3 month old silky beat up

[Donna5]

I added 2 three month silkies to my flock of 5 five month old hens. I had them separated in the coop but the worst happened and the easter egger at the bottom the the current heirichy serverly mauled one the the new girls. The back of her neck and head appear to have been pecked down the skin or worse, I don't want to hurt or stress her further. She is breathing shallowly since we seperated her. What do I do

 

[BantamoftheOpera]

I'm having similar issues. I sanitzed the wound and used blukote to seal it. I'm keeping my silkie inside seperated from the flock. I'm not sure if what I did was "Right" but he's been healing up pretty good! Hope someone else can help you better than I.

 

[artsyrobin]

seperate her and the other silkie, she is buddies with, put them i a quiet area to reduce stress, put some neosporin on her for now, can you put drops of water on her beak with a little sugar in it?


how large are the other hens?
i generally don't put banty size with the large birds-

 

[Donna5]

thank for the advice. We have been giving her chicken food mixed to a mash with water and water in an eyedropper. She will take small amounts of food. We did a saline rinse and antibacterial lotion.

Her injuries appear to be very severe, so much so that she looks like a scene from a nightmare...we will give her a few days to show some recovery but I am afraid I will have to put her down. Does the vet euthanize a chicken the same as any other pet?

Now am am left with a single silkie and don't know what to do with her as I don't think she can winter alone here in the Chicago area in her own coop (which btw...I will have to build her her own place since she can't go back with the others and hubby didn't like the idea of her being a house chicken. I did bring her in today while we fed her very sick friend and she is wonderfully polite execept for the poop on the hardwood floors! Any thoughts on raising a single chicken would be greatly appreciated

Donna

 

[artsyrobin]

donna, you could keep both of them in a large cage the way folks keep any exotic pet- you might post on the silkie thread, i am sure someone with silkie knowlege can help https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=297632, possibly rehoming if that becomes necessary- but give your wounded one a chance, they can pull through amazing things

 

[emvickrey]

I have a house chicken. She is just fine in the house. Her cage is a rabbit cage with the tray and it's all up off the floor on legs. I line the tray and add several layers of paper towel then fill the tray with wood shavings. I change it a couple times a week. IN winter once a week. She had a wicker nest she laid her eggs in and I even gave her some eggs to foster. She raised them right in the house in her cage.
There is somebody that makes and sells diapers for house chickens here on BYC. I don't use diapers. When I let her out in the house I just keep an eye on her and clean up poops with papertowl and lysol. I can let her outside to free range with the other silkies but they won't allow her in their pens. She don't even try she comes to the steps for me to bring her in.

 

[rjlanger2]

I'm sorry your "older" girls weren't happy to see your "new" girls.

I had the same problem when I tried to bring 4 newbies in... re-establishing the pecking order can wreak havoc on the younger ones. I had to keep the newbies in a cage for about a week until I was able to build an extension to keep them completely separated from the older ones. The new area was built so that once the newbies got a bit bigger and could fend for themselves, the chicken wire separating them was removed and ALL of them would use the entire area. It's best if the older ones can see the new ones. They all get to see each other and that reduces (but doesn't eliminate) the pecking order thing. I kept them separated for a month.

I hope you can arrive at a solution that works for everyone.

Bob

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5 RIRs, 3 White Leghorns, and 1 mean Lavender Guinea