We have 7 black spanish poults, 7 weeks old, hatched from parents we have had for 2 years. One of the poults, now isolated from the turkeys but in a suitable enclosure where she sees and communicates with a chicken hen with 4 poults, has an injury (discovered 24 hours ago): appears the skin on the head, to the rear part of the head, has been torn on both sides of the back "quarters" of the head. We have cleaned and are maintaining the wound with veteracyn plus (first used the non-gel, now using gel so the wound doesn't dry too much?). The bird is very "normal"--vocal, agile, rests, eats, drinks normally.
The concern is whether our expectation for the wound to heal is unreasonable, and whether we are doing everything we can reasonably do on the farm for Jane (pretty sure she is a she/her/hers; we are fonda her, too
). The skin at this age is so fragile, we think perhaps it was torn by another poult as they were trading grooming services--we cannot find any evidence of what else could have caused the injury which looks as though the head was either picked and torn, or was caught in something and she shifted her head and tore the skin back from the sides of the rear crown of head and down a little toward or to the neck. It is an ugly tear, possibly some skin is intact down the middle of the back of the head, but otherwise, the skin is either partially there and semi-shredded, or not there. She has a protruding semi-soft, but stiff (like ligament?) upright "pipe" looking structure on each side where this occurred, and these move, but not sure what they are or what they are for--but they would normally be covered by skin and, presumably if mature, caruncles. There is a worry that even if healing, the current situation of skin being so disconnected, shredded, torn it will not regrow over these and/or she would eventually contract disease or other discomforting problems. Difficult to see in photos, but they are back of her head, and the protrudences are toward the side (rather than the middle) of her neck-head juncture. Lastly, the fear is that if we try to manipulate skin or attach any dressing, it would just result in worse situation or more tearing. Any contributing knowledge, experience, or care ideas would be very welcomed. -Kat
The concern is whether our expectation for the wound to heal is unreasonable, and whether we are doing everything we can reasonably do on the farm for Jane (pretty sure she is a she/her/hers; we are fonda her, too
). The skin at this age is so fragile, we think perhaps it was torn by another poult as they were trading grooming services--we cannot find any evidence of what else could have caused the injury which looks as though the head was either picked and torn, or was caught in something and she shifted her head and tore the skin back from the sides of the rear crown of head and down a little toward or to the neck. It is an ugly tear, possibly some skin is intact down the middle of the back of the head, but otherwise, the skin is either partially there and semi-shredded, or not there. She has a protruding semi-soft, but stiff (like ligament?) upright "pipe" looking structure on each side where this occurred, and these move, but not sure what they are or what they are for--but they would normally be covered by skin and, presumably if mature, caruncles. There is a worry that even if healing, the current situation of skin being so disconnected, shredded, torn it will not regrow over these and/or she would eventually contract disease or other discomforting problems. Difficult to see in photos, but they are back of her head, and the protrudences are toward the side (rather than the middle) of her neck-head juncture. Lastly, the fear is that if we try to manipulate skin or attach any dressing, it would just result in worse situation or more tearing. Any contributing knowledge, experience, or care ideas would be very welcomed. -Kat
