~HELP~ Chicken with injured tail

[Chicken Chick2014]

there. I went out to my chicken coop today and noticed that my chickens had blood on their beaks. I started looking around, and my favorite sex link, a White rock and yellow buff mix pullet, had her tail almost completely pecked off! My sister and I brought the chicken into the house and isolated it. If anyone can help, i would appreciate it a whole lot!

 

[Wynette]

Oh, goodness! I'm so sorry you're having an issue like this. Cannibalism is never fun to deal with!

Clean them up gently...if you can set them in a large pan (or the sink) with warm water and gently clean the wounds. You can find a spray called Blue Kote at your local feed store or TSC or farm supply store; if the wounds are mostly superficial, spray them down with the Blue Kote and just keep reapplying and gently cleaning until they are healed. DO NOT return them to your pen until they're completely healed, or the others will begin pecking again.

You need to figure out what the cause of the pecking is; some say it could be lack of protein in the diet - throw in some dry cat food for them to up their protein intake, but they shouldn't have a lot. Are they freeranged at all? IF not, try to begin freeranging if possible. Cannibalism is typically caused by overcrowding...if you think this might be the case, find things for them to do and play with to distrct them from pecking each other. I hang a suet feeder in my run and stuff it with fresh, nutritious treats such as leafy greens. I use plastic parts bins and put them around in the run, leaning them up against the side of the pen, etc., so they can run under it and sort of play around it. Move things around...sometimes a large stump or a large tree branch will give them hours of entertainment!

GOOD LUCK!