Anything to soothe sore red skin?

[kathyd]

Hi

One of my chickens is very red and sore underneath, and seems to be in pain from it if touched. Is there anything I can spray on or rub in to soothe it a bit? I have some genian violet and some vaseline, would either of those be any good? She's losing feathers in patches, and also appears to have scaly leg mite... oh joy. Luckily I've got a spray for the scaly leg (how do they catch this?) but have no idea what to do with her tummy.

Thx

[petal]

sudocreme tends to be more soothing than vaseline. a good louse/mite spray- benzyl benzoate or surgical spirit and vaseline for legs. Is she moulting?

[marchogaeth]

I know next to nothing about chickens but what about aloe vera? We had a pony with a massive allergic reaction a few yeasr ago, rubbing all her hair off, skin read and sensitive. the vet was called off to a mega emergency and in the meantime we rubbed her all over with every bit of aloe we had. When the vet came he was really stumped as to what the cause of the reaction was and said that aloe probaly was the best option and if he'd thought of it he would ahve recommeded it!

PS Wouldn't put vaseline or anything sticky on as she'll make her own sand paper and make it worse.

[kathyd]

sudocreme tends to be more soothing than vaseline. a good louse/mite spray- benzyl benzoate or surgical spirit and vaseline for legs. Is she moulting?

Hi Petal. I don't know if I can get sudocreme over here, but I'll have a look and see. I've got some scaly leg spray from the Barrier ppl - meant to be organic? I've squirted them all, to be on the safe side. Suspect one of the others is suffering from it too, but less so. It says on the bottle the mites can affect wattles and combs too - I've noticed them all scratching their faces for a couple of weeks, but not been able to see anything wrong. Could it be mites, even if their legs look OK? Should I try to do heads as well? 'Try' being the operative word here - they struggled like mad just with their legs, and I'm covered in scratches all over my arms and stomach! Wonder if it stings? Should I use vaseline on their legs as well as the spray? I 'think' she's moulting, although only in raggedy patches, and it seems to have gone on for ages.

I know next to nothing about chickens but what about aloe vera? We had a pony with a massive allergic reaction a few yeasr ago, rubbing all her hair off, skin read and sensitive. the vet was called off to a mega emergency and in the meantime we rubbed her all over with every bit of aloe we had. When the vet came he was really stumped as to what the cause of the reaction was and said that aloe probaly was the best option and if he'd thought of it he would ahve recommeded it!

PS Wouldn't put vaseline or anything sticky on as she'll make her own sand paper and make it worse.

Mmm, I did wonder about vaseline being so sticky, but couldn't really think of anything else. Ideally I'd like some thin lotion, or a gentle spray or something. Aloe vera eh? I wonder if it'd be OK on chickens. I've got an almost=dead aloe vera plant in the porch - maybe I can persuade it to give the rest of its life to helping a hen!

[marchogaeth]

Horses are actually very sensitive in the skin department so I would think if it's ok for them it would be ok for chickens. You could always try some on some none sore skin first. What about camomile lotion or camomile tea? Lavender oil is very good on cuts/sore patches and you could dilute it with olive or sunflower oil (again something I do for the horses.)

[Feral007]

I would use aloe vera as well. It's less likely to cause problems with being absorbed too. I wouldn't use gentian violet.
The aloe will soothe the skin now, but also give it a light barrier to protect the skin a little while it heals. Just try to get as pure an aloe as you can if you are buying it. One spray on aloe we had had a 'cooling agent' added to it, and it was quite stingy. Just aloe on its own would be my suggestion.

[Snadger]

I use a 'purple medicated spray' to soothe and stop other birds from pecking sore areas. I have a cockerel who is devoid of feathers on his neck and has been for six months. The hens kept pecking it but the spray sems to keep them off.
He's an old cockerel so I'm beginning to wonder whether baldy necks in cockerels are the same as men going baldy in old age?

[chris]

I got some cream, from the vet which worked amazingly well. I'll phone my wife now to find out what it was

Edit: Flamazine

It only has a week or so shelf life or something (seemed fine after that, but after a week and a half the redness (which was really red) on my chook was reduced right down.

Edit2: if you eat your chooks, then I'd obviously find out if it's safe to be applying a cream onto the skin..

[kathyd]

I'm trying to avoid the vet this time Chris to be honest - the hen in question is my 'damaged' one, and if the vet sees her he'll probably tell me she's not worth saving!! She does look awful with all her bare patches, and her bent tail, and her wobbly gait... poor little thing. But we've kept her going so far, and I won't give up on her now! I think Flamazine is what my daughter had as a toddler when she burnt her hands. Thanks for going to the trouble of finding out for me . We don't eat the chooks, we just eat the eggs. At least we eat the eggs when the chooks aren't broody and refusing to lay, or on antibiotics for chest infections, or taking a dislike to the rearranged nest boxes, or feeling poorly with lice/scaly leg mites, or.... lol .

I think if I can find some aloe vera I'll have a go with that. If not, maybe some gentle baby lotion which I'll test on a non-sore patch first. I do like the idea of lavender oil which I always have (for me!), but didn't realise you could use it to soothe skin... will look into that one further. And camomile tea?? Just a cammomile teabag to make 'tea' and then sprayed on?? Or are you thinking fresh cammomile, which I unfortunately don't have. Thanks for your help everyone, as usual .

[chris]

Yep, it's for burns/sore skin. Aloe vera is natural, so that'd be my first port of call The cream must be safe to use on them, as I said I keep them for eggs, and don't want to use something that means I need to withdraw the eggs from consumption.

We use cammomile tea bags, with a drop of oil for our baby wipes (we have re-useable cloth wipes, let a teabag brew, once it's cool - a drop of oil (no idea which one, it's an essential one though - probably just to smell nice, I'm not sure ) and then the cloths soaked in the mix before being used to wipe the botties! Haven't ever had nappy rash when doing the above, despite using cloth nappies too, which obviously don't wick the moisture away as much as disposable ones do.

[kathyd]

Coo, wish I'd known about that when my kids were at the nappies stage Chris. We used terry nappies too, and definitely suffered from nappy rash at times. The oil may well be a 'carrier' oil, which is the base oil used to mix other oils with to dilute them. Good idea, never thought of that . If only I'd got my box of essential oils over here instead of leaving it in the UK until we have room in the car... duh.

[jessmorris]

Kathyd, I would just check her for mites and lice in case she has them too. Lice will be on her, and red mite in the house at night. Or, put your hand in the bedding, if you've got a bad infestation (and we all get them now and then), they'll be all over your hands. I find kitten flea powder good for lice and mites (Permethrin), or you can use mite spot-on type stuff for pigeons. Whether you can get any o, this in France is another matter.
Cheers for now, and good luck,
JM

[kathyd]

Hi JM. She's had lice, I know that for a fact, and I've treated her (and the others) for them - can't see anything moving on her any more. She does have scaly leg mites now, which I'm currently treating with a UK spray and some vaseline. I've not found out where to buy surgical spirit yet, must put it on my list of things to do! I've bought some pyrethrum based powder over here which is to be used on bedding and generally around the coop, and the coop was thoroughly cleared out and cleaned with some toxic coop cleaner a couple of weeks ago which promised to kill everything in sight, followed by all new bedding. She's now started laying again after the leg treatment, and after spraying a small quantity of pure almond oil from the baby counter onto the very red bits, so presumably feeling more comfy.

I can see one or two new feathers growing on the bare patches, but strangely her sister isn't moulting at all as far as I can see and I would have thought they might go through it at the same time? Or doesn't it work like that on chickens...

[petal]

no I don't think it does, something is ringing a bell here- did you say she has a wobbly gate? what breed, what age?

[kathyd]

no I don't think it does, something is ringing a bell here- did you say she has a wobbly gate? what breed, what age?

She's a 'shetland chicken' apparently - some descendant from / relation to araucanas I'm told, but who knows . She's around a year and a halfish, and she suffers from a bent tail and all sorts of other problems, including a wobbly gait which reminds me of some condition in people - is it cerebral palsy maybe? I'm not sure which one it is that affects movement.