silkie needs help

Well, off to the coop today to see that one silkie got out of her pen when someone did not fully latch their door shut. The runners (who are below) took after her and pulled out feathers, picked her poor head almost clean and left the rest of her feathers muddy and awful looking. I feel so bad for her and she was a good hard working surrogate mom. All of her babies are safe and dry. No chicks or other hens followed her into this place, thank goodness.

Anyway, we removed her, gently washed her down with clean warm water, and found out that she has a tiny bit of ripped skin on her backside. We only found one spot. I hope that is all. We also set up a special place for her outside, alone for now, with food and water, so that she can get a little sun (and shade if needed) to dry off and warm up. She still seems strong, and sits up well, but just isn't lively. She had a bit of fight, but not a whole lot. She will be tired. I wouldn't be perky either if I had so many bullies ganging up on me.   Is there anything else that we can do to hopefully save her...

I doubt that at this point that she can keep the little ones warm, but we may have another who will be willing to accept them.

Keep that wound clean and from becoming infected and she should be fine. Pure raw honey on it twice a day is my recommendation. Although if you have a hibitane type product, that works really well too - again twice a day. Hibitane is that pink soap you find in hospitals - diluted of course. Once it's well on it's way to healing and you don't need to clean it, cover it with diaper cream so the other birds don't peck at it. Good luck!

Sounds like you did everthing you could for her. Hope she pulls through. Imight add some sugar to her water to give her a boost.

Yet another reason to go pick up our honey.

We will get some sugar into her water asap. About how much might you recommend for 1/2 gal. of water? I imagine that it should be changed regularly so as not to ferment?

Thank you so much Miry Creek for your offer.

I will keep you updated as to how she is doing.

Throw some oregano oil in the water if you can.  Though they don't mix (duh!), the nutrients and traits of the oil will leech into the water.  It's both a pain killer and an antibiotic.

Good luck, I hope she pulls through. After the dogs had a hay day with my birds, I had one show up 2 days later, torn to shreds and still alive, her skin crawling with maggots. I felt so bad, and wished so hard that she had had a chance, but she didn't.

Give her the benefit of the doubt, she'll tell you when she's ready or she'll just be gone. If she's not ready, she'll perk up and move on.

happy to help    I would say a couple tablespoons of sugar to 1/2 half gallon of water should give her some energy.

She is looking better. She is also wanting to be social again, so we are thinking of putting her in a new pen made especially just for her and her chicks. She has more feathers left than we thought after she was all cleaned up and dried and has a nice downy tummy. Her sores healed over well already. There was nothing bleeding...I hadn't mentioned that. I am very happy to report that even though she has a very bare head and looks all disheveled, that we think that she will do just fine.

I have one question. She had her eyes open here and there on the first day (they did not look damaged), but has only peeked out of the one once or twice since that nasty day. There has been a little white come out of the one. Is this just cleaning out of some stuff that may have gotten into them or is it a possible indication that she will lose her eyesight? She seems to have good balance, and is walking, and even tried to run a bit, but not very fast.

This spring my Livestock Guardian pup had a chicken and licked the skin right off her neck.  I could see the muscles in her neck where there was no skin.  I figured she was a gonner..but i don't like to give up on anything until they call it quits.  I cleaned the wound with some betadine and warm water and waited for it to dry.  Then slathered some honey on it-unpasturized and left her alone isolated with food and water.  She continued to lay an egg every day, and now the skin has totally healed and there are feathers mostly grown back to cover what bits might be bare.  I didn't redress it...just left it alone. With the eye, i would just flush it with saline a couple of times and watch it
Good luck

I keep Polysporin Eye drops on hand. If you have them put a drop in her affected eye a few times a day until it's healed.

Thank you for the suggestions. We have seen that one eye is now open and the other is starting to open. She is walking around normally and is seemingly doing well. Just a little further to go, and I am guessing once molting begins and completes, she will be looking almost (or hopefully) as good as new.

Glad to hear that