Wound on molting hen- from picking? Need to do anything??

[Kiariana]

One of my molting hens has a scabbed wound on her butt, where she's started molting. I think it is probably from picking and already sprayed the birds with stop-pick, but the area is swollen and firm to the touch. I want to make sure this isn't something to worry overmuch about. I've given her a bath and took some pictures while she was in. Can anyone tell me if this looks like a picking injury?

 

[Eggcessive]

Does the skin seem raised around the wound or just swollen from the injury? Have you seen pecking or do you have a rooster with sharp spurs? She needs to be placed into a wire dog crate with food and water to prevent others from pecking at her wound. Keep her with the flock if possible, but flies could be a problem. I would clean the wound with chlorhexidene or a wound spray like Vetericyn, and apply plain Neosporin or Triple Antibiotic Ointment twice a day until it is healing.

 

[Kiariana]

Does the skin seem raised around the wound or just swollen from the injury? Have you seen pecking or do you have a rooster with sharp spurs? She needs to be placed into a wire dog crate with food and water to prevent others from pecking at her wound. Keep her with the flock if possible, but flies could be a problem. I would clean the wound with chlorhexidene or a wound spray like Vetericyn, and apply plain Neosporin or Triple Antibiotic Ointment twice a day until it is healing.

It just seems swollen, it isn't hot to the touch or anything. It seems pretty shallow too, it's more the amount of swelling and stiffness of the area that concerns me. It's at least a couple days old now. I don't have a rooster, and I haven't seen any pecking but I don't spend more than a couple hours a day with them. It doesn't look like it's been reopened to me, and she's quite high ranking among the small flock I have, only 8 birds and she's a RIR.

The area we're in flies and such aren't much of a concern. I could put her in the dog crate next to the run, but I'm worried that would just stress her out more than help. The stop-pick seems to be working and if I separated out all the pickable birds that would be half the flock as they're molting.

 

[Eggcessive]

They will be less stressed if they are within the coop or run. They like to be with other chickens. If there is not a rooster, I would worry that she has been attacked by a predator or that she has injured her skin on a sharp object. Is she normally picked on or low in the pecking order?

 

[Kiariana]

They will be less stressed if they are within the coop or run. They like to be with other chickens. If there is not a rooster, I would worry that she has been attacked by a predator or that she has injured her skin on a sharp object. Is she normally picked on or low in the pecking order?

The last hen I put in the dog crate spent all her time running back and forth in front of the entrance, even though the crate was in the run. Right now the injured one is just putting around like usual, but less energetic. She's also going through a rough molt so it's hard to say how much of that is causing her fatigue. She's never been picked on that I can see. All the RIRs seem high up in the pecking order and she's one of the more confident ones. The only ones I worry about getting picked on or bullied are the 3 younger ones, dual-purpose assortment birds.

It's possible she was attacked... Maybe a brave hawk or something. It wouldn't surprise me if something tried attacking and got run off by all the other hens, they are quite bold. We're in town and I've had no problems with anything getting in before though. The crows like this area but that and the magpies is about it.

The wounds don't seem deep or like slashing wounds, they're shallow and rounded, almost blobby in shape. I've put stop-pick on all the exposed areas to deter the others. Her feathers cover a lot of the wounds too.

 

[Eggcessive]

I have had them become stressed at first in the dog crate or pen at first, but them settle in after a little while. Let us know how she gets along.

 

[Kiariana]

So it's been a while and I was pretty worried about Chippy for a number of reasons. She was already in the middle of a molt and then the injury happened, and then she got sour crop as well I ended up putting her in the crate and putting it in the middle of the run, covering the top and back side, and wrapping some protection around the corner I put a roost in as well. Luckily it seems the wounds on her butt were healing fine on their own.

I treated her with some olive oil, then coconut oil, and vaginal yeast infection cream because I had some on hand. I massaged her crop after giving her her medicine, and also whenever I had a free moment as she seemed to like it (at the very least she didn't hate it lol). I also tried the lemon juice-ginger-cinnamon-paprika mixture once, not sure if it helped or not but I gave it a shot once then stuck to the vaginal cream for the most part since I was pretty sure the problem was yeast, the ball was doughy and would get softer with water. I periodically gave her CBD oil as well, since CBD is a moderate antifungal, reduces inflammation, and it can help with pain I figured it couldn't hurt. I treated her with the ducosate sodium for a day or two and I think it helped loosen everything up. I also tried a crop bra, unfortunately she didn't get used to it at all and whenever it was on she would only stumble around, would fall off the roost etc., perhaps because she's also molting and it was uncomfortable due to that? So I used it a bit, only once overnight before I realised she just wouldn't adapt to it rn.

I was pretty worried about her because she lost a lot of weight, her keelbone was very prominent and she weighed practically nothing to pick up. After the first couple days where I avoided chicken feed and either fasted her or gave her boiled eggs, I started giving her chicken feed softened with warm water, plus some dried black soldier fly larvae for protein. My biggest worry was that she would just run out of energy/reserves to survive :/ I ended up moving the crate inside for a few days because temps dropped below freezing and I wanted her to 1) have access to water at all times and 2) not have to maintain her body temperature on top of everything else. I also ended up sticking another hen, Dodo, in there with Chippy because she was picking at my lowest-ranking hen's growing feathers and because I figured the company might help (Dodo gets along fine with Chippy and it was actually pretty cute, she kept trying to hide under Chippy even though Dodo's bigger XD). After a couple days inside the temps stopped dipping below freezing and I stuck the crate out on the covered porch, where they remained until Chippy started getting better.

I'm not sure what finally got her crop moving again but she seems to have made a full recovery. One day the ball was noticeably smaller and it just got better from there. She's back up in the yard with the others and almost done her molt, and seems to be back to her old self. I'm still keeping an eye on her and checking her crop but I'm glad I didn't lose my most personable hen