How long will it take to heal? Help please.

[Moochie]

I'm sorry but I'm not able to take pictures.
My rooster Charlie has a wound on his tail, which is preventing the growth of tail feathers. The hens have been pecking at it and eating it. I've had him seperated since Thursday last week.
When we got him last year around Oct., he was in moult and his tail area was bare and really red (testosterone?). I'm not sure when the girls started picking at it, I've never seen the wound because he will not let me touch him. Now most of his feathers have grown, including his saddle feathers which also gets in the way of picture taking. Every once in awhile I saw blood on the sidewalk of my front yard, I knew it was from Charlie.

My questions are : How long will it take to heal? When it does heal should we wait for the tail feathers to grow back or let him out of the cage? Will the feathers grow back?
I heard it can take months for feathers to grow back, if he stays in the cage for months how will the flock react?

Please give me any information you can. Thank you.

 

[Judy]

The tail area might have been red when you got him because he was being pecked or injured somehow where you got him. Depends how red, of course. Yours might have simply been tempted by the appearance of the area.

You really need to get your hands on him and examine the area. If it's still an open wound, start using an antibiotic ointment like Neosporin. or BluKote, something to control germs. If the skin is intact he should be able to rejoin the group with some BluKote on the area to mask it. Feathers take forever but he only needs to be free or any wound. I suspect there is no wound any more if feathers are growing, but you should make sure. Chickens tend to heal pretty fast as far as intact skin goes. Yes, feathers take a lot longer.

Sounds like your real problem is handling him. You might try wearing oven mitts, insulated cold weather gloves, or welder's gloves. They are quiet when you hang them upside down, but don't keep them that way for long as it compromises breathing. Grab him around the wings and tuck him under your arm like a football, then just hold him til he calms down. Then I would lay him on his back on my thighs while seated, which also calms them.

The problem with returning him to the flock is this makes him the lowest in the pecking order. It would be very good to figure out who is your worst bully and separate that chicken first before returning him to the flock. Keep the bully our for a few days, and then the bully will be at the bottom of the pecking order when returned.

Good luck!

 

[Moochie]

Thank you!
I don't think I have any bullies... Well it's the older girls occasionally pecking the pullets or one of the other roosters pecking a pullet that's not theirs. Like the cochin roo will peck at the new hampshires.

I looked at his tail area as much as I could today and I think I saw a scab. Charlie didn't have any wounds on his tail area when we got him, it was just red bare skin. Not quite light pink but not brick red either. Just red. When we go to the feed store I'll see if I can get some BluKote if not I'll look around for neosporin.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
By bullies I'm talking about the ones that do the pecking. Not a good choice of words, perhaps, but anyway. You MIGHT be able to get away with putting him back with a scab if it's got BluKote on it but I'd sure monitor it closely, one good peck and that scab will be bloody. I'd still remove the worst pecker(s) first and isolate him/them for a while. Chickens really do turn into cannibals pretty quickly.

I'm not trying to be a jerk or fuss at you or anything like that, really. Just trying to save you some real problems with your little dinosaurs.

 

[Moochie]

It's fine

So does the BluKote give any potential peckers a bad taste or something?