Help! Bleeding head wound (Pictures added)

[erinnyes]

I have no idea what happened to my hen. The flock I have has always been very docile and no one picks feathers or anything. Today I noticed that a water dish my chickens sometimes drink out of had blood on it... and later, noticed a very bloody-headed chicken. I can't tell if someone bit her comb or if she somehow injured herself, but she is still bleeding a lot and I have no first aid knowledge. How do I stop the bleeding?!

 

[BamaSilkies]

you can use plain flour or baking powders in a pinch to stop bleeding.

 

[BamaSilkies]

Baking powders not baking soda.

 

[BrattishTaz]

You can use flour, cornstarch, or sugar to stop the bleeding. Try posting pics once you get the bleeding stopped so we can help you determine further treatment.
I would only use sugar if I didn't have the other on hand.

 

[BamaSilkies]

Quote:
Thanks I forgot about cornstarch. I didnt know you could use sugar too. Learn something new every day.

 

[erinnyes]

Thank you for the advice! I will try using cornstarch or flour if I have either (I'm pretty sure I must at least have one of those) Also, here are pictures:

Sorry they're not very good, she's in my room and I'm keeping it dark so that she'll be calm. I wanted to keep an eye on her tonight. Although the blood on her feathers is coagulated, there is fresh blood coming from her head somewhere and it hasn't stopped in the past hour since I found her. I thought about cleaning it but I am also worried she might not need the added stress of a wet head.

 

[erinnyes]

I've added flour to her head. She was not thrilled about the process, but I will check her again soon and see if there's more blood leaking.

 

[erinnyes]

Update again! Her bleeding (or at least most of it) seems to have stopped from a slow flow to maybe one or two drops. I've added more flour.

She does seem very uncomfortable, though. She keeps flicking her head, which WAS spraying little drops of blood everywhere but is now doing nothing. Is this because her head hurts? Is there something I can do to help that, or is she just going to have to tough it out?

 

[chicken grandma]

Could she have been hit by a hawk? There could be a deep puncture wound if that is what happened.

 

[erinnyes]

Very possible, but since I can't find the wound and am afraid to poke around I can't really say. Unfortunately if that's true then there's nothing I can do about it, since the flock is free range and there's no way to hawk-proof as far as I know.

Is tomorrow too soon to wash the blood off? I do have a space where I can isolate her but I'd like her to rejoin the flock as soon as she can to prevent any reintroduction problems.