Broken blood feather

[stilldeb]

My Sultan roo, Lightning, broke a 'blood feather' on one of his feet today and it bled like crazy, all over him, all over the other chickens, etc. Brought him inside and washed his feet with antibacterial soap/warm water and then put polysporin on the wound and got it to stop bleeding. Keeping him in my 'hospital cage' on towels/soft surface in the garage for awhile.

Is there anything else I should be doing? Should I be worried about how much blood he lost and is there anything I should feed him to build him back up?


The Sultans are such sweet chickens, while I was holding him and treating his foot, he tucked his head under my chin and went to sleep.

deb g

 

[Tressa27884]

In the 'parrot' world when a blood feather breaks and/or starts bleeding we pull it out.

 

[stilldeb]

Would you just get a pair of pliers or something and pull it? I don't want to hurt him or make him bleed more. This has happened before, only with much less blood - the Sultans have such big feathered feet - and it would be good to know what to do, as it's probably not the last time either.

 

[toomanydogs]

Yep, just get a pair of needle nose pliers and pull the bleeding feather. The hollow shaft in a feather acts sort of like a straw for the blood to flow thru. Removing it stops the bleeding.


Lisa