Chicken with bloody feathers!

[MIChickandGuinea]

My white leghorn, Maude, woke up today with blood all over her head and neck feathers. I picked her up and looked her over as best I could, and I just see dried blood, no obvious place that is injured. The way the blood is distributed over her head, it seems like her big, wobbly comb might have gotten injured and then spread blood all over as she moved around and her comb wibbled and wobbled all over the place. But her comb looks OK to me - I can't see an injury. There's no blood that I can find in the coop, and the other chickens look whole and healthy. I haven't seen/heard any chicken squabbling, aside from a couple times that the hens took exception to the rooster ... *ahem* ... visiting them. Maude is cheerful and comes running for treats and has been eating and drinking several times today.

Why is my chicken all red?! She's supposed to be white!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

When a chicken bleeds it can be profusely. They often shake and make it look worse than it is. It could have been a broken blood feather, or even a slight peck to the comb. If you see nothing obviously bleeding I wouldn't worry about it. The blood should wear off after a few days. Keep checking them for a few days to make sure it doesn't happen again.

 

[MIChickandGuinea]

When a chicken bleeds it can be profusely. They often shake and make it look worse than it is. It could have been a broken blood feather, or even a slight peck to the comb. If you see nothing obviously bleeding I wouldn't worry about it. The blood should wear off after a few days. Keep checking them for a few days to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Well this is reassuring. It was pretty alarming, I must admit.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Sometimes I go in my shed and it looks like the Texas chainsaw massacre happened in it, and not a single bloody chicken. I swear they do it on purpose.

 

[MIChickandGuinea]

Sometimes I go in my shed and it looks like the Texas chainsaw massacre happened in it, and not a single bloody chicken. I swear they do it on purpose.

Well, we just came through a really big bout of coccidiosis, which made our coop look like a bloodbath, and in that case, it really WAS a problem. So believe me, when I saw blood on Maude, I searched that coop from top to bottom, looking for any indication that the chickens were sick again. Then Maude got a through once-over (thank goodness, she's a very patient little lady)... Here's hoping it was just some little insignificant fluke and we won't have a big problem.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Definitely keep an eye out. I've thankfully never dealt with coccidiosis.

 

[Eggcessive]

When I have seen blood on any feeders or waterers, it is usually from a bloody comb that someone has suffered from a peck wound. Occasionally they will injure combs on wire fencing or a nail in the coop. It really looks scary when you walk in and find a lot of blood. Most times, I have not found the victim.