This is the first time I have ever had chickens. I have 9 Leghorn hens and this morning I noticed blood on the back on one of my girls. At closer inspection I saw that she had torn the back of her comb loose a bit and it looks like it is turning pink from that point back. The rest is still vivid red. I am so new at tending chickens I don't know if this is something that will heal itself, or what I need to do. Any help will be very welcome! Thanks.
It's really no different from your pulling a big flap of your own skin loose. You can try steri strips or skin glue, or you can snip off the loose piece, depending on how much is flapping around. Treat it much as you would your own wound -- clean it and put a little antibiotic ointment on it, then keep an eye on it, use more ointment each day if needed. A dressing can be hard to do on any animal. If the chicken is outside, keep the flies off the wound; there is an ointment sold for horses that does this (Scat! or something like that.) The only thing to watch for is "caine" drugs, which can kill a chicken. Some ointments and wound cleansers use them for pain. I'm talking about drugs that end in "caine," like cetacaine, benzocaine, etc. Also, chickens may peck another chicken's wound rather severely, so you may have to separate the wounded girl til she heals. There is another product, BluKote, which you can put on the wound to mask the blood; hopefully this will prevent any pecking. It turns the wound (and everything else) purple. The main ingredient is gentian violet, in case you run across a generic version. And,
