Blood on feather, looks like broken vein?

WillowWispFarm

Chirping
5 Years
Mar 27, 2014
123
8
71
Upstate NY
I just popped my head in the brooder to look at the chicks and noticed blood on one of the wings. When I picked her up and looked closer i could see one of her feathers was cracked and bleeding. Shes about 3-4 weeks old so shes just starting to grow her big girl feathers in.
I have her wrapped up in a paper towel then in a blanket on my chest to keep her warm. I want to make sure the bleeding stopped before i put her back with the others.
Is this something that happens? I would take a picture but right now she is kinda sleeping and I dont want her to move her wing to much till it clots of something.
Any advice would be very much appreciated. She seems pretty happy snuggled in right now but I want to make sure she will be alright.
 
Use some tweezers or forceps to remove the broken pin feather. Then it will close up, stop bleeding and grow a new feather.
If her other feathers cover the area, you can put her with the other chicks.
It seems to be a rather hidden feather. Its alright to just...pluck it? Is there a chance it could heal or is removing it the best bet? I'm sorry I'm new to chickens, let alone baby chicks, and she dosn't seem to happy about it now, she just fell asleep on me.
 
When I had birds break blood feathers, I took them to the vet and the vet just plucked the feathers. Could have saved me 75 dollars if I had just done that myself!

Hold the skin on either side of the feather down with one hand, use the tweezers in your other hand. This will not hurt as much as you would expect.
 
Last edited:
When I had birds break blood feathers, I took them to the vet and the vet just plucked the feathers. Could have saved me 75 dollars if I had just done that myself!

Hold the skin on either side of the feather down with one hand, use the tweezers in your other hand. This will not hurt as much as you would expect.
Alright... well time to wake her up and take care of it then. Thank you for the advice and I will update on my next post.
 
thanks for keeping us posted!
Well the "operation" went smoothly! My mom helped by holding her as i got the feather out, because of the blood it took 3 tries to get everything, but she was a champ and after a minute the bleeding stopped. Mom took a wet paper towel and got the blood off her feathers and now were back to cuddling. I just want to make sure its done bleeding and she dries off before going back into the brooder.
Thank you so so much for the advice, and even tho I felt so bad doing it it helped her out in the long run. We both thank you.
 
Well the "operation" went smoothly! My mom helped by holding her as i got the feather out, because of the blood it took 3 tries to get everything, but she was a champ and after a minute the bleeding stopped. Mom took a wet paper towel and got the blood off her feathers and now were back to cuddling. I just want to make sure its done bleeding and she dries off before going back into the brooder.
Thank you so so much for the advice, and even tho I felt so bad doing it it helped her out in the long run. We both thank you.
I would like to answer you, but I've been told I'm not allowed to do such things publicly on the board. I'll pm you.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom