Injured and Shocked hen

[Freeloading Chickens]

Hello all. I am fairly new to chicken raising and could really use some advice. The other night, Saturday, while I was getting my chickens ready to go in their coop for the night, one (or possibly two) of my hens viciously attacked another one of my hens. I have two chicken species, Rhode Island Reds and Americanas. One of the Americanas and the Red are two years old and have been together their whole lives; I also have two one-year-old Americanas. I think the one who attacked her is the two-year-old Americana, whom she's known forever, but one of the other Americanas could have been involved. Atty, the attacked hen, had previously been at the head of the pecking order.

I didn't fully see what happened but looked up to see at least one hen on top of her attacking her head, then she just took off running. Someone had pecked or clawed out all the feathers on her bare bloody head. I cleaned the wound with a damp paper towel and rubbed on Neosporin. We've been isolating her in her own pen, and the next day our neighbor sprayed some purple medicinal stuff on Atty's head.
It's been a few days now and Atty still seems to be in shock. She mostly lays on straw in the cat carrier or stands in a corner for hours, not moving. She's barely eating or drinking. I brought her out to the front yard this morning before I left for work so that she could free range without seeing the rest of the flock. She seemed content, but didn't move much, and didn't like when I put her back. Atty is very afraid of the other hens now, and keeps as far away as possible. We're afraid that she's not healing and wondering what we should do, besides from keeping her isolated with food and water available. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[DLA]

That's a tough situation and I understand why you're concerned. Keep treating the wound as you are and hopefully it will heal, the purple stuff was probably blu-kote. If you want to post pictures of the wound that might help to determine how it's doing. As long as there's not infection- pus/bad smell, chickens usually heal pretty quickly.
Sounds like she's still in shock over the attack and chickens are social animals so being alone probably isn't helping. Maybe try a mirror and/or a stuffed animal.
Do the chickens have enough room in the coop/run and places to jump on or hide under if there's a disagreement over pecking order?

Also sometimes chickens will attack a flock mate if they think there is something wrong with that bird. It's not always readily apparent to people. I would check her over very thoroughly and carefully to see if you can see any signs of something amiss. Other reasons why this might have happened might be hard to say, if there were any recent additions to the flock that can create changes in pecking order.

You could try some scrambled egg to get her to eat.

Once she's better you would have to try to slowly reintroduce her to the flock as if she was a new bird, if they don't accept her then at some point you may have to get her a friend and house her separately or rehome her.

Or if the problem is that you've got a bird that's becoming more aggressive in the flock and instigating the others against the lower pecking order birds (a bully), then dealing with that bird instead might be necessary.

 

[Loving my girls]

In England I used to use something called Poultry Power made by Nettex. I don’t know what’s in it but it gives the hen a reboot. I used to give it to her orally, it comes with a pipette. It has never failed to induce an appetite and enthusiasm for life for a few hours. I treat the hen for three or four days. It’s great for stress and severe sudden moult.
Hugz

 

[Freeloading Chickens]

That's a tough situation and I understand why you're concerned. Keep treating the wound as you are and hopefully it will heal, the purple stuff was probably blu-kote. If you want to post pictures of the wound that might help to determine how it's doing. As long as there's not infection- pus/bad smell, chickens usually heal pretty quickly.
Sounds like she's still in shock over the attack and chickens are social animals so being alone probably isn't helping. Maybe try a mirror and/or a stuffed animal.
Do the chickens have enough room in the coop/run and places to jump on or hide under if there's a disagreement over pecking order?

Also sometimes chickens will attack a flock mate if they think there is something wrong with that bird. It's not always readily apparent to people. I would check her over very thoroughly and carefully to see if you can see any signs of something amiss. Other reasons why this might have happened might be hard to say, if there were any recent additions to the flock that can create changes in pecking order.

You could try some scrambled egg to get her to eat.

Once she's better you would have to try to slowly reintroduce her to the flock as if she was a new bird, if they don't accept her then at some point you may have to get her a friend and house her separately or rehome her.

Or if the problem is that you've got a bird that's becoming more aggressive in the flock and instigating the others against the lower pecking order birds (a bully), then dealing with that bird instead might be necessary.

Thank you for the advice. Atty seems to be a little bit better today--I brought her out to the front yard this morning to free range and she enjoyed eating grass and roaming around. She stayed out there peacefully for about an hour. I think she's still in shock, though, because she moves really slowly.
This afternoon she had a visit with one of her red sisters, whom she's been with her whole life, and it was uneventful. We're going to try longer visits with both of her red sisters tomorrow and this weekend and hopefully that will help.
To answer some of your questions, it's very possible that someone sensed something off with her; she hasn't really laid since winter and the day of the attack, she had spent a couple hours sitting in a laying box trying to lay. One of our other girls, Sunny, has been growing more aggressive lately has become possessive of the laying box. She attacked a red today after that hen visited with Atty and I'm pretty sure that Sunny is the one who attacked Atty.

 

[Freeloading Chickens]

In England I used to use something called Poultry Power made by Nettex. I don’t know what’s in it but it gives the hen a reboot. I used to give it to her orally, it comes with a pipette. It has never failed to induce an appetite and enthusiasm for life for a few hours. I treat the hen for three or four days. It’s great for stress and severe sudden moult.
Hugz

Thank you so much for the tip. I'll check my local feed store and Amazon.

 

[MrsEarthern]

I am glad that Atty is doing better.

As someone relatively new to owning chickens myself, I have to ask if you are sure that you only have hens? With my first flock, I had 4 roos to 2 hens and found out the hard way that roos hitting puberty can be over-aggressive. I then raised six sex-links, and introduced them to my remaining hen and mature roo. He's mostly a gentleman, but they were all sort of off for a few days after their first mounting.

 

[DLA]

Thank you for the advice. Atty seems to be a little bit better today--I brought her out to the front yard this morning to free range and she enjoyed eating grass and roaming around. She stayed out there peacefully for about an hour. I think she's still in shock, though, because she moves really slowly.
This afternoon she had a visit with one of her red sisters, whom she's been with her whole life, and it was uneventful. We're going to try longer visits with both of her red sisters tomorrow and this weekend and hopefully that will help.
To answer some of your questions, it's very possible that someone sensed something off with her; she hasn't really laid since winter and the day of the attack, she had spent a couple hours sitting in a laying box trying to lay. One of our other girls, Sunny, has been growing more aggressive lately has become possessive of the laying box. She attacked a red today after that hen visited with Atty and I'm pretty sure that Sunny is the one who attacked Atty.

If Sunny is getting aggressive perhaps a time out then reintroduction to attempt to reset her position in the pecking order may be needed. If that doesn't work then some people might try something like pinless peepers (i've never used them myself but some say they work), maybe set up a permanent separate fenced in area in sight of but without physical access to the others. If that doesn't work and she still continues to be a bully and all options to change that had failed then you're left with the option of rehoming her or sending her to 'freezer camp'. I hope you're able to resolve this and Atty gets back to normal soon. Don't feel bad, it's nothing you did wrong. Some chickens just get this way even if they started out nice. It happens.