Chicken with injured head

[KirbyH]

I have a chicken with a head wound near the comb but the chicken is white so residual blood shows. The wound has scabbed up and the chicken seems well otherwise but she is confined to a dog crate in the coop and does not like it. I tried to remove traces of blood with peroxide but it wasn't possible to get it all so I put BluKote on the wound today and I don't know if the other hens will go after that. I could put her in a compound with my two silkies who would have a very hard time pecking her head but that will take her out of the flock and I don't know how good that is. I could put her and the hen she was raised with (I add to the flock two at a time) in with the silkies but I don't know if that is the one who is pecking her. We don't have a rooster. The injured hen could have become injured and then attracted pecking from the others. Not sure what to do or how long the bird has to be crated or if it would work to take the two birds out and return them later. I would welcome ideas!

 

[Shadowfire]

Any hen that can peck her will do so, regardless of their relationship. I would put up a divider in the coop so she can be near the others; if you don't have access to a see-through divider, she will have to stay in the crate or inside until the can groom the blood off.
Wet a rag with warm water and restrain her so you can let the water soak in and help to remove the blood for several minutes; then see if you can rub it off once it softens.

 

[Eggcessive]

Is she showing any signs of illness? When one of my chickens is dying or seriously ill, they tend to get pecked on the comb by others. I would try some supervised visiting with the flock to see how she is treated with the BluKote on the wound. Usually, within a day or two, most comb peck wounds have dried up and no longer attract pecking, but if she is ill or acting funny to them, it may keep happening. If they peck her, keep her there inside with them protected by the crate, and make sure that she has food and water.

 

[Missbc]

When my hen was attacked last year by a Cooper’s hawk, she had an injury where the comb meets her head and was bleeding a lot. Once I got the bleeding stopped, I used the blue kote. She needed a week in our garage isolation pen to heal so she went out after that.

Since she was the low hen on the pecking order to begin with, I just put her back in her perch at night with the rest of the flock after that first week. She had no integration issues, but that’s probably due to her spot on the pecking order. They didn’t peck the blue kote. That stuff stays on the feathers until they molt

 

[KirbyH]

She is young and seems very healthy and she pretty much lays an egg a day even in the cold weather. She was low hen on the totem pole and seemed to be moving up so maybe she incurred resentment. She's big. We put her in with the silkies for the day because she was so bored and agitated in her small confines. We will put her back in the coop in her cage tonight. Just now looking at the wound, it looks very healed. It is wonderful having the silkies as nanny chickens.

Oh her crate is wire so the bird can see out and the others see in.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sounds like it may be okay. Hopefully they will not pick on her.