isolated. I would add make sure to keep the flies off of the area. A friend had a chicken that has a degloving injury of her neck (just what it sounds like-the skin all the was around was torn upwards like you are peeling off a glove-eeewww) and she did great indoors, cleaned up and my friend put a toilet paper tube around it to keep it more protected. I was amazed. Also make sure you pump up her nutrition while she heals up. Good luck!
 
Okay, thank you all for the advice. I got her cleaned up and used the clotting powder on her since she was still bleeding. Then I slathered on the neosporin and not once did the poor thing move yesterday. She just laid with her head down. This morning, when we left the house at 6am, she was up and drinking on her own, so I'll take that as a good sign. She has electrolyte water, an apple, chick feed, and when I get home I'll fix her some scrambled eggs. Thank you all again, so much for the advice!
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