I had to put my chicken out of her misery. Thanks for all the advise, I believe if it was just the wound that was the problem she may have made it. I just think she was already so weak before the attack that she did not have the strength to get better. Just in case it helps someone else here is what happened. Perfectly normal hen about 1 yr old stopped eating, just went around picking up a little here or there (mostly putting it back down) for about 3 days. (note here: we have had unusually cold temps before this happened, like 1 degree nights) I tried to entice her with treats but she did not seem interested. Would go in and out with the rest of the hens, walk real slow around the pen and sit down a lot. Poo was clear and yellow mixed. After about 3 days, she started losing feathers on her back and bottom, real fast like overnight. No roosters in pen, no parasites in pen or on bird, skin did look dry and did crack on her bottom. Other chickens saw this and pecked her bottom clean, took skin and feathers before I knew what had happened. Brought chicken into home, cleaned wound, used neosporin and she stopped eating altogether, but would drink water. Today she would not eat, would not drink, would only stand and sleep. If I touched her back she would open her eyes and fall over like she was surprised. Tonight she was unresponsive and would not open her eyes so I went ahead and put her down. My stomach is sick, this is the third chicken I have lost in two weeks. Not from exactly the same thing,one white silkie was killed by a dog,and another white silkie was attacked by the same group of hens, that wound did finally kill her( they pecked her vent and bottom real bad), but she was healthy up to the attack. One thing I know now is that I should have separated the hen sooner, I did not think she would do well in the house, so I left her with the others. I think they take advantage of weakness. I also learned do not keep white silkies with red and black sex links over the winter. My hens pecked pieces of feathers off them to eat and if they made them bleed the hens would have a feast! I moved my 3 remaining bloody silkies into their own pen( this is where the dog got one) and they have not once pecked each others wounds, wish I knew then what I know now. To anyone reading this I have a couple questions, will molting make a bird stop eating like this and do white silkies have as much trouble with the pecking each other as my sex links do? I am wanting to increase my flock for next year and was thinking white silkies may be the answer to some of my winter time problems. I have had no trouble with them now that they are alone in a different pen is this usually the case with that breed? Where do I go for answers on this?
