hen beaten up badly - Update - going to cull

[Stevenson]

I went out to make sure that all the chickens were on their roost tonight and one of my wheaten ameraucana hens was missing. I went out to the run and found the hen sitting on the ground. It was raining a bit, so as I went over to it I was telling her that she was pretty stupid for being out in the rain....intending to take her in and put her on the roost. When I got closer I noticed that she had been scalped. I am assuming that one of the other chickens (or more than one) got ahold of her. She has no skin left on her head (can see down to her skull) almost down to her eyes. She is bloodied up pretty badly. I moved her into a grow out pen by herself for the night, but I am not sure she'll make it. She is not a pet, she is a chicken...so it's not the end of the world for me. She is also not one that I had planned on breeding because she doesn't have a beard. That being said, I hate to see her suffer and die.

Extra information: She is about 18 weeks old and is one of six that I have of that age. The rest of my chickens are 22 and 24 weeks old.

Is there anything that I can do for her in the morning if she is still living when I wake up?

 

[Woodschick]

My chicken had an incident with a cat... I put her on electrolytes and antibiotics...she made it. I did put her favorite chicken In a pen next to her so they could see each other and she had company while recovering. I hope she makes it.

I would love to hear about that pumpkin ... I grow giants too. (not as big as yours...yet

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Oh I am so sorry that happened to you! I had seen your post a while back about your attempts to get your flocks all in one place.........

that happened to us a few years back, but we had the advantage of the scalp hanging on by a thread. We washed it, held it back in place and it healed great. Chickens can be pretty resilient.

From then on, we had to pay closer attention and intervene more often, learned the hard way that pecking order morphs and changes as the chickens change, it takes careful stewardship sometimes to notice when their social structure is changing for the worse. There's a lot to learn about social behavior with chickens, I wish you the best, its really hard at first and its so, like

DANG-IT!!! when we make a mistake, it really hurts.

If you're sure your scalp injury was not a predator, your chickens might not accept her even if you get her healed up, if they really did that to her. We had one as a house pet for a few months or they would have killed her, now she's got the "speaker of the house" position in the flock, sort of 3rd in line of dominance behind the "vice president" and the lead rooster. They change. But we have to pay attention to help avoid disaster.

If the lowest on the pecking order ask for help, we are quick to intervene. We make sure they have enough space to get away if they're ganged up on, and we provide seperate pens as needed. I hope your situation works out, you've put a lot of thought into it! You'll find a good way.

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

It reminds me of my stepdad and his new aquarium. He spent months outfitting it, then one day he looked so morose and sad. "They're just in there killing each other" he said. "I watched, and the plants and the castles I gave them are just warships and trenches to them. They gang up on the little ones and EAT THEM. Some are hiding for their lives!

So, I have to think of that with the chickens. So sad, so true.

Here, I treat my spoilt chickens to as much land and space as I have. They have it all. No more bloody scalped chickens here, no sirree.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

This recently happened with one of my pullets. I'm assuming that she injured herself and being white quickly became a target for the others. I separated her immediately, washed her would with betadine solution, applied antibiotic ointment and reapplied the ointment every morning and every evening for several weeks. It healed amazingly quick! I put her little cockerel hatch mate in with her. He never bothered her wound but I know I was taking chances in doing so. If he wasn't so mellow I probably wouldn't have tried it. She definitely was in shock at first so keeping her quiet in a dark place so she had nothing to stress about was important for the first 24 hours. Once she survived through that I felt confident she was going to make it through. Here's a pic of the wound after a couple of days. You can see how quickly it began healing. Hope this gives you hope that your bird will pull through!!

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Oh, yes, and extra nutrition. Feed lots of protein (bugs? Mealworms? nonmedicated chickstarter feed? Whole fat yogurt) helped the wound zip up extra fast. Heals by intention, that is, from the bottom (of the wound)up to new skin.

 

[Stevenson]

6chickens in St. Charles :

I had seen your post a while back about your attempts to get your flocks all in one place.........

Everyone has been living together beautifully over the last week. All the chickens head to the coop at night to roost. I thought I had solved things.

I do have too many roosters now....I will be reducing them (maybe even sooner now).

I didn't see a flap of skin to fold over the skull. It looked like it was completely off. I am not sure what can be done, if anything. I'll probably give her a few days and if things don't get better I'll just cull her.

She was outside of the run area last night when I went to check on things....first one to fly over the 6' fence. They have plenty of area to run around in - 72'x56' run for 36 chickens.

Thanks for the suggestions.​

 

[Stevenson]

Quote:
I haven't grown pumpkins since 2008. The pumpkin in the photo is from 2007 and was my largest. It weighed 678 lbs and took 6th place and the Indiana State Fair Weighoff

 

[Stevenson]

Well, she is still alive, but I think I will just cull her. She is worse shape than I thought she was last night.

 

[Stevenson]

The deed is done. I checked my dates and it was 18.5 weeks old. I decided to skin it rather than pluck it and was surprised at how easy it was to do that. I do know why Ameraucanas aren't considered dual purpose chickens now though....she only weighed 1 lb 3 oz after processing.