What IS this?! Hole in hen's skin on her back...WARNING: GRAPHIC PICS!

[77horses]

1) What type of bird , age and weight.
Buff Orpington hen (named Setherina). Weight is unknown, Age: a little over 1 year (almost 1 1/2 years old)

2) What is the behavior, exactly.
Seems to be acting normal with behavior, but on her back and under her wing I found a hole in her skin (about the size of a penny) that has mucus-like puss in it and a white bruise-like ring on the inside of the wound. It's not bleeding and she doesn't seem to be in pain, but it obviously looks infected with something and it's really nasty-looking. She doesn't show any signs of having worms (dewormed last year with Wazine17). After examining her more, she does seem to have a small infestation of lice, but we will dust her with DE as soon as possible.

3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
Showing no symptoms, but we noticed the hole in her skin just today. Not sure how long it has been there. She has never showed any signs of distress or anything to indicate that it was there.

4) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
No bleeding or any other injuries except for the hole in her skin and the feathers on her back are thin (and on her stomach) and look ragged and many of them are broken. All the feathers on her back near her tail are mainly downy feathers because her top feathers in that area haven't grown back because she seems to be in the middle of a molt and/or the rooster caused her feathers to be like that. The feathers on her stomach seem to be thin, like what a broody hen's stomach feathers looks like.

5) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
There are two possibilities that could have happened that I can think of. One is that maybe the rooster of her flock punctured her skin with his toe nail or his spur by mistake and then it got infected. The other option is maybe it's something to do with the lice or some other parasite.

6) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
She has been drinking her water everyday as usual, and has been eating corn and layer pellets from the feed store (and sometimes other treats, like scrambled eggs (along with the shells) and bread, etc...)

7) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
I haven't really examined her poop closely yet, but all of the chickens in her coop have normal-looking poop and I haven't noticed anything unusual.

8) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
So far I haven't done anything yet because I'm not sure what it is and what I should do, I've just examined her and checked some of the other chickens over as well (they don't have anything strange on them like this).

9 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
If it's an infection, I want to figure out what I can do to treat it. If it's a parasite or something, which hopefully it's not, I want to know what I can do to treat that as well.

10) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.

11) Describe the housing/bedding in use:
She (along with all the other chickens in her flock) live in a coop that we made in our garage and free-ranges with her flock outside once and a while. The bedding that we use is large pine shavings (not the sawdust kind).


Other Helpful Information:
Her vent area looks clean and normal and she lays one normal-looking egg a day (sometimes skips a day once and a while). Overall, she looks and acts healthy and normal right now like all the other chickens.
Also, her sister (Caramel, a Buff Orpington hen) died a couple weeks ago for an unknown reason. We found her dead in her nest box with no injuries or anything and we think it was an internal reason. She never showed any symptoms before she died and I never checked to see if she had a similar hole in her skin, but I don't think she did because we probably would have noticed it. I don't think this is related to Setherina, but it could be.


Thanks! I hope whatever she has is just a mino9r infection from a wound and isn't contagious or serious.

 

[dawg53]

I recommend you seperate your buff orpington from the other chickens you have. I believe your rooster is to blame for the puncture holes (I've had that happen.) You should wash out the punctures with hydogen peroxide thoroughly. pack the holes with triple ointment or regular neosporin. Then put gauze on it with vet wrap or some kind of bandage. Repeat daily til the holes close up. You should also use sevin dust to get rid of the lice (be careful not to get it in the puncture wounds.) Redust your hen in 10 days to kill lice that may have hatched from lice eggs. Once your buff heals, you may want to purchase aprons that strap onto their backs to protect them from the roosters' nails and spurs.

 

[equine chick]

Poor girl. Agree with above post.

 

[77horses]

Quote:
Thanks! That's good news because I was worried is was some infectious parasite or something. Oh and it's only one hole under her wing that we found.

Thanks again! I will see if we have any of those materials handy and if we don't, I will be sure to get some ASAP!

 

[77horses]

I've never used hydrogen peroxide before so I looked it up online...is it the hydrogen peroxide topical solution stuff that I can use? (http://handyhints.gophercentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/hydrogen-peroxide.jpg) Also, how would I apply it to the hole? I have a couple unused syringes. Would those be helpful for anything?

Also, is Sevin Dust necessary for treating the lice? I've heard that it works well, but couldn't we just use the DE that we already have?

Thanks!

 

[dawg53]

As cold as it has been, I doubt it could be a parasite. Even if it was, the hydrogen peroxide would probably "boil" it out and you could also see it moving at which time you could extract it/them with tweezers. Trust me,use the sevin dust for immediate results. You dont want to mess around using DE with the condition that your hen is in.

 

[77horses]

Quote:
That's great! It creeped me out when I saw it...thought it was some weird creature thing burrowed into her skin.

Thanks!

 

[ranchhand]

Hydrogen peroxide burns like crazy and even my vet doesn't use it on open wounds anymore. Sometimes the bubbling action drives the infection in even deeper.
He recommends Betadine diluted with water, let air dry a bit then antibiotic ointment without the pain killer in it. That's what he does with his chickens.

Do separate her out, as the others will want to peck at it. As far as the lice/mites, the 5% Sevin would work, not the 10% though.

Good luck!

 

[77horses]

Quote:
OK that's good to know...thanks.

Where can I get the Betadine and is it expensive? How much do I use and how much water do I use with it? The website that the picture below is on shows that it costs $19.95...

that's pretty pricey if we are just going to use to once for now. Can we get it at a feed store in a smaller bottle do you think? I'm just worried it's going to cost like $20 for a large bottle and that's the only size they will have.

And is this the stuff that you are talking about?: (it's Betadine Antiseptic Solution)

 

[77horses]

Quote:
OK thanks...looks like I need to go get some Sevin Dust because all we have currently is the DE dust. And we have some hydrogen peroxide that we can use and since the wound isn't very deep (it's on the first layer on skin) it should be safe to use. We have gauze, but how could we keep it on without her pecking it off?


Also, do you know where I can get a few of those aprons for a fairly cheap price? I know that some people on BYC make and sell them. I hope I can find some locally...