Hens Pecked

[lazy gardener]

Where are they, how many birds in your flock? How are they being housed? Exactly how many sq. feet in coop and in run? How old are they? What is the temp where they are being housed? What do you have them on for feed? Protein percent? Mill date of feed? Any other birds? Other details about how it happened?

 

[Mr.Universe]

it looks like thay are in a kiddie pool with a dog crate cage over it to keep them housed. i believe i saw 4 chicks in included pictures and in that space is too small for chicks that size

 

[lazy gardener]

Waiting for response from OP. The photo may be temporary housing for injured birds. Need specifics from OP.

 

[rcookiegirl]

ISOLATE THEM NOW

10-1 one pulled a feather, started to bleed and the rest had a fill day.

start administering antibiotics immediately, somebody else can suggest a proper antibiotic to prevent infections.

clean the wounds thuroughly, go to your loacal drug store and get a very large capacity syringe that can be used with screw on needles, and distilled water, and hydrogen peroxide, might be worth getting some dixie cups as well to make the chicken cones of shame to both protect the areas from pecking but also protect against debris getting in to an extent, some gauze, and as much neosporin as you can muster.

begin with luke warm distilled water and the syringe (used as a flushing tool) and very gently wrinse the areas, check for debris, you will need 2 sets of hands for this as they wont sit still in this area. clean well and mix up 50/50 in a dixie cup distilled and peroxide and use the syring to drip it on the live tissue to clean and dis infect the area. once cleaned apply liberally neosporin to every micron you can to the entire area exposed and open to air and hope for the best. clean the area 2 times a day for the next 3 days and DO NOT LET IT GET DRY keep it slathered with neosporin, use q-tips to apply neosporin and DO NOT SMEAR WITH BARE HANDS you can introduce bacteria to the tube with your finger if used. gloves are fine to smear if you cant get close with the Q-tip, this will also prevent them from chewing it themselves and making it worse, they dont like the taste, atleast my girls dont

you will need to isolate them apart from eachother as well and keep them seperate so they dont keep pecking or chewing. for the size of those girls id say the container you have them in is far too small and they began fighting for space. if one dies, more room for the more dominant chicks. get them in a bigger area.

consider the realization here you may loose those 2 girls, chickens are extremely resilient to injurys and heal from some severe wounds fairly well.

when re acclimating them to the girls if they make it, set up 2 pens in sight of the others and let them see eachother for about a week then get them close enough to interact between fences for about a week. then add them back to the rest and monitor for a few hours to see if they continue to get bullied. dont try to add them back to the rest of the flock without them having all feathers returned to that area or it will happen again as they see it as a wound

heres a pic of my chick that had her butt pecked open after one pulled her back pin feathers out. both when it happened and a week ago. shes mostly healed now with a tiny bit of tissue visible.

The container they are in now is not where it happened, they were in a 14x14 run.

 

[rcookiegirl]

it looks like thay are in a kiddie pool with a dog crate cage over it to keep them housed. i believe i saw 4 chicks in included pictures and in that space is too small for chicks that size

These 3 chicks are only 8 weeks old, and were in a separate space in our very large coop and run, one if the other full size hens broke into it. ( over 30 x30 feet for 6 hens). I put them in this pool once injured while I was treating.

 

[rcookiegirl]

ISOLATE THEM NOW

10-1 one pulled a feather, started to bleed and the rest had a fill day.

start administering antibiotics immediately, somebody else can suggest a proper antibiotic to prevent infections.

clean the wounds thuroughly, go to your loacal drug store and get a very large capacity syringe that can be used with screw on needles, and distilled water, and hydrogen peroxide, might be worth getting some dixie cups as well to make the chicken cones of shame to both protect the areas from pecking but also protect against debris getting in to an extent, some gauze, and as much neosporin as you can muster.

begin with luke warm distilled water and the syringe (used as a flushing tool) and very gently wrinse the areas, check for debris, you will need 2 sets of hands for this as they wont sit still in this area. clean well and mix up 50/50 in a dixie cup distilled and peroxide and use the syring to drip it on the live tissue to clean and dis infect the area. once cleaned apply liberally neosporin to every micron you can to the entire area exposed and open to air and hope for the best. clean the area 2 times a day for the next 3 days and DO NOT LET IT GET DRY keep it slathered with neosporin, use q-tips to apply neosporin and DO NOT SMEAR WITH BARE HANDS you can introduce bacteria to the tube with your finger if used. gloves are fine to smear if you cant get close with the Q-tip, this will also prevent them from chewing it themselves and making it worse, they dont like the taste, atleast my girls dont

you will need to isolate them apart from eachother as well and keep them seperate so they dont keep pecking or chewing. for the size of those girls id say the container you have them in is far too small and they began fighting for space. if one dies, more room for the more dominant chicks. get them in a bigger area.

consider the realization here you may loose those 2 girls, chickens are extremely resilient to injurys and heal from some severe wounds fairly well.

when re acclimating them to the girls if they make it, set up 2 pens in sight of the others and let them see eachother for about a week then get them close enough to interact between fences for about a week. then add them back to the rest and monitor for a few hours to see if they continue to get bullied. dont try to add them back to the rest of the flock without them having all feathers returned to that area or it will happen again as they see it as a wound

heres a pic of my chick that had her butt pecked open after one pulled her back pin feathers out. both when it happened and a week ago. shes mostly healed now with a tiny bit of tissue visible.

Plenty of space for our 6 hens.

 

[rcookiegirl]

Where are they, how many birds in your flock? How are they being housed? Exactly how many sq. feet in coop and in run? How old are they? What is the temp where they are being housed? What do you have them on for feed? Protein percent? Mill date of feed? Any other birds? Other details about how it happened?

They are young and were separated from the older hens.... one of the older hens got in there space. I know why it happened and how to prevent from happening again, I was looking for input on how to treat them.

 

[Quik1th]

Separate them now. They’ll end up pecking each other. Or you could use Blu-Kote. Be warned: it gets on everything.

Use gloves!

 

[rcookiegirl]

Waiting for response from OP. The photo may be temporary housing for injured birds. Need specifics from OP.

Yes, you are correct

 

[rcookiegirl]

Oh gosh ... Do you have a rooster? Our chickens were pecked before we got a rooster and he put a stop to it. I'd definitely separate all the pecked chickens because they will literally get blood thirsty and peck each other more. I'd keep them separate until they heal and maybe get anti infection stuff to put on them and slowly introduce them to the other chickens again, maybe by using a wire fence in between them for a few days and then put them back with the others.

We do not have a rooster, I will look into this!