How to re-introduce an injured chicken

[boulderchickens]

I have 5 year-old hens that were raised together and never had any problems getting along. Had a fox attack which injured one of the chickens with deep gashes on the flanks. I removed this chicken to treat with antibiotics, etc and it is now mostly healed. When i have tried to re-introduce the chicken the others now immediately attack and peck it.

Any suggestions on how to successfully get the chicken back into the flock??

 

[juniper8209]

I'm in the same boat as you! About a week and a half ago, my Black Star hen, Merribelle, got too close to my dog's food bowl while she was trying to eat. My dog basically head butted her with her snout, but it was enough to knock her silly, and left the side of her face severely bruised and I think a tooth knicked her lower eyelid.

Long story short, she's doing much better with antibiotics and pain meds, but when I put her outside with the others, my rooster started in on her first thing, the little turd! I was THIS close to making him into dumplings...Merribelle is a VERY special chickie to me. Then, after the roo came and went Merribelle's former best bud, Camellia, who is a Golden Comet and a bit bigger than her came and started fighting with her. Then, my Easter Egger decided to hash in on the fun and poor Merribelle was at the mercy of two very angry hens!

What I've done so far...well, first I chased the bullies away with some choice words. Then I picked Merribelle up, coddled her a bit and made sure she hadn't reinjured herself. She was fine except being pretty riled up. I got a small-ish metal dog crate out of the basement--the fold-up kind that you can get at PetSmart--and put some water and food in there. Merribelle is in there at the moment, with me hoping that the others will get used to her again without being able to pick on her.

The thing that baffles me is that Merribelle was near the top of the pecking order and now it seems that all the chickens have forgotten who she is, even though, besides Camellia who grew up with her, she's the oldest hen @ 4yrs old! Merribelle basically mothered the heck out of all of them when they were just little barely-feathered tots...and now for them to treat her like this. I knew chickens were brutal, but jeez!

I'll let ya know how it works.