Help! My girl has a torn comb!

[niccichick]

Hi All;

This is NicciChick again. I went out to free range my girls for the afternoon and found one of my Buffies frozen in fear at the door of the coop, refusing to leave. She has a large tear in the base of her comb at the back of her head. It must have happened awhile ago because she had dried blood all over her comb and down her face and around her nostrils! My Mom and I cleaned her up using hydrogen peroxide, cotton balls, and cotton swabs. We then slathered on lots of neosporin and have isolated her in a dog kennel in the garage so the rest of the flock cannot get at her until she is more healed up.

I went online to the forum and found posts saying that I should consider dubbing her comb. Yikes! Gotta say that this really grosses me out. Her comb is still intact and looks pink. How long should I wait before considering this drastic measure? We also discovered one of our blacks has a tiny peck in hers as well! So, I think we've got a bully. Any ideas on how to discourage this behavior once we figure out who it is?

We have 4 laying boxes for 10 hens; 2 up in the sleeping box and 2 down under it so everyone has choices of where to go to lay. They use them all, but tend to want to gang around whatever box one is in and watch each other lay, often pecking at each other and forcing the laying one to exit the box! Doesn't make sense with 4 nesting boxes; do I have too many? Am I causing this behavior by giving them too many laying choices?

My girls are not quite 6 months old and have been laying for only 2 weeks now, although 5 of them are now consistently laying one egg each day and the other 5 are constantly squatting and screaming so they are not far off of joining the laying brigade.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks so much.

NicciChick

 

[ForgottenGlen]

Can you post a picture?

 

[chickensbythesea]

If it still looks attached, I'd leave it be and watch it for a few days. I've seen some pretty brutal wounds from dominance issues, and they've healed up with neosporin and isolation.

As for resolving the behavior, remove the jerk for a few days to a week, it will lower her a little in the pecking order and she'll be less of a bossy pecker.

 

[niccichick]

Thanks. I've got the one in the garage and just discovered another bloody girl! We've got to figure this out! Yikes. I'll have to triage lady #2 in our house since our dog crate is being used already. Is this normal to have this behavior show up so suddenly? Is it related to beginning to lay eggs?

NicciChick

 

[niccichick]

I'll post a picture of my girl in the garage tomorrow morning when I can get a photo of her in good lighting. The one that we just discovered was an unfortunate accident we've concluded. My brother was helping put the girls away for the night and one of them did not want to go in her sleeping box and latched onto the side wall of the coop wire with her beak and he lifted her up and it lifted flap on her beak so it bled a little. We've cleaned it and put a little liquid bandaid on it to seal it and help the flap lay flat to heal. She seems fine and is nestled in on her roosting pole with her sisters now.

Thanks everyone,
NicciChick

 

[dawg53]

You might want to check this thread out:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/641744/crown-ripped-off-graphic-pic
I think your hen will be ok in time. Sounds like you're doing the proper treatment and supportive care.

 

[niccichick]

Okay;

I was able to get my girl with the torn comb to be still long enough to get a clear picture of her. Here she is two days after the incident. The black crusty line seems to be scab material. Her comb looks red and healthy both above and below the horizontal tear. I, once again, have applied a liberal amount of hydrogen peroxide and am putting a coating of blukote on this time to help prevent infection. She is feisty and wants out of the dog crate and back with the flock. How long should I keep her isolated? Should I wait until her comb is completely healed?

Thanks,
NicciChick

 

[kiddobear39]

I had one of my girls with a torn comb that the rooster did and what I did to clean it out was I took stuff you use to clean contacts out with and then I put some neosporin on it and then I repeted it everyday till I saw it was better and it was better in about a weeks time and it did not evern look like it was torn at all she heal up pretty good

 

[AlienChick]

Fortunately, chickens heal very fast.
Looks like your girl will be fine.
One of my hens had a 2x4 come down on her comb and slice it in half.
I cleaned the wound and allowed it to heal.
It's still broken in half but she's fine.
We named her Broken Arrow.

 

[niccichick]

Thanks so much. She is back with the flock now, standing up for herself quite bossily I might say. She is laying again, an egg a day, and her comb looks good.

NicciChick