Comb injury - how do I treat this?

[ThatCrazyChickenGirl]

Hi!

We have a couple of roosters, each in charge of their own flock with runs separated by a chain link fence. The Roos like to fight through the fence, and I’m used to our silkie/Cochin mix getting small black scans on his comb from being pecked by the other rooster. Those always seemed clean and so I let them heal on their own.

But now we have this! I think most of it is dried blood that ran from a couple cuts.

Should I treat it? Clean the wound?

 

[HuskerHens18]

Personally I would just clean it up and keep him away from the other rooster. Otherwise he'll go right for the comb all over again and get a fresh taste of blood, which in my opinion makes the fighting worse.

 

[coach723]

Honestly, I'd just leave it alone and it will probably be fine. If it becomes a pecking target you could put some blu-kote on it, but it probably won't need it. If you can run a length of 1/2" hardware cloth down the fence line that would prevent them from being able to get at each other, though they may batter themselves against it still. I have hardware cloth in my broody/nursery/integration run for that very reason and so they can't accidentally slip through the fence when they are tiny, I just attach it to the fence with cable ties.