Blood on Baby's Tailfeathers!

[ClareScifi]

I can't figure out how my rooster, Baby, could have gotten blood on his tailfeathers? I was just admiring how they are growing out (I think a hen pulled out one of his long tailfeathers quite some time ago, before she took a liking to him), and then tonight I noticed there was blood on them!

He seems fine, is eating and drinking. I picked him up to inspect but couldn't figure out where the blood was coming from. It didn't seem to be super heavy, but I'm worried.

I did notice him chase the tomcat this afternoon a bit, pecking at the cat, but the cat got out of town quickly, and I didn't see any sign of the cat scratching him.

I haven't seen the hen peck at his tailfeathers since that one episode several months ago.

He was in the run and coop all day.

Could he have scratched on something, I wonder?

He is 25 weeks old tomorrow.

I have read that if a chicken breaks a bloodfeather he can bleed to death. Do you suppose this is what has happened? The blood seems to be in the middle section of his tail.

What do you think could have caused this, and what should I do?

 

[Lacy Blues]

If you have some blood stop powder, put some of that on it. If you don't, cayenne pepper works great, if you have some. Some people use corn starch. But if you can't find where the blood is coming from, none of this will help.

Are you sure its HIS blood? Maybe someone else is bleeding and it got on him? I'd check my other birds too.

 

[ClareScifi]

Oh, gosh! Now that's a thought! I wonder if he hurt the hen while mating with her? I did see two feathers fall off of her after he mated with her the last time, and I thought she looked dauncy at bed-time. She seemed fine when I let her out this morning, but you could be right! I sure didn't think of that.

 

[ClareScifi]

Well, I can't see any blood on the girls anywhere, and for the blood to have gotten on top of the mid-section of the rooster's tail, the girls would have had to have been on top of him, which I've never seen, so I think it is his blood.

Everyone seems active and fine this morning.

I am afraid to dig around in his tail feathers too much for fear of breaking casings or starting the bleeding again? I don't see any feathers missing or broken, but I haven't dug around in there. Maybe if I can get a friend to come over I can hold the roo and he can carefully look around in his tail? I don't know how to do it on my own. It bugs the rooster when I try to.

Oh, my friend is back. So that's good!