I am making it up as I go. Please advize.

[Katiedid]

My hen has been having her vent pecked by the others. It isn't prolapsed but its swollen and a little bloody from being pecked. She's missing feathers. What started out with one hen pecking her was leading to others doing it, so I knew I had to do something before they killed her. I can't free range full time because of neighbors. I set my little girl up in the dog run, but realized that since it's a hundred degrees out, I needed to provide coverage. (We haven't used the run yet, so it wasn't shaded.) I covered the run with a tarp when the winds set in. I watched for a half hour as my little girl cowered inside her dog crate and cried when the winds banged the tarp around. She was clearly terrified. I was afraid she was going to have a heart attack. So I brought the chicken, in the crate into my guest room. (Definitely going to skip this story when my MIL comes to visit.) Then I worried that she would go into shock because it's about 75 in the house. She has food, fresh water with electrolytes and a pretty small dog crate. There's room for her to turn around and sit and walk a few steps, but it's not large. She isn't making noise and seems calm. She's eaten a little and drank a little. Assuming the winds last a few days, will she be OK in the little crate? I don't really have anything else.

Am I doing the right things? Do I wait until her vent is completely healed? Has this happened to anyone else?

 

[CMV]

You are absolutely doing the right things. Her vent needs to be completely healed or at the very least covered in Blukote to hide any injuries/wounds. Pecking is not uncommon in birds. They are very tough on each other.

 

[Katiedid]

Thank you for responding! I don't have many hens, so they've become pets and this is our first injury situation. She doesn't seem thrilled with the amount of space in the dog crate, but at least she's cool and safe from being pecked. Any other suggestions are very welcome. I'd really like to get her outside into the dog run where she can at least move around and act like a chicken, but she just seemed so miserable there that I don't have the heart to put her back out there while the winds are so bad.

Any other advice or comments are appreciated.

 

[Srcher]

One of my chicks had the same problem, let her sport the blue, works!

 

[Katiedid]

I think this may have happened because of heat stress, which I'm working on, but also because this hen lays eggs with blood on the shell pretty frequently. She seems healthy beyond this and is only about a year old, but I'm not sure what I can do to stop the bloody egg situation. She generally lays one large egg a day, occaisionally two and while there is not always a blood spot, it's pretty frequent. I've never observed her to have prolapse. She was wormed with wazine before she started laying. I feed layer feed, scratch and alf alfa on Sundays. They supervised free range about an hour a day, but the pickings are pretty slim in the desert. None of the other hens lay bloody eggs. I've used hemeroid cream on her just to sooth the area but if it is helping, its a pretty short term solution.

I think I'll try to blukoat her bottom and reintroduce her tomorrow, or at least get her back into the dog run so she can move and be free. Any other suggestions are appreciated.