countrygalut
In the Brooder
- Feb 18, 2015
- 33
- 4
- 26
What?! You're entering my photos into an Ugly Chicken Contest?!
Seriously though, what is wrong with my little chick? Her name is Baldy Jean, and here is her story... When she was 3 days old I found her squealing loudly in the coop, and throwing herself on her back, flailing her wings and clawing frantically at her face with both feet. I picked her up and very thoroughly examined her, but found nothing out of the ordinary. Set her down and observed her behavior and she resumed her flailing. I continued examining her closely, and carried her around to try to keep her from clawing herself to pieces. After a while she settled down so I returned her to the coop and checked on her every 20 minutes. After lunch I found that she had clawed herself raw and had scratched her face and eye badly. I felt a tiny lump right behind her ear. None of the other chicks have started picking on her, but I know with this behavior it won't be long before they take her out for weakness. I applied Vetericyn ointment on her shoulder and neck where she had ripped out all her feathers, and on her face. I fashioned a miniature cone out of a small piece of plastic and put it over her head to keep her from being able to scratch up her face. Once it was on long enough for the medicine to start soothing her she calmed down and I was able to remove the cone. I spent the next several days applying the ointment a few times a day, and leaving the cone on when she was unsupervised. She stopped scratching all together and her downy fluff grew back in over her shoulder, neck and face. Once her skin was all healed with no scabbing, I discontinued the ointment. Since then, her downy fluff has fallen out of her face again, but she's not scratching or shaking her head, or behaving out of the ordinary at all. The skin is not red and inflamed like it was the first time, and it's not even scaly or dry feeling. She does have either a scab coming out of her ear, or some tiny pinfeathers, I can't tell. I don't know why she isn't growing her feathers back, she will be 4 weeks old on Monday. We're a little worried she may be deaf on this side, poor girl. Anyone know what may be causing this, and what I can do for her? She doesn't seem uncomfortable about it like she was a couple weeks ago, but there's no progress in feather growth on her face either...
Here she is at 3 or 4 days old when this first started
Seriously though, what is wrong with my little chick? Her name is Baldy Jean, and here is her story... When she was 3 days old I found her squealing loudly in the coop, and throwing herself on her back, flailing her wings and clawing frantically at her face with both feet. I picked her up and very thoroughly examined her, but found nothing out of the ordinary. Set her down and observed her behavior and she resumed her flailing. I continued examining her closely, and carried her around to try to keep her from clawing herself to pieces. After a while she settled down so I returned her to the coop and checked on her every 20 minutes. After lunch I found that she had clawed herself raw and had scratched her face and eye badly. I felt a tiny lump right behind her ear. None of the other chicks have started picking on her, but I know with this behavior it won't be long before they take her out for weakness. I applied Vetericyn ointment on her shoulder and neck where she had ripped out all her feathers, and on her face. I fashioned a miniature cone out of a small piece of plastic and put it over her head to keep her from being able to scratch up her face. Once it was on long enough for the medicine to start soothing her she calmed down and I was able to remove the cone. I spent the next several days applying the ointment a few times a day, and leaving the cone on when she was unsupervised. She stopped scratching all together and her downy fluff grew back in over her shoulder, neck and face. Once her skin was all healed with no scabbing, I discontinued the ointment. Since then, her downy fluff has fallen out of her face again, but she's not scratching or shaking her head, or behaving out of the ordinary at all. The skin is not red and inflamed like it was the first time, and it's not even scaly or dry feeling. She does have either a scab coming out of her ear, or some tiny pinfeathers, I can't tell. I don't know why she isn't growing her feathers back, she will be 4 weeks old on Monday. We're a little worried she may be deaf on this side, poor girl. Anyone know what may be causing this, and what I can do for her? She doesn't seem uncomfortable about it like she was a couple weeks ago, but there's no progress in feather growth on her face either...
Here she is at 3 or 4 days old when this first started
