What happened to her comb? (Graphic pics.)

jeremy

CA Royal Blues
13 Years
Mar 23, 2008
8,123
193
396
Oakland, CA
I found one my Delaware hens like this moments ago.

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Any ideas what might have happened? I have a few, but need some reassurance.

If you look in the pics you can see what looks like a cut on her comb. This hen I believe is one of my roos "favorites", could he have done this to her while mounting her? There are a couple other girls, one in particular, that have what looks like scabs where the rooster grabbed them. Could he have just grabbed too hard? Or could this injury be from another hen, maybe they got in a scuffle and someone nipped her too hard?

I've brought her inside and she is now isolated in a pet carrier. Other than being bloodied up, she is fine. She spent all afternoon free ranging with the rest of the flock. She is eating and drinking normally, she's actually eating scratch I gave to her in the pet carrier right now. I plan on keeping her inside overnight.

Any ideas how this could have happened? The bleeding seems to have stopped, I tried washing most of the blood from her face with warm water, which she did not like. I'm looking for Blue Kote to put on the open wound right now.

Has something like this ever happened to a hen of yours?

Thanks guys!
 
Yes that happened to one of my hens. She stuck her head through a wire fence and when she went to pull it out, it tore at the base.
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I was panicked but she healed up just fine. The Blue Kote you talked about dabbing on should do the trick.
 
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holy cow! yikes...can combs get abscessed? If so maybe she had a wound that didn't heal correctly and the abscess opened up...sorry that's my best guess
 
Sunny, that sound like something she would do. They were all trying to get to the blueberries that I have covered with hardware cloth earlier, maybe it was that?

Cheryl, hm... I sure hope not, I think I would have noticed something that yucky. She appeared absolutely fine yesterday.
 
Rooster could have done it. I have had a couple bloody combs, but not nearly that bad. Combs are just full of blood. Actually, if you squeeze a comb, you can get blood excreted (so I have read). I haven't tried it though.

About all you can do is clean her up and apply some neosporin or something. I usually just wash them up and put them back with the flock. But, then again, I have never had one looking that bad.
 
Looks like she got pecked to me. If it's stopped bleeding, and she's eatting and drinking okay, I'd say she's fine.

A little blue kote would help but I don't think it's a must have.
 
I believe she will be okay. Mine had almost a quarter coin size section of her scalp ripped almost off in a "mating accident." Because of the shape of the flap I followed someone's advice on here and cut it off. She healed up just fine. We call her "Baldy" now. Chickens are amazing. I used neosporin, but the bluekote should be fine. Best of luck to your girl.
 
Peroxide is great for bleaching blood out of white feathers--use a cotton ball soaked in it. Trust me, I've had a worse scene with Isaac when the girls detached the comb from the back of his head. That was awful, but they heal up very well.
 
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Yup, one of my Leghorns did that too. She was trying to peck at my chicks that were safe behind a wire fence, so I guess it served her right! By the time I saw it she had stopped bleeding and nobody was pecking at her so I just left it alone. She healed quickly and is as good as new now...
 

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