bleeding claw

[Wicked Gardener]

Woke up this morning to find that one of my hens had bled what seems like a lot of blood out of her claw area (very tip drips blood). Looks like she got it caught on something and tore part of the nail tip off. I searched this forum and did clean it and stopped the bleeding. She just is not her feisty self. She will drink and eat if I bring her something, but is just lying around all day. Any thoughts? This is my first go around with chickens and not sure what to worry about and what not to!

 

[JulieNKC]

She might be in shock if she lost quite a bit of blood. I'd put her in a kennel or box or something like that, away from the other chickens so they can't pick on her while she's down. Give her some yogurt or eggs or other nutrient dense goodies to encourage her to eat and give her some energy to recover. Try to keep her warm and quiet for a day or two, hopefully she'll perk back up soon.

 

[BrattishTaz]

I have found that giving Gatoraid (sugar water works in a pinch) will snap a chicken out of shock pretty quickly. You can usually get them to take some if you dip their beak in a spoonful of it. Have some scrambled egg ready because they will most often be ready to eat within a few minutes of drinking it, don't worry if they don't want it right away though. You can mix the Gatoraid with water for another day or two to make sure the bird is rehydrated (especially after blood loss). For some reason, all of my birds prefer red Gatoraid.

 

[lillypurrs23]

I would keep her away from the others so they don't pick at it to make it start bleeding again. That happened to one of mine, and we just made it stop with cornstarch and kept her in the house for a night, and watched her when we put her back. Hope I helped!

 

[corgiscatsandchickens]

Had a similar thing happen to one of our Bantams when I was a kid (many moons ago), my grandmother shut the storm door hard on a hen's foot. It bled like crazy--the foot not the door. Neosporin was new back then, so we pulled the nail that was dangling by a thread off, used cornstarch to slow the bleeding, piled the Neosporin high and bandaged the foot using popsicle sticks and shreds of cloth. Kept her away from the others for a few days and changed the bandage twice a day for three or for days. She healed up just fine. Her toe always had a nub of scar tissue on the end, but it never seemed to bother her!

Hope this helps.

 

[Wicked Gardener]

After feeding and watering her by hand pretty much all day, she is now perked up. She's definately not at 100%, but finally walking around again and scratching around the dirt. So far, the other hens seem to actually be watching over her and not picking on her at all. I guess I will seperate her tonight just in case, though. Thanks once again to all of you on this forum....so much helpful information!