Chick has feathers plucked out of back (picture)

[littlels]

This chick is 5 weeks old and today I noticed that it was missing some feathers on its back right above the tail feathers. When I picked her up and spread her wings, I found that almost all her feathers were missing in that area. All the chicks that age are still working on their big girl feathers but none of them look like this. It almost looks as though the big girl feathers came in and then were all plucked out. The holes are very large and although she is not bleeding, it's definitely very red right under the holes.

Is she getting picked on? Something else going on? How do I help her? I though about putting one of the hensavers on her, but it's huge for her.

Ideas?

 

[WooingWyandotte]

I bet the other girls are picking in her. You could try some blu-kote on it.

 

[littlels]

What is blu-kote?

 

[WooingWyandotte]

It's a wound spray, it's used off-label for chickens for ringworm, scrapes, wounds, and stuff. It's anti-fungal and helps bacteria not grow; something like that. Perhaps your local feed store would have it.

 

[oliveoil]

WooingWyandotte, thanks for suggesting blu-kote, it's just what I need for my injured hen. It comes in 3 forms, aerosol, pump or dauber, wondering what works best. I love this forum, always can find the info I need.

Sorry for your loss of Mabel.

 

[WooingWyandotte]

WooingWyandotte, thanks for suggesting blu-kote, it's just what I need for my injured hen. It comes in 3 forms, aerosol, pump or dauber, wondering what works best. I love this forum, always can find the info I need.

Sorry for your loss of Mabel.

I've never tried blue-kote myself, nice to know it comes in three forms. :3

 

[dmccann]

I like the dobbler the best,even tho i was using it the hen , flew it went flying and i ended up with a purple spotted face,go joe hand cleaner removes it,but not before my dh had a good laugh.

I've never tried blue-kote myself, nice to know it comes in three forms. :3

WooingWyandotte, thanks for suggesting blu-kote, it's just what I need for my injured hen. It comes in 3 forms, aerosol, pump or dauber, wondering what works best. I love this forum, always can find the info I need.

Sorry for your loss of Mabel.

 

[chicklover16]

the exact same thing happened to my hen a couple of weeks ago and was cured VERY easily. you are dealing with canabalism, one of your hens is trying to eat the hen with missing feathers. this product:

http://www.arcatapet.com/item.cfm?cat=14993

is used in cases like yours. you put the lotion on the spot on your hen where she is being pecked and when the bully goes to peck her she will HATE the taste. the lotion also has mild antiobiotics in it to help with the wounds. the 'peck no more' comes in smaller bottles which are cheaper, which would be good because I bought the big one and didn't get anywhere close to using it all!

 

[Gargoyle]

Blu-kote is a good basic item to keep in your chicken medicine chest. Keep in mind one thing- people say never to use it if you're raising the chicken for meat, you can't eat them afterwards; however, since my chickens are just for eggs, we'll never eat them, it's fine to use.

 

[littlels]

Thanks for the replies. I do more research and found out that this is usually caused by boredom, small quarters, too much light in the coop (not enough "night time") so they don't get enough sleep and a couple more things. Anyway, I didn't have any of the no pecking stuff so I made them some treats and threw some miniature straw bales in with them. I had two age groups mixed together and the younger ones still needed the heat lamp so I separated them and now the older ones (including the pecked one) has longer evening hours. Just changing those things has worked wonders and the pecking has stopped. Her back has new feathers that are coming in quickly. Yea!