could a roo's spur slice her slide?

[Vickir73]

I don't have a picture of it (I discovered it last night and it was already too dark for a pic) and I'm at work so I can't go take one now. However, last night when I went to check on my broody hens and lock everyone up, I discovered one of my hens (who was fine this past weekend) sitting in a next box (this was unusual for this particular hen) so I picked her up and put her on the roost. She seemed to be favoring one leg/side so up inspection, it looks like her side has been sliced open down along the side of her body. When I first opened up her feathers I just thought it was her wing I was picking up, but it wasn't. This has become one of the favorite hens (her back is bare from the mounting) and I was going to be separating her and a few others this weekend to give them a break, but it appears I might have been too late.

Could I roo's spur have caused a type of injury like this or did something else get ahold of her? The skin area surrounding the injury appears to be turning black, which I know is not a good thing, so I will probably put her down tomorrow, but am wondering if I need to go ahead and trim my roos' spurs as I haven't seen this before.

 

[CMV]

It is a common injury from roos. Before you put the hen down, show us a pic of her. Chickens can heal from some nasty wounds. I promise you, I won't gild the lily- if she needs to be put down, I'll tell you. These injuries are really common, and usually heal up well, though.

 

[Vickir73]

I'm doing more reading and from her injuries it sounds like it was roo. Would anyone like to chime in? If I trim the roos' spurs will this help or would this mean that the roo is too aggressive and I should cull him (he's not a show bird, so it wouldn't kill me to have to do so, but otherwise he is a good roo).

 

[Vickir73]

 

[Vickir73]

 

[hdowden]

ive never heard of culling a rooster because of a mating injury due to long spurs. trim the spurs little by little as they have blood flow and you can kill him if you cut to far to fast from him bleeding out. i dont see any reason to cull the hen ive seen worse and the hen completely heal up with no problems

 

[SarniaTricia]

My roo did the same thing to one of his hens...
I took her in the house, washed her out really good with "dawn"
I peroxided her, let her sit in the tub a bit on an old towel to dry off...
Packed her with neosporin and put her in the brooder coop with the babies....

I trimmed the spurs a bit and he is due for another trimming.

She is healing nicely, but I have to keep the roo away.
He really likes her... I think because she is very passive and squats instead of running or avoiding him.

She will be joining a new home if I can't increase his flock to take the pressure off her.
(I tried to reintroduce her with a saddle, but the other girls beat her up!)
There are a couple other adults in the brooder coop, so she is not alone.

good luck.
Patricia

 

[speckledhen]

I find it isn't usually the spurs but the toenails they grip with that rip them open. Either way, I've had to deal with three hens with torn sides until I got saddles with flank flaps, in addition to blunting the toenails of the roosters.

 

[SarniaTricia]

Thank you Specked Hen
I did not think of the nails!
He`s getting a petti for sure!

 

[CMV]

Boy, that injury doesn't look good, does it? How big is it? Is the color truly that awful greenish shade or is that just the pic? Does it smell?