Chick is badly injured!

JRabbit90

Chirping
6 Years
Sep 6, 2015
36
3
79
Hello everyone! I have a chick that was with her broody and siblings until she was attacked. I have a feeling a chick pecked her too hard and caused some bleeding and I guess the rest joined in, because mom was pretty content with everyone and then this happened 4 days later. Anyways, she's in the brooder and her back is pretty torn up. I cleaned her up and put some blu kote and neosporin (without pain relief). It's been 24 hours since I've been treating her and she's been eating and drinking with some assistance, so I'm assuming she's going to be fine. I'm still worried because she stands and is interested in eating/drinking, but she won't walk to wherever she wants to go to in order to eat and drink. Here's a picture of the chick after I got done treating her yesterday. Are there any suggestions? Thank you!
 

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Oh poor baby. Hopefully she didn't suffer a back injury. They can heal and regrow feathers pretty quickly, so hopefully she will make it. Can you try putting her back under the broody when they are resting? Then watch the behavior closely to see if they try to hurt her. Of course, I would only try this if she can walk, and as long as you can watch them. She really needs her broody mama to help show her how to forage, and she needs the companionship of the other chicks. If she cannot rejoin them, then you may want to bring in another chick to join her in her brooder. Reapply either the BluKote or some iodine to keep the wound covered as needed to discourage pecking.
 
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Yeah, I'll try that as soon as she's walking around again. I have 5 eggs in the incubator that the broody abandoned. I'm guessing the hens snuck a few eggs in her nest while she was sitting. And one of them just hatched today, so I'm thinking about putting the newly hatched chick in the brooder tonight (if I don't see any piped eggs, of course) with her so she's not lonely.
 
I have had lone chicks do very well, as once they learn eating and drinking they don't need anyone to show them. It's preferable to have more than one of course, to keep them from being lonely, but if they peck at her then she will be okay on her own.
Putting new babies in with an older chick is fun too; I had my lone chick raising three younger babies for a while, unfortunately she was killed recently by some kind of animal during the night.
Also, it isn't bad to remove chicks from an incubator while others are hatching. Hen bellies aren't a sealed box either, if you think about it. I still candle mine, which has so far saved at least one chick from certain death.
 
Update: she's walking around and showing her new sibling how to eat. I haven't really seen her drinking yet, but I'm assuming she is since she hasn't really taken huge gulps of water every time I show her it's there. But its insane how quickly she recovered and just in time since I have to go back to work! Here's a picture of her with
 

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It sounds like the injured chick will be fine, but you still have a pecking chick. It's possible that that chick will peck a different victim. The only thing I can think of to do about that is to put a red bulb in your brooder. Red light makes chicks not see blood, and therefor discourages pecking. Good luck with the injured one!
 
Yeah I'm not sure it's possible for me to put a red bulb in the run with the rest of the chicks to prevent pecking since it's been raining like crazy where I'm at. But I've been checking on the broody and her babies and they seem to be fine. I haven't seen any bullying and the other chicks seem to be happy and not bored at all. I might just bring her out there to see if I can point out the pecking chick later on when she's feeling better.
 

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