Help! Hen with sliced comb

[georgiashens]

Hello everyone,

I got my chickens ti free roam, didn’t really look at them and went to give them fresh water. After I finished, I sat down to watch them and noticed willow, my buff sussex had a weird looking head. I went for a closer look and realised that she has somehow tore half of her comb off. There is dried blood on the top of her head and her comb is hanging off. She doesn’t seem to be effected by it at all and isn’t scratching at it. I have cleaned the area with saline and I’m hoping that will help heal it up. I have no idea how it happened, I looked all over the coop and run for dangers and blood but found nothing. I’m pretty sure the mesh on her run is too small to stick her head through but it really does look like it due to the way it’s cut. I will add some pictures but please note that this is before I cleaned it. I would really appreciate some advice. Thank you!

 

[Lillith37]

Can you take a picture of the mesh as well? I’ve seen chickens get their heads stuck in wire mesh and it‘s not good.

I think keeping the wound clean is all you can do… you could slather some medical honey over it or spray regularly with vetericyn to help it heal.

Make sure the others aren’t pecking at her and making it worse.

 

[georgiashens]

Can you take a picture of the mesh as well? I’ve seen chickens get their heads stuck in wire mesh and it‘s not good.

I think keeping the wound clean is all you can do… you could slather some medical honey over it or spray regularly with vetericyn to help it heal.

Make sure the others aren’t pecking at her and making it worse.

Thank you for your response, I will get vetericyn asap. I let them out for free roam and didn’t see any evidence of them pecking at it but if I do, I will separate them until it heals up. The mesh is 2.5 x 2.5 cm. Do you think she could have fit her head through it? I thought it would’ve been too small

 

[Lillith37]

Maybe you could check along the mesh to see if there are any broken areas or bits along the edges where it’s peeling up? I agree 2.5cm is probably too small but I guess you never know, maybe she got half her head in and got stuck. Otherwise she might have gotten caught on something free ranging or could a predator have attacked her?

 

[georgiashens]

Maybe you could check along the mesh to see if there are any broken areas or bits along the edges where it’s peeling up? I agree 2.5cm is probably too small but I guess you never know, maybe she got half her head in and got stuck. Otherwise she might have gotten caught on something free ranging or could a predator have attacked her?

I have checked but I can’t find any broken bits but maybe she did stick just enough to trap the comb. They don’t free roam unless I’m monitoring them as we don’t live in the country side and there’s a lot of predators and the slight possibility of them escaping even though I chicken proofed it as much as I could. They were in their run all day and when I came back from work, that’s when I let them out and saw it

 

[Lillith37]

Hopefully it was a freak accident and she heals up well. The bit that is hanging off might go black and fall off.

 

[georgiashens]

Hopefully it was a freak accident and she heals up well. The bit that is hanging off might go black and fall off.

I really hope that it heals up well and doesn’t cause to much discomfort. She doesn’t seem to be distressed or in pain. In a way, I do hope that it falls off to prevent it catching in anything in the future. Do chicken’s normally heal well with this sort of injury? I thought it was really bad at first but I think she will be okay

 

[MysteryChicken]

Had this happen to a Buff Orpington hen. She got into a nasty hen fight. Ended up having to dub the dangling half of her comb.

 

[georgiashens]

Had this happen to a Buff Orpington hen. She got into a nasty hen fight. Ended up having to dub the dangling half of her comb.

I have heard of people doing that but I don’t think i would be comfortable with doing that, these are my first hens and i would be afraid to cause more damage

 

[Rose the Legbar]

My pullet also had a pretty bad freak accident and her comb was almost completely torn off. She looked like she had a snood. I used a new razor and cut the rest off and used wet cornstarch to dab on the wound to keep it from bleeding. I just kept her to herself in a dog carrier and used saline to clean it. She healed enough to be put back with her flockmates in a week!