Suggestions? URGENT ** GRAPHIC

[CabritaChicks]

One thing I have learned about chicken injuries is that as little intervention as you can get away with is often better than over-doing it and risking compounding a problem.

This is very helpful, thank you for posting. I have her running around a few hours during the day, to socialize with humans before putting her back in the hospital enclosure, next to the others.

Question: could you please expand on 'little intervention' because I feel like 'little intervention' not definitive. I'm all ears! (or eyes I guess). Please and Thank you. I just want to do right by her.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Question: could you please expand on 'little intervention' because I feel like 'little intervention' not definitive

It’s totally not definitive lol. To me it means doing as little as you can get away with. Like the bare minimum if possible. For example…my “learned the hard way” lesson: I had a cream legbar pullet I was integrating in a see-no-touch situation (wire dog kennel next to the run). Something reached through the wire and put a deep gash in ther chest. I freaked out, took a not even visibly upset chicken and bathed it, cut the feathers, slathered something on it, wrapped the wound and put her in a dog kennel in my house. She was dead within hours. Now…a more experienced person might not have done ALL those things. Now I would probably just rinse the wound with saline, made sure nothing could reach into the kennel and maybe given some electrolytes. I was emotional and panicky and I believe it cost my pullet her life. Since then I try to walk a fine line between hands-off and necessary intervention.

There is always great wound care advice here and I would certainly take it from certain experts but I would also judge a chicken’s condition more by behavior than by my own emotional state when looking at an issue. Not saying you’re being overly-emotional just saying sometimes a thing looks scarier than it is and chickens are more resilient and adaptable (often) than we give them credit for. I don’t know if that helps?

 

[CabritaChicks]

Update: She’s still getting all the good stuff — her specialty chop mixed with damp crumbles, a bit more protein than usual, and grit in the tiniest bowl known to mankind. She gets fresh herbs every day for 'foraging', and I swap her towel out each morning as bedding (stays cleaner and less dust than pine chips). She definitely misses the others, but they’re side-by-side in separate cages so she’s never alone.

I apply her ointment in the morning paired with her “protein bribe” (cooked salmon, egg, or sardines). When the other three go outside in the playpen to explore, she stays with me on the sofa and falls asleep while quietly cooing.

Her skin is healing much faster than expected. There’s still a gnarly scab where the wound was worst, and she’s steadily putting on weight — very slowly, but consistently. And when she runs around the house? Immediate chaos. She hunts down every parrot scrap like a tiny, feathered vacuum, and she is hyper. With her speed and that ridiculous greasy hairstyle, she could’ve auditioned for Grease. I jokingly call her “Grease Lightning” when she gets the zoomies.

She’s eating and drinking beautifully. Her flight skills are impressive, so she’s clearly staying strong. Today I’m mounting a small roosting bar in her enclosure so she’ll (hopefully) stop sleeping on the floor in her own doo-doo. I love the finch-cage setup — she can’t wedge herself through the bars, and I can slip my hand in so she can cuddle up against me.

The other three aren’t mean to her at all; they actually miss her. But every now and then there’s a curious peck, and I can’t risk anyone knocking off a scab so separate they must remain.

Since it is 5 days of meloxicam and oral antibiotics we have stopped them. Still getting her oitnment, spay or just a touch of saline.

Here she is today:

Edit: the rest of her wounds (not just the scalping) are healing incredibly well- Baffling compared to parrot counterparts I normally deal with.

So while we want to keep them safe- I think isolation is a killer. So if possible, I recommend keeping your one birds in hospital cage, and their best friend side by side. I notice that when the other birds eat, she eats. When they play, she is less lethargic and stretches her wings. Isolation can be a killer to any animal, especially floock prey animals.

 

[FunClucks]

Update: She’s still getting all the good stuff — her specialty chop mixed with damp crumbles, a bit more protein than usual, and grit in the tiniest bowl known to mankind. She gets fresh herbs every day for 'foraging', and I swap her towel out each morning as bedding (stays cleaner and less dust than pine chips). She definitely misses the others, but they’re side-by-side in separate cages so she’s never alone.

I apply her ointment in the morning paired with her “protein bribe” (cooked salmon, egg, or sardines). When the other three go outside in the playpen to explore, she stays with me on the sofa and falls asleep while quietly cooing.

Her skin is healing much faster than expected. There’s still a gnarly scab where the wound was worst, and she’s steadily putting on weight — very slowly, but consistently. And when she runs around the house? Immediate chaos. She hunts down every parrot scrap like a tiny, feathered vacuum, and she is hyper. With her speed and that ridiculous greasy hairstyle, she could’ve auditioned for Grease. I jokingly call her “Grease Lightning” when she gets the zoomies.

She’s eating and drinking beautifully. Her flight skills are impressive, so she’s clearly staying strong. Today I’m mounting a small roosting bar in her enclosure so she’ll (hopefully) stop sleeping on the floor in her own doo-doo. I love the finch-cage setup — she can’t wedge herself through the bars, and I can slip my hand in so she can cuddle up against me.

The other three aren’t mean to her at all; they actually miss her. But every now and then there’s a curious peck, and I can’t risk anyone knocking off a scab so separate they must remain.

Since it is 5 days of meloxicam and oral antibiotics we have stopped them. Still getting her oitnment, spay or just a touch of saline.

Here she is today:

View attachment 4259263
View attachment 4259264
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View attachment 4259269View attachment 4259270View attachment 4259271

Edit: the rest of her wounds (not just the scalping) are healing incredibly well- Baffling compared to parrot counterparts I normally deal with.

So while we want to keep them safe- I think isolation is a killer. So if possible, I recommend keeping your one birds in hospital cage, and their best friend side by side. I notice that when the other birds eat, she eats. When they play, she is less lethargic and stretches her wings. Isolation can be a killer to any animal, especially floock prey animals.

So glad she's doing better! She looks awesome!

Chickens are amazingly resilient compared to pretty much any other critter I know of, myself included. Glad she's healing well!

 

[AinaWGSD]

She's looking so good!

 

[Bsmac]

Looks like she is coming around nicely!

 

[CabritaChicks]

She was so excited about her new branch! And now, when she perches on it, she’s finally eye level with the other three — instead of sitting below them. (Their enclosure is so huge I literally had to put it on dolly wheels just to roll it around the house.)

I let her test out the branch on the center island in the kitchen first — much to my husband’s absolute delight… ugh . But it let her explore at eye level, watch what I was doing (chopping parrot food), not get lonely- found her new favorite new snack- steamed butternut squash with a touch of vitamins.

Her head must be spinning (okay, terrible pun), but at least she’s getting some proper enrichment now: fresh branches or herbs, lemongrass, etc, seashells, decent size rocks for jumping — actual things to investigate, rather than “here’s a towel, now sit in the utility room and be bored.” Which means thus far; she stopped scratching at her wounds that I can see.

Trying to keep the dust levels low — but she is begging for a dust bath, especially after watching the other three “pretend” to dust bathe in their food bowl.

For anyone reading this later, here’s our current routine:

They wake up at 5:30 a.m., and I bring everyone into the living room in their respective enclosures (which is why the big one is on wheels). The three little rascals immediately tear around the house while I clean their enclosure and switch out towels. Meanwhile, Ouzo gets her ointment and her special treat individually so she doesnt feel left out.

Then the gremlin-trio heads outside to the dog-fenced play area to eat like little piggies and have a see-but-don’t-touch time with the adult hens (who, to be fair, aren’t even a year old yet).

After that, Ouzo gets her turn to zoom around the house like a tiny feral monkey while I clean her little hobbit house.

After about two-three hours, everyone goes back into their respective (now spotless) enclosures with fresh enrichment. I do check-ins throughout the day — fresh food, water, and the occasional treat like flowers to keep them entertained.

Before bed, I make sure everyone is settled… then we reset and do it all again in the morning.

So @BlindLemonChicken as you mentioned, Im likely doing this wrong- lol. I'm probly too 'hands on' and realizing I need to be careful that I dont train her to have a further target on her back (literally) because I coddled her too much.

 

[FunClucks]

She was so excited about her new branch! And now, when she perches on it, she’s finally eye level with the other three — instead of sitting below them. (Their enclosure is so huge I literally had to put it on dolly wheels just to roll it around the house.)

I let her test out the branch on the center island in the kitchen first — much to my husband’s absolute delight… ugh . But it let her explore at eye level, watch what I was doing (chopping parrot food), not get lonely- found her new favorite new snack- steamed butternut squash with a touch of vitamins.

Her head must be spinning (okay, terrible pun), but at least she’s getting some proper enrichment now: fresh branches or herbs, lemongrass, etc, seashells, decent size rocks for jumping — actual things to investigate, rather than “here’s a towel, now sit in the utility room and be bored.” Which means thus far; she stopped scratching at her wounds that I can see.
View attachment 4259363
View attachment 4259364
Trying to keep the dust levels low — but she is begging for a dust bath, especially after watching the other three “pretend” to dust bathe in their food bowl.

For anyone reading this later, here’s our current routine:

They wake up at 5:30 a.m., and I bring everyone into the living room in their respective enclosures (which is why the big one is on wheels). The three little rascals immediately tear around the house while I clean their enclosure and switch out towels. Meanwhile, Ouzo gets her ointment and her special treat individually so she doesnt feel left out.

Then the gremlin-trio heads outside to the dog-fenced play area to eat like little piggies and have a see-but-don’t-touch time with the adult hens (who, to be fair, aren’t even a year old yet).

After that, Ouzo gets her turn to zoom around the house like a tiny feral monkey while I clean her little hobbit house.

After about two-three hours, everyone goes back into their respective (now spotless) enclosures with fresh enrichment. I do check-ins throughout the day — fresh food, water, and the occasional treat like flowers to keep them entertained.

Before bed, I make sure everyone is settled… then we reset and do it all again in the morning.

So @BlindLemonChicken as you mentioned, Im likely doing this wrong- lol. I'm probly too 'hands on' and realizing I need to be careful that I dont train her to have a further target on her back (literally) because I coddled her too much.

Man, if I was a chicken, I'd want to live with you. Except for the lack of dust bath, this is a chicken's dream life!

Chickening is what you make of it. It sounds like you and your chickens both enjoy this routine, so go for it! You will probably end up with friendly chickens that like your company - a win-win in my book.

You might try hunting them up some insects, grubs, and worms and offering those in addition to your current offerings. They are omnivores. They like all types of meat (including chicken). They will also eat egg shells, feathers, etc. to get the calcium for their eggs once they start laying. In the winter, I clean out my freezer burned meat, boil it all (no/minimal sodium that way), and toss it in the run for a protein snack. They consume it avidly. They will even hunt mice and frogs when they free range, but providing those myself is a bridge too far for me. Watching a chicken eat some random insect that wandered into their run, or decimate an ant pile I just uncovered under some piece of wood is super fun.

Since I've mentioned treats, folks on here recommend treats be no more than 20% of their ration when you feed commercial chicken feed in order to maintain balanced nutrition. In case you haven't run across that tidbit yet.

 

[CabritaChicks]

Man, if I was a chicken, I'd want to live with you. Except for the lack of dust bath, this is a chicken's dream life!

Chickening is what you make of it. It sounds like you and your chickens both enjoy this routine, so go for it! You will probably end up with friendly chickens that like your company - a win-win in my book.

You might try hunting them up some insects, grubs, and worms and offering those in addition to your current offerings.

Thank you — they definitely live a very spoiled island-chicken life, but it’s also a very different environment than most backyard setups.

My flock free-ranges - we dont even have a coop/run door policy, it never closes....through acres of untouched (original- not manicured) seaside forest and jungle, so their baseline diet is wildly different from standard yard birds. Our soil isn’t soil at all — it’s literally crushed coral, shells, decaying sea matter, and constant salt spray — so everything they forage is naturally higher in minerals and sodium. They only eat about 20% commercial feed, mostly for consistency. The rest is genuinely wild foraging.

“Treats” here don’t even register as treats.
Cracked corn, dried mealworms, scratch grains? They won’t touch them — I’ve tried.

Instead, they get 20+ fresh items a day from our food forest: fruits, herbs, tender greens, vegetables, flowers, seed pods all in very specific ratios… plus the occasional cooked egg, tiny fish and lots of live hermit crabs. And yes, they hunt. We’re lizard-dense, so the protein side tends to handle itself. They also sleep in the trees like the semi-feral (or in Gypsy's case- she is red jungle-fowl pest) island birds they basically are.

I’m an avian nutritionist, though my specialty is in passerines and psittacines — but the principles still apply: a bird that forages naturally across acres, with year-round access to diverse live foods, isn’t operating under the typical “treat ratio” model designed for commercial feed–dependent flocks.

So while I appreciate the reminder about the 20% guideline, it’s not exactly applicable here. Their “treats” (which is not a real word for me) are their diet — and they’re thriving on it.

And trust me, they don’t need me to hunt bugs for them… they annihilate every insect, lizard, ant nest, and mystery creature the second it twitches. Island chickens don’t mess around (and people think earth worms- nope- 'victory soil' here on a mountain, ... they learned early not to touch many of the critters here... not like we can go to a bait store- LOL).

Right now I need Ouzo to heal before ingratiation happens again with the older girls. Which means making her comfortable and happy- safely separated but still hanging out with the others her age.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I'm probly too 'hands on' and realizing I need to be careful that I dont train her to have a further target on her back (literally) because I coddled her too much.

I think you’re doing fine! She is not isolated from the flock; you’re not trying to stitch her head together or carrying her around in your bra all day; you’re not tube-feeding her organic baby food You’re trying to keep her hospital unit as natural as possible—all good things and none too much. I am generally much more hands-off but I don’t have to order my chickens from half a world away.