All of hen's feathers on back of neck pecked off and bleeding........

[culver chickens]

I went out to my girl's coop this AM and found my 18 week old Buff Orpington hiding in a corner behind a bucket, missing all her back neck feathers and bleeding. She was not at all herself which is normally spunky, flighty and energetic. She instead was scared, cowering and looked so sad.

I immediately removed her and made up her own temporary home so she could get rest and peace. I'm assuming there is a bully or two among my flock but why have they done this all of the sudden? From what I know and have been told I only have all hens. How should I treat her wounds and any other advise would be greatly appreciated. This is my first flock so I'm a total newbie here!

 

[GrandmaChickie]

How were the other chickens acting? Are you sure nothing grabbed her through the fence? Although chickens will fight each other to establish a pecking order, and it can look pretty vicious, they usually don't do that kind of damage to one another. I would suspect an outside predator.

 

[dawg53]

It sounds like your Buff Orpington made it to the bottom of the pecking order. Flush the wounds with 50/50 betadine and water mixture, pat dry, then put neosporin on it. You'll have to find the culprits and probably have to put pinless peepers on them to prevent picking/pecking.

 

[culver chickens]

I can't be for sure it wasn't an outsider. We do have 2 raccoons who've began to frequent our yard lately. Their run is all fenced in except a small portion on the roof and I did forget to shut the coop door last night so I guess it's possible. My buff and two of my other girls are 18 wks and the remaining 8 girls are 20 wks so in reference to how they were acting I can say I did see the other 2 younger ones cower and run away from 2 of the older ones but I see that normally from time to time.

 

[culver chickens]

After furthur investigation we found clumps of her missing feathers outside of their run over by our garden a couple feet away and then some more a few feet away from that. Im thinking outside critter. We have tended to her neck but have found she wasn't drinking water and had a clear sticky film keeping her mouth shut. I wiped it all out and we've been feeding her water but in the process found a hole in her neck from water dripping out of the back of it.
So, my question now is.....will a hole actually heal or is this a fatal wound that perhaps we should put her out of her misery? She's not eating and not drinking on her own.