Hen Bleeding From The Head

[scottewine]

This morning when I checked the chickens I noticed a bit of blood around the comb of one of my leghorn pullets. She is is in a coop/run with 13 other leghorns/RIR/etc. (all pullets of the same age, no roosters) The bleeding is getting worse over the course of the day and it seems the others are pecking at her. What should I do, separate her from the others for awhile? Since they are all the same age I do not think it is a pecking order thing. She otherwise seems healthy and is walking around and eating like the others, just gets bothered once in a while by the others.

Thanks in Advance,

Scott

 

[hennible]

Separate her until she's healed up, they'll keep picking at it because they like the blood. Pecking order is probably starting to develop but maybe it started with an accident....

 

[scottewine]

Thanks, I will separate her. While observing her I noticed she scratched her head a few times, anything I can do to limit/stop that?

 

[hennible]

An elizabethan collar made from light cardboard.... Like the cones vets put on dogs.
Might be over kill, but that's all I can think of.

 

[scottewine]

When I separated her I inspected her head and comb and could not see where the blood was coming from, there is nothing major that I can see, where would it normally be coming from? The base of the comb?

 

[Sarevan]

Flour sprinkled on it will help it clot. Cover eyes and spray the injury with bluekote. She will have a bluish purple comb but will cover up blood and wound. Seperate her but in the coop in a dog crate so she hopefully won't lose place in pecking order and get harassed more when returned into flock.

Check the wound for a foreign body, I found debris (straw) in a comb injury once that kept it open to keep it bleeding. The leghorns I had were bullies and would harass anyone that had any speck of blood.

 

[hennible]

If it's hard to see anything I bet the base of the comb, it's so red it would be hard to see a wound. Probably just a little nick... I doubt you need a collar/cone if you can't see it should be small and heal fast.

 

[scottewine]

I will have a blue headed leghorn for a while, but she is back to 100% with no signs of bleeding.

 

[hennible]

that's great

 

[Sarevan]

Yup that a punky blue kote chicken, bit early for Halloween may be normal color by then. Glad she is better.

When I have to spray a tricky small area, I use a paperplate, spray a puddle on the plate and apply it with qtips. On chicks I spray a papertowel and squish the towel on the chick's injury.

IF I get any on myself from a hole in glove, I use a kitchen dish scrubber, the kind with the rough on one side sponge on the other and dawn. Apply the soap to hand rub it in, let it soak for a minute then scrub with the rough to remove it from skin ridges on hands.