Caring for Injured chicken, now picking her feathers

[Twolf]

I had a thread about my chicken who was injured, large wound that appears to be healing and doing better. I have had her in a cage in my basement while caring for her for about 2 weeks. I noticed Monday she had several feathers on the bottom of her cage, just after I had given her wound a soaking and neosporin. Now today, her cage is covered in feathers. It is not evident to me where exactly the feathers are coming from. I am curious what to do from here. I am sure she is stressed or sick of being in a dog kennel in my basement, but the wound is not healed enough for her to go out yet. Any thoughts? maybe some other kind of problem, parasite or fungal infection?

 

[GitaBooks]

She could be picking for a few reasons:

She could be stressed, over-heated or bored
She could not be getting enough protein
She could have parasites
She could just be molting (chickens sometimes go into a molt after a stressful situation)

Make sure she gets lots of protein, feed her treats that are tied on the bars so she has to work for them, and check her over for any signs of mites or lice. As for molting, she stops laying, her comb shrinks, and she begins to look very ragged.

Best of luck!