Bleeding tail feathers

[Sammyb66]

Hi all!

Very happy to admit that I am at the beginning of this wonderful chicken journey. We bought 6 isa browns, 2 araucanas, an olive egger and a black copper maran. Wr have since learned that the breeder that we bought the rare breeds off has a history of selling unwell animals.

When I picked them up, I noticed that the olive egger and one araucana had quite a bit of feather loss at the top of their tail base. When I mentioned it to the breeder, she said they'd be fighting a little bit but would be ok. One has recovered but the other... not so much. I saw this when I let them out of the coop this morning. I saw the chicken peck at them herself but also saw a few others have a go too. I've put her in a seperate crate in the run with her friends but in safety.

The animals have all been dusted with DE as have the nest boxes and floor of coop and the dust bath has layers of DE throughout.

Any advice on cause, treatment and prevention would be very much appreciated!

 

[LunaMarieWolf]

If you have blue kote go ahead and spray it on there. Basically my go-to with chicken injuries. Chickens will eat her alive because they see red, they peck at red, which causes even more pain to the injury.

If no blue kote, I would cover with some cornstarch/baby powder/ flour as it helps stop bleeding. Keep her away from the other chooks until it heals.

If you use blue kote, it stains it blue, so they won't peck at it, but if using cornstarch, flour, or baby powder keep her inside.

Give her some powerade with her water to help with electrolyte loss and give her lots of tlc.

 

[LunaMarieWolf]

You can find it at atwoods, tractor supply, or your local farm store.

 

[ChickNanny13]

Wow ... Good that you have her separated yet with the flock. Chickens LOVE to peck at the color brightly colored objects (red) and shiny stuff. There's a product that you can purchase at the feed store or maybe a pet store (Blu-Kote is a germ-killing, fungicidal wound dressing and healing aid that works to protect animals against common infections and pus-producing bacteria) that you could spray to cover the "red" and help heal.
DE is a good preventative but Permethrin is the ingredient that will kill mites/lice.

 

[LunaMarieWolf]

From the photos though, it seems it is a blood feather that busted by fighting or just rough handling. Before feathers become what we think are feathers, they are held inside a protective coating (see the weird looking "pin" feathers above the wound) that the body supplies them with blood before they emerge. If they are cracked open before they are ready, or even torn from the skin, they can bleed A LOT!

Prevention isn't really necessary here because its a natural thing that happens, you can't prevent one from busting open, but you can treat it if it happens.

It seems she was kept in a pen with a frisky roo, or the hen was his fav because that seems like a LOT of pin feathers on her lower back/rump area (where it seems based on photos). When a roo jumps on top of the female (to do the dirty) he sometimes rips out feathers and it causes bald spots on their backs.

 

[Sammyb66]

Oh my goodness! The emails notifying me of your wonderful replies went to my spam folder I had some cetrigen that I sprayed on her and had her in a crate but in the run for a week or so. She still has some feather growing to do but she's no longer bleeding! I think the damage came from her being such a bully and copping a bit back!