Blood Bath In The Coop!

[Pardee_Boy]

Went to open the pop door to allow hens to roam the run this morning and it's a bloody mess. All of them seem to be in good shape but my RIR has a peak off her comb to be almost severed off . The blood is clotted and it doesn't seem to be bleeding anymore. I'm not sure how it happened the coop is 12x4 with 6 hens and one silkie roo. I did introduce 3 of the hens later ( partridge cochins) those three stick together and often stay in the coop all day. Not sure if it's a pecking order thing going on or if having the heat lamp on 24/7 is the problem with no down time for them.

I have them all on 16% layer with crushed oyster shells added into the feed. I change the water at least once a day and make sure its not frozen at night before bed.

Now for the questions. For her comb should I leave it be and hope it heals on its own or should I intervene with some neosporin .I'm going to turn the light off at night for them to rest and just deal with frozen water in the A.M. .
Now with the amount if blood in the coop, I've never had anything happen thus far to my birds so my question is do combs normally bleed like crazy or would the splatters and drops allover the coop indicate a struggle happening?was another hen or worse were most of them pecking at the sign of blood?

 

[spartacus_63]

I am guessing that there was a cat fight between your RIR and another dominant hen. Is the RIR hen younger or older? I would keep an eye on the wound, if it doesn't get infected, it will heal. You can always treat it if that is what you want to do. Hens when establishing dominance, often grab the comb of the opponent and it can be quite violent. They usually do not last long and rarely produce serious injury. Cabin fever could have aggravated the situation too.

 

[lauriej57]

I had something similar happen last year. By the amount of blood I found, I was sure I would find a dead hen. All I found was one, somewhat like you found. I brought her in, cleaned her up, and there really wasn't much damage, not for all the blood I found.

I put Blue Kote on it, which goes on purple, but it hides the blood from the other ones, helping to avoid the others from pecking at it, plus it has some healing powers.

Yes, there combs bleed alot.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Yep just found my little bantam roo with his wattles bleeding and raw have a feeling some girls are behind it too, I brought him in and cleaned up the blood then put bluekote on it. What going on this time of year seems like we're seeing alot of this. My chickens free range all the time but it has been very cold up till the last few days but still their outside messing around just don't go far because of ice and snow.

 

[BooBear]

Winter cabinitiss: otherwise known as cabinfever.