Why is there a hole in my chicken's side?

[Kelleysclucks]

We were painting the molting chickens that have had their new feathers pecked off. I lifted Olive's left wing and saw a large hole, the size of a walnut, in her skin. No blood, the hole was filled with a hard brown substance. See the pictures. She is acting normal, laying eggs, eating etc. What is this??

 

[nuthatched]

Do you have a rooster? I don't know what the stuff is, maybe dirt?

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Have you cleaned out the wound? Did you have any recent predator attacks/predator scares?

 

[Isadora]

It's in the wrong place but it reminds me of what an old breast blister would look like.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Looks like an injury that started to scab over with dirt in it.

 

[Meg22]

Not a lot of experience with chickens but if I saw that on a human I would say that it had started healing around the edge and the the brown stuff was dry dead tissue (Slough) that needs to be cleaned away by the body. In humans that would be done with a moist dressing.

 

[Eggcessive]

That can be a common place for a rooster spur injury, and my guess is that that is what that is, and it happened awhile ago.