A fox attacked our hens; no breast feathers left at all

[lori925]

A fox attacked our hens this morning. The girls free-range, but we were able to gather them all and get them into the barn.
One of the girls is very traumatized. She lost all the feathers on her breast (only skin is showing) and some on her side. There is no sign of any other kind of injury with the exception of a little limp.

I have a few questions:
1 - how long will it take for new feathers to come in? I ask because we are in Maine and winter is coming soon - from all signs, it looks like it will be an early winter and we want to make sure she is warm enough.
2 - Since the feathers were just ripped out, is there something we should do to help ease any pain or protect from any possible infection?
3 - other than the feather loss and the limp, she appears to be ok. Is there anything else we should be doing or looking for?

Thank you,
Lori

 

[123RedBeard]

New feathers will regrow when she "molts" this fall ...

Not much you can do about healing ... just time, and she is probably already out clucking and scratching ...

Keep her away from the fox ... it will probably be back!

 

[aart]

How old is she?

If feathers were fully 'plucked', and not just bitten or broken off, they may start to grow back soon without a molt.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

How old is she?

If feathers were fully 'plucked', and not just bitten or broken off, they may start to grow back soon without a molt.

aart is quite correct. The first requirement for the growth of a NEW feather is for the shaft of the old feather to be pulled, yanked, or otherwise jerked out of its socket or pour. Some extra high protein feed like feather fixer or a breeder chow will help speed things up.

 

[lori925]

She is two years old. She's doing better now. Still limping but not as bad.
Thank you.

 

[lori925]

Yes, they were completely pulled out - she has nothing but bare skin. Thank you so much for this information - I will get some high protein food for her right away!
Thanks again.