Suspecting self injury - help with stopping it

[NewAtThis8]

on New Years Eve my 1.5ish year old hen got an impacted crop. I treated it, gave her a crop bra, forgot to take it off and she basically ripped herself (and drop) open. She was stitched up at the vet and made a full recovery. She integrated back with the other hens and seemed to be doing ok. I noticed a few days ago the feathers on her bottom are disappearing and thought she was molting, however I do have a feather eater. The behavior seemed to get better after everyone molted and I upped their food to a higher protein food. But today, when locking everyone up I noticed she wasn’t roosting with everyone else in the coop and on further inspection I saw blood on her bottom. Right next to her vent, she has a quarter sized area of injury (it doesn’t seem to be a puncture but it’s black and bruised so I couldn’t get her clean enough to tell). There’s a small flap of skin. While I had her in my basement searching for wound care, I noticed she was trying to pick at it. This was her m/o when she injured her crop- she was self mutilating at the vet’s office. Once she was stitched she left it alone though I did take precautions like wrapping her in an old tshirt so she couldn’t get at it. Is there anything else I can do while she heals as I really don’t want to go through this again- she lived in my office for almost two weeks til she got her stitches out. I planned to wrap it with gauze and vet wrap and keep her separate from the other hens but in the run in case they are picking at her / initiated this. This chicken has been THROUGH IT and I’m not sure what to do to keep this from happening. For now I have her in a cat carrier for the night so she can’t get back to her bottom, wrapped her in tshirt and sprayed with vetericyn spray. Tomorrow I will re-spray her and try the vet wrap but am nervous it will cause her to rip at herself like she did with the chicken bra. Will blu kote keep her from pecking HERSELF or just others from pecking her? Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

But today, when locking everyone up I noticed she wasn’t roosting with everyone else in the coop and on further inspection I saw blood on her bottom. Right next to her vent, she has a quarter sized area of injury (it doesn’t seem to be a puncture but it’s black and bruised so I couldn’t get her clean enough to tell). There’s a small flap of skin. While I had her in my basement searching for wound care, I noticed she was trying to pick at it.

Can you post photos of the injury?

Is she prolapsed?

Sounds like she may have been picked by another hen and not it's painful or bothering her, so she's trying to reach it.

I had a hen that had a prolapse, she would try to reach it and pull at it, very likely it was painful and she was trying to elevate the pain.

If this is injury, then clean with saline or chlorhexidine, apply triple antibiotic ointment to the wound. See if this helps.

If it's prolapsed, clean with saline, apply an oil, honey, anti-inflammatory cream, etc. to the exposed tissue to keep it from drying out. Get Calcium into her.

 

[NewAtThis8]

Can you post photos of the injury?

Is she prolapsed?

Sounds like she may have been picked by another hen and not it's painful or bothering her, so she's trying to reach it.

I had a hen that had a prolapse, she would try to reach it and pull at it, very likely it was painful and she was trying to elevate the pain.

If this is injury, then clean with saline or chlorhexidine, apply triple antibiotic ointment to the wound. See if this helps.

If it's prolapsed, clean with saline, apply an oil, honey, anti-inflammatory cream, etc. to the exposed tissue to keep it from drying out. Get Calcium into her.

No prolapse. Her vent is totally fine, it looks like a pecking injury to the left of her vent. I took a (bad) picture. She is picking at it if I don’t restrict her access, so I’m spraying with vetericyn every 12 hours and then keeping her covered in a tshirt which she’s really mad about. Hoping it heals in a few days so I can put her back outside… not really sure how long pecking wounds take to heal or if I have to do anything else to it..

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I would clean that really well with saline or chlorhexidine, hopefully the dried blood and crusty material will slough off. It's probably itchy and pulling at her skin. She's probably trying to clean the gunked up feathers as well.

Apply triple antibiotic ointment to the wound to help keep it more moist, see if that makes a difference. Vetericyn is very good, but it dries in time, so the skin becomes a bit tight and it may be uncomfortable for her.

While She's recovering, you may want to consider what to do about the picking. If the others are plucking at her and causing that much damage, pinless peepers may be one solution.