HELP don't know what to do?

Kimbab71

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Can someone please advise me for the best coarse of action?

One of my hens has a wound on her leg that has been healing nicely, today however I have notice that it is now an open wound and obviously the others are drawn to it. My problem is that she herself is pecking at it and I don't know how to stop this?

I don't have a separate coop to put her in and even if I brought her indoors how do I stop HER from pecking at it until it heals???

TIA. Xx
 
Only answering first 'cous I'm a bit of a night owl! But I think the answer is to use something like iodine that disinfects but also colours the whole area so that the wound doesn't draw attention.
Without iodine (it has a name I don't recall) I think I might try some diluted food colour generally (red or purple) and savalon cream on the wound after washing.
P.S. you probably don't have savalon in the states - antiseptic but must not contain a local painkiller as those creams are apparently very toxic to chickens.
Should be OK in the dark as they won't see the wound - bless 'em!
 
Hello Kimbab,
last year I had a hen that had been horribly attacked, the back of her head, skin wise, was no more, the bone showing through. I took a chance and smothered her with Germolene, very similar to Savlon, and it worked, she survived, the wound eventually knitted. She came through it, but not for long, she died a few weeks later. I was going to take her to the vet originally, not thinking she would survive.
I just assumed her death was the result of the initial attack.
I was lucky in that I could isolate her in another hut, to give her peace and time to heal.
 
Thanks Rick for your reply. I'm not in the states so do have savalon. I managed to borrow some spray last night from a local farmers wife so did that. We should be ok until tomorrow when I can get my own.
 
Iodine is extremely painful on an open wound, though it is a disinfectant. It would be best to use the purple spray which is sold for the purpose in pet stores or agricultural stores, which disinfects, and colours the wound so it's not so obvious to the other hens. It's easier to apply without getting it all over the places you don't want it to go (including yourself, when holding a struggling hen!) if you spray some on to a saucer and then apply it with a cotton bud to a cleaned wound. You can also buy antibiotic powder suitable for animals or birds, which can be puffed on to an open wound (but be very careful not to inhale it.) Do you know what caused the damage in the first place? This is important as you may be able to prevent further occurrences if you could remove a possible source of danger. Also it might have started through extreme irritation if she has bad scaly mite on her legs (raised scales and rough leg surface, due to parasite burrowing under the scales.)

If she is pecking it herself, it sounds as if it's irritating her, possibly through infection or dust etc in the wound. When they scratch the ground, of course their legs get filthy and it's extremely difficult to keep leg wounds clean. I would bathe it thoroughly in warm water to which a little salt has been added (again, not too much as the salt will be painful if the wound is open) before treating it with spray. Then possibly you could bandage it to keep it clean. There is a kind of blue bandage used by vets which sticks to itself but can be easily removed from animal skin, hair etc, but I don't know what it's called.
Also you will need to invent a temporary pen for her to prevent the others damaging it and pecking her, at least during the day, you could return her to the coop overnight. If you have a big enough run maybe you could fence off a corner of it with some spare wire mesh, so she can see the others and not get isolated from the flock. I do this when one of mine goes broody. We chicken keepers do need to have 'hospital facilities' available, or at least thought out in advance, as this sort of situation inevitably occurs at one time or another.
 
Sorry, yes. Iodine maybe a little 19th century! I must get some of that purple spray :)
 
Update- over the weekend we let the hens have the run of the garden. While they where all busy doing their own thing the wound was left alone. I only shut them in when they went to roost. Yesterday I cleaned the wound out with salt water and sprayed with purple spray. She was separated from the others in to a large dog crate next to the run, while I was at work. This morning the wound was clean and dry, so I have put a thin coating of Stockholm tar over the top to protect and to keep the others from having a go. She will go back in with the others today while I'm at work. They get let out again around 4.30 when my son comes home from school, so if there is any sign of pecking, she will be separated tomorrow again.

The wound she had before had healed nice, it's just as the scab was about to fall off that they've had a go, so will have to keep it coated with Stockholm to keep them off if!
Thanks again for your advice x
 
Marigold - they don't have any parasites and otherwise very healthy. I went away for a week and had someone looking after them for me, when I returned two of them had a wound on their legs and they had lost a LOT of weight. They are currently being fed medicated layers pellets for worming and have been getting Life Guard in their water as a boost. I'm hoping once they have been through a week of worming they will start to put weight back on? They weren't let out of the run for the whole time we were away and I think this may have stressed them out somewhat.
I have a neighbour who is an experienced chicken keeper who is going to look after them from now on when we are away, so she will let them out daily.
 
That's good, I'm glad she's on the mend. Yes, chicken care when one is away is a tricky business, and it sounds as if the care they got wasn't ideal. I'm lucky that I have a chicken keeping friend two doors away, and we can rely on each other to look after our birds when either if us goes away.
 
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