- Mar 14, 2012
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I have made a very costly newbie mistake. :'( We bought one full grown hen and attempted to integrate her with our full grown flock of four. It went terribly. We were hesitant to remove her because we didn't want the whole process to start over, so we used blue kote on her wound and let her stay with them. One of our hens (the dominant one) just kept getting more and more agressive. THe next thing we know, the new hen had a huge gaping peck wound on her wing. We promptly removed her from the coop, and she now free ranges around the coop and run in our fenced in back yard. We feel alright with the current living situation and hope that being around the other chickens but not able to be pecked by them is the best way to integrate her. The problem is the wound.
A good inch- maybe two- of bone is showing. Being inexperienced, I thought that just keeping an antiseptic on it would fix everything. I was very wrong.
The skin has healed around it, leaving the bone out in the open. I'm wondering if we need to amputate. There is not enough skin to stitch together over the bone. Here are some pictures. The pink thing is the bone, the yellow is the flesh around it. I believe the majority of the exposed bone is around a joint.
I should add that she is acting fine. She is pretty skittish, but other than that she runs around, eats drinks etc. She is not laying right now, however.
PS: Please don't ream me for letting this happen. I have learned my lesson and I plan to be much more thorough in my research before I integrate any other chickens into my flock. I already feel AWFUL and I am angry with myself. I would prefer not to cull her as my son has named her (Darth Vader lol) and she is his favorite.
A good inch- maybe two- of bone is showing. Being inexperienced, I thought that just keeping an antiseptic on it would fix everything. I was very wrong.
The skin has healed around it, leaving the bone out in the open. I'm wondering if we need to amputate. There is not enough skin to stitch together over the bone. Here are some pictures. The pink thing is the bone, the yellow is the flesh around it. I believe the majority of the exposed bone is around a joint.I should add that she is acting fine. She is pretty skittish, but other than that she runs around, eats drinks etc. She is not laying right now, however.
PS: Please don't ream me for letting this happen. I have learned my lesson and I plan to be much more thorough in my research before I integrate any other chickens into my flock. I already feel AWFUL and I am angry with myself.
I would prefer not to cull her as my son has named her (Darth Vader lol) and she is his favorite.
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