Serious wounds

[RY29]

I noticed Thai afternoon these wounds on my Wyandotte. I noticed one of my other chicken pecking at her a few days ago. I checked her today and she got these horrible wounds on left leg and on her right side. I have a chicken kit but not sure what to do. I’ve already separated her from the flock with water and food. See images. Sorry for the gruesomeness.

 

[FunClucks]

Do you have a rooster? Where are these exactly on the chicken? are they on her abdomen kind of on her sides, under her wings, in the middle of her body?

 

[FunClucks]

Both wounds appear to be healing well. You can spray them with Vetericyn or slather them with neosporin (without pain prevention drugs, original formula only) but honestly it will probably heal up fine without you doing anything but keeping your hen away from anyone who would pick at it, and away from flies. Do you think a predator got her? My initial thought is you have a rooster that has cut her up with his spurs while mating, but I need more info to see how likely this scenario is. She could also have gotten caught in something and got injured trying to escape.

The wound that's less of a straight cut looks rougher - if you want to try and remove the scab and clean it out some, you can, but you can also just leave it. It will heal up just fine on its own most likely. Chickens can be amazingly resilient in some ways. The edges of those wounds, particularly the cut area, look healthy. Now if they get swollen, red, inflamed, then it's time to consider a systemic antibiotic and possibly a trip to the vet. I've seen similar wounds heal in a month or so without much help from me.

 

[RY29]

Do you have a rooster? Where are these exactly on the chicken? are they on her abdomen kind of on her sides, under her wings, in the middle of her body?

No i don’t have a rooster. I believe it was one of my other chickens that did this.
The deep one is her right side between her leg and butt. The other long one is on her right leg.

 

[RY29]

Both wounds appear to be healing well. You can spray them with Vetericyn or slather them with neosporin (without pain prevention drugs, original formula only) but honestly it will probably heal up fine without you doing anything but keeping your hen away from anyone who would pick at it, and away from flies. Do you think a predator got her? My initial thought is you have a rooster that has cut her up with his spurs while mating, but I need more info to see how likely this scenario is. She could also have gotten caught in something and got injured trying to escape.

The wound that's less of a straight cut looks rougher - if you want to try and remove the scab and clean it out some, you can, but you can also just leave it. It will heal up just fine on its own most likely. Chickens can be amazingly resilient in some ways. The edges of those wounds, particularly the cut area, look healthy. Now if they get swollen, red, inflamed, then it's time to consider a systemic antibiotic and possibly a trip to the vet. I've seen similar wounds heal in a month or so without much help from me.

Im worried about the open wound being so deep and the other being green on the sides. The other chicken(s) did this.

 

[FunClucks]

No i don’t have a rooster. I believe it was one of my other chickens that did this.
The deep one is her right side between her leg and butt. The other long one is on her right leg.

Wow. That type of damage from another chicken is not normal, and is not good. Do you know who it might have been? What % protein are you feeding them, and how big (square feet of floor space) is the coop and the run?

Chicken-chicken aggression can be genetic, can be due to stress from lack of space, or can be due to lack of sufficient protein in the diet. You can often fix the lack of space and lack of protein, but poor genetics is a lot harder to address. This just doesn't look like chicken on chicken damage to me, unless the hen was "mating" the other one, and has spurs or something. It can be a dominance thing, and some hens do have spurs. Even then, I just think something else may have caused this besides chicken-chicken aggression. Would be interesting to hear what others suggest.

 

[FunClucks]

Im worried about the open wound being so deep and the other being green on the sides. The other chicken(s) did this.

The green is from bruising and should clear up in a few weeks. It's normal, and nothing to worry about. I've seen wounds worse than this close up fine, even though they look very deep. It really will be okay, just keep the chicken herself and anything else from messing with it. If you look around on this forum for scalping wounds or rooster mating damage, they can look similar to what you have here, and they heal up so well you'd never know the birds were injured. Feathers grow back and everything. I've seen it happen a number of times even in my own flock.

I had a rooster that was injuring hens, and I didn't catch it in time - the injuries were hidden by wings. By the time I found out, the wounds looked worse than these. I separated the rooster and let the hens be, and they healed up just fine in a month or so. Most of my girls had already started healing, and had partially healed scabs, which seemed to be doing all right, so I left them be. I felt horrible about it. Now every hen who is around roosters has a super durable chicken saddle, which prevents such injuries.

 

[RY29]

Wow. That type of damage from another chicken is not normal, and is not good. Do you know who it might have been? What % protein are you feeding them, and how big (square feet of floor space) is the coop and the run?

Chicken-chicken aggression can be genetic, can be due to stress from lack of space, or can be due to lack of sufficient protein in the diet. You can often fix the lack of space and lack of protein, but poor genetics is a lot harder to address. This just doesn't look like chicken on chicken damage to me, unless the hen was "mating" the other one, and has spurs or something. It can be a dominance thing, and some hens do have spurs. Even then, I just think something else may have caused this besides chicken-chicken aggression. Would be interesting to hear what others suggest.

I have four chickens all different breeds. They eat scratch and peck whole grains and they also get scratch every morning to peck on the ground. I have coop with 6 nesting boxes but they only use two sometimes. The coop has a small 6ft x 10ft run and we also got this 12ft x 20ft run that I moved them to every morning, except when we had freezing weather a few weeks ago. This chicken is at the bottom of the pecking order.

 

[Anon112]

Both wounds appear to be healing well. You can spray them with Vetericyn or slather them with neosporin (without pain prevention drugs, original formula only) but honestly it will probably heal up fine without you doing anything but keeping your hen away from anyone who would pick at it, and away from flies. Do you think a predator got her? My initial thought is you have a rooster that has cut her up with his spurs while mating, but I need more info to see how likely this scenario is. She could also have gotten caught in something and got injured trying to escape.

The wound that's less of a straight cut looks rougher - if you want to try and remove the scab and clean it out some, you can, but you can also just leave it. It will heal up just fine on its own most likely. Chickens can be amazingly resilient in some ways. The edges of those wounds, particularly the cut area, look healthy. Now if they get swollen, red, inflamed, then it's time to consider a systemic antibiotic and possibly a trip to the vet. I've seen similar wounds heal in a month or so without much help from me.

I really second all of this, having recently dealt with a pretty gnarly wound to one of my hens.

The only thing I would add is to consider flushing with saline solution, patting dry, then applying any ointments you are going to use. You also want to watch as the wounds heal that no feathers start to get trapped under the healing skin, as this can "seal" them in and cause issues later. If you see a feather starting to stick to the wound or get embedded in the scabbing, gently pull it free, and if it keeps getting stuck, clip it.

 

[RY29]

I really second all of this, having recently dealt with a pretty gnarly wound to one of my hens.

The only thing I would add is to consider flushing with saline solution, patting dry, then applying any ointments you are going to use. You also want to watch as the wounds heal that no feathers start to get trapped under the healing skin, as this can "seal" them in and cause issues later. If you see a feather starting to stick to the wound or get embedded in the scabbing, gently pull it free, and if it keeps getting stuck, clip it.

I don’t have saline. I have povidone-iodine and have watered it down till the liquid looks yellowish. Will that work? I also have some ointment.