Morning, Yesterday my little girl's most favorite and only bantam hen was attacked by a hawk. The hen is doing pretty well. Eating and drinking just fine. She's sassy and is walking around trying to chase the cardinals away from HER hen house. Normal behavior for her. She lost a lot of feathers on her back in the attack. Some of the pores are still weeping a bit. I cleaned them up yesterday and thought they looked dry enough and applied blue kote. She also ended up with what appears to be one puncture wound on her wing. It was small so I cleaned it and also blue koted it. I applied more blue kote to her back this morning. However, the small puncture wound has split open and now appears to be an inch long. It is the thin skin where the wing bends. Any ideas on closing it or treating it? There are a lot of feathers there so trying to butterfly it closed might be a challenge. I don't even know if that's possible on a chicken!? I have her separated from the other chickens, into her own pen today, to prevent her from dusting and flapping about- chasing cardinals. I am going to start her on anti-biotics today but I am not sure how long to give them. I could wrap the wing to keep her from moving it... but trying to close the wound? My concern is that the skin there is so thin that messing with it too much is going to make the wound worse. I haven't had this particular issue before and I'm hoping those of you with some experience could help me out. Ideas anyone? Thanks, Britta
I think what you are doing sounds good, I have heard not to close a superficial wound. it may be from her flapping her wings helping to open up the wound, is she isolated from the others? she needs to be, if you can put her in a smaller area so she is limited in her movement. she should do fine with alittle help from you. good luck