What's wrong with him/her? Picture of chick

[MamaDoula]

This is one of our pullets (supposed pullet, anyway!) that's about...oh, four or five weeks old now? Today, while we were walking around outside with them, I noticed this one had an irritated/injured ear/face area. It even looks swollen to me.

Any ideas on what might be going on? And what we should do?

 

[Kittymomma]

I don't know, but with his face so red you might need to seperate him so the others to peck at it.

Hopefully someone who has seen that before will be able to tell you.

 

[chicmom]

It really just looks like an abrasion. (A scrape.) The red coloring might attract some pecking though, so you might want to separate the chick from the others until the redness goes away. You could always put some neosporin on it for faster healing. Some people use bluecote. (Don't know if I spelled that right.)

 

[dawg53]

I agree with Kittymomma, seperate her for now. She looks like that's exactly what happened,she got pecked on. I'd clean it off with warm water and if you can find the area where she bled at,put regular neosporin on it and keep an eye on her while you have her seperated.

 

[MamaDoula]

That makes sense...she's actually quite fiesty, and likes to tangle with our strongly suspected roo. We only have one heat lamp, so I'm not sure how to seperate her out.

Thanks for your replies!

 

[Chief]

What breed of chicken are they? In the picture it looks to resemble a game breed. Pumkin Hulsey maybe? If so and "she" is feisty. She may have some abrasions and even swelling or bruising. I really have to watch my game chicks, at about 5-6 weeks the pecking order has to be determined and they can really get aggressive with each other. Sometimes they have it out and then get a long fine after that for many more weeks. Other times if you don't separate them they can severely injure each other. Not sure if this helps or not but that type of injury happens often with game breeds and usually I just treat it with antibiotic ointment after cleaning the area with warm water. If there is much scabbing or blood I usually have to isolate the chick due to the others pecking at the wounds. Best of luck.

 

[MamaDoula]

She came with a bunch of Rhode Island Reds as a day old, but she's always looked different to me. Our flock are 10 RIRs, two Cuckoo Marans, and two barred rocks

 

[dieselgrl48]

yea looks like basic pecking to me.I got a brooder of bantams a month old and some got a lil pecked but they doing fine.If it gets to where they pecking and blodd coming take it away put something on like antibacterial ointment.Look's like it isnt too bad right now.

 

[MamaDoula]

I found the culprit.

One of our Barred Rocks (he's older, probably 7 weeks) has been bullying ALL the kids on the playground this morning, and has taken special interest in the little light colored chick. Into chicken jail it went, starting this morning! Those two tend to spend a lot of time together (the barred and the injured one), and the injured one is now sitting outside the door where the barred is being kept. She's a glutton for punishment, I guess.

 

[k2chickens]

if not the basic pecking, it may be exotic new castle disease. Iv'e seen pictures of birds where the skin starts to break down near or around the eye socket. But no worries, that's just the worse case scenario.