Very Large Wound, need advice!

[FiveInOurFlock]

We came home from dinner at last night to find one of our girls laying on the bottom of the coop with a VERY large wound on her back, there is probably a 4 by 4 area where all of the feathers are gone, and much of the skin and a lot of the flesh too, in some spots pretty deep. It had stopped bleeding by then but looked a mess. Her wings seem to be intact, we brought her inside and did some first aid. We have cleaned the wound with peroxide now twice and I've covered the area with antibiotic ointment. I put a sterile gauze pad over the wound and wrapped it on her with some gauze bandage. She is eating some and pooping and even laid us an egg today, poor girl :-( I'm not sure what else to do for her and I'm not sure what happened. All of our other girls were fine, I'm wondering if they did this to her? Any advice would be appreciated, thank you!

 

[LoveKadieGoose]

Im so sorry about your henny penny you did great. I've had chickens with green pus filled wounds and that is the best you can do. I suggest you get scarlet oil from your local feed store and put it on the wound it is very fast working. Do that every night until it is scabed over and she is in no pain. Good luck.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry to hear about your hen.

Do you have photos of the wounds?

If you need to re-clean the wounds again, use saline or diluted betadine instead of Peroxide. While Peroxide can be used for the initial cleaning, over time with repeated use, it can damage tissue. Other than that, you are treating the wound, how most people would.

Keep her drinking and eating - you can also add some poultry vitamins to her water for a couple of days and entice her to eat by adding a little tuna or chopped egg to her food.

It's hard to know what causes wounds on a chicken - any possibility a predator got a hold of her? Yes, other chickens can cause severe damage to each other too-if one is sick or weak, they can attack - another thought would be that she was initially injured by something, then the flock picked at the wounds making them worse (it happens)

Let us know how she is.

 

[KathryninQuebec]

Sounds to me something an immature stoat or weasel might do. Where are you located? What type of predators are in your area? We had a whole flock this winter decimated by a stoat. Our stoats can squeeze through a 1" gap. Button down! I'm so sorry for your hen.

 

[micstrachan]

Great reply by @Wyorp Rock .
To answer your question, YES, this definitely could have been caused by the flock, or at least worsened by them. I recommend keeping her separated for now. Once her wound is dry, you can protect her back with an Aron/saddle while it heals. You also need to figure out why this happened in the first place. Are they short on any resources? (feed, water, space, nesting boxes, etc.) are they bored? You may also want to consider a high protein feed with oyster shell on the side instead of layer feed. Sorry this happened and I hope she recovers quickly!

 

[FiveInOurFlock]

Thank you so much for all of the replies and advice. Here is what her wound looks like now

 

[FiveInOurFlock]

She does seem to be eating but mostly when I hand feed her, I'm not sure if she just doesn't like to move around too much because of the pain? I put another layer of antibiotic ointment on it just now, should I keep the bandages off so it allows Air at it to dry it out? It just looks so deep and yucky :-(

 

[Eggcessive]

That is a pretty deep wound, so it may be painful. I would keep her separated in a dog pen with food and water. I would apply triple antibiotic ointment to the wound twice a day. Leave it open or make a little apron or Tshirt to losely cover the wound. If it looks infected, you can use saline or weakend betadine or hibiclens to wash it gently. If needed you may trim feathers around it so they don’t get into the wound. It should close up eventually on it’s own, and her feathers may grow back in soon, or it could be until her next molt before they grow in. If you cover the wound, she could stay in the crate inside the coop with friends. Just keep the flies away from the wound to prevent maggots.

Wyorp Rock has given good advice already on feeding. Good luk, and keep us posted. It helps to take pictures every couple of days to see the progression of healing.

 

[FiveInOurFlock]

That is a great idea, thank you!

We currently have her in a large cardboard box in our basement where it is much warmer, I live in Michigan and right now it is still pretty cold outside, unseasonably so :-( Honestly, not knowing what happened to her I'm a little afraid to put her back into the coop with the others, even with a covered wound.

I did try to clean out feather bits and such from the wound, but it was a sticky mess and I didn't want to cause her more distress. I did clip some around the wound, and I'm hoping that it stops oozing and dries out a bit soon.

The rest of our girls have a large Coop (a concerted minibarn) and two really big pens, we only have 5 girls right now. We have 2 nesting boxes but they all seem to only use one of them. We always give them fresh food and water daily in a self feeder, and keep them full, so I don't believe that they are short on any resources. I do appreciate any tips or advice as we are still fairly new to chickens!

 

[FiveInOurFlock]

So the wound is still pretty oozey, I got some of the red coat spray today that was recommended at Tractor Supply so I will try that. She doesn't seem to be getting up much at all, she's pretty much just nested into her wood shavings and she's been pooping just lying there, I've been taking her out of the box Daily and cleaning out underneath her, is there anything else I should be doing? I'm a little worried that I might just be prolonging a miserable ending for her. Do you think we should seek Veterinary assistance, will they do anything for her that we haven't already done?