How long to leave an injured hen in isolation

[gavada]

We recently lost 4 of our 5 chickens to a fox attack. The remaining chicken tried to coop up with a turkey hen on her nest after the attack and was packed pretty badly. She had roughly a half dollar sized hole in her skin (you could see muscle). We brought her into our screened off back porch and treated the wound. She now seems to be getting over her shock and is finally standing and eating and drinking again. She even clucks around a bit if we're messing with the wound trying to apply more antibiotic.

We're getting three more hens today and I'm just wondering how long I should keep the wounded one isolated before introducing her to the new birds. The birds we're getting will only be about 2 months old.

Our coop is small as the birds used to mostly free range and would just sleep in the coop (this is unfortunately where the fox got them, not while they were free ranging). So it may be hard to section off an area of the coop for her to be with the other birds but unable to be pecked by them.

I know chickens are social so I hate having her with out any other chickens but I also don't want them to pick at her wound. She still has the gaping hole but it seems to be slowly healing and so far no signs of infection (chickens sure are tough little critters).

Any ideas how long I should keep her isolated?

 

[hiddenflock]

I would wait until it looks like the wound has not ever been their (leaving only some faint scaring), and after the chicken is back to normal.
Good luck!