Bloody Tail Feather Shaft Stumps

[kellypepperk]

We came home this afternoon and found our boy ******* all bloody on his tail area. Our chickie-doodles are just turning 14 weeks old and still getting tail feathers (ouch it looks painful!). ******* is near, if not at the top of the pecking order and we haven't seen any evidance of pecking... I'm able to squeeze out a black goo from some of this feather shafts but others were bleeding. I read about blood feathers so we may end up plucking some of these shafts. But, any other thoughts or ideas or "been-there-done-thats?"


(picture credit must go to our 7 year old, Emma! Great picture sweetie!)

 

[Corazon Ranch]

I hope you don't mind, but I am going to copy a reply I just wrote to someone else with the same problem:

Picking is a very serious problem! It can lead to death very quickly!

99% of the time, you can end picking by giving the birds more space and more feed.

If you have some serious bullies, or birds that just think feathers are delicious, you need to find them and separate them ASAP.

The worst part of picking is that once a bird has a spot, the other birds will be drawn to it like magnets.

There is a major artery above the tail that will bleed profusely and the bird will die if it is cut.

Also, to help dry out the bloody spots and disguise the injury, try a spray on dressing like Wound Kote. I apply a wide spray around the affected area, which seems to help prevent the other birds from seeing that enticing spot of blood.


Hope this helps!

-Sara


PS -- the black goo you are seeing may be the unformed feathers developing within the feather shaft.

 

[terryg]

Your chickens are getting mature, large and active. If this feather picking is new, then look at their environment and see if there are stresses they might not have had before. Do they have enough space? Access to food and water for all? Enough shade? Are they bored? I have a FAQ about feather picking here:http://hencam.com/faq/bare-butts-feather-loss-and-feather-picking/
But, right now you have the immediate problem of dealing with a bloody hen. If the other hens see that blood they can peck to the death. Clean her up and darken the entire area with blu-kote or povidone. If she's not severely injured and you can get rid of the blood, then I'd keep her in with the flock, as removing her and then returning her later can upset the order. OTOH, if she needs time away to heal, then that takes precedence.

It might interest you that I have a hen that allows the other chickens to peck out her tail feathers.There's never blood. This hen is at the top of the pecking order. It's an odd habit, that in the case of this hen and this flock isn't a problem.

 

[kellypepperk]

Haaa! I just noticed all the *****
This rooster's name is B@st@rd. His skin seems to be just fine and we haven't seen any pecking going on...
They are all free range during the day, in at dark and out at dawn... If there was pecking going on would we see wounds to his skin too? Right now it just seems like his tail feathers are the problem.

 

[Corazon Ranch]

My next guess is that he is not the only rooster. In a previous batch of birds I had a lot of extra males, and I found that only one of them, the top cock, was 'allowed' to keep his prominent tail.

With that batch, the feather picking did not lead to blood, just a lot of males without tails.

Just a thought ....

 

[terryg]

You can have feather picking without skin wounds (this is seen usually more as feather eating.) You can also have severe and quick pecking at night during when they are settling into the roost, which is why you haven't seen it during the day. I missed that he is a roo. They're hitting sexual maturity and Corazon Ranch is right, and you've got another roo, or you have a girl who is NOT putting up with him.

 

[kellypepperk]

All seems well this morning. B@st@rd's tail is a little rough looking due to the work I did yesterday - but no blood. And yes, for the next two months we have quite a few extra roos (12) and about 20 hens. They're all 14 weeks old. We ordered enough straight runs to ensure our freezer would be full this winter! Does anyone have more info or stories about the "blood feathers?" I've never heard of this before and am a little concerned about some of the consequences...