Injured hen is consuming and defecating OK. What do I do now?

[Animalfisherwoman]

She lost most of her upper beak in a raccoon strike almost three weeks ago. There's a rounded off stump where it used to be, and on observing her outside, this appears to be permanent.

I got her to eat on some cottage cheese. That progressed to just making pullet mash out of feed and hot water.

She has reverted to almost being like...a dog. She will patiently sit out and wait for me, follow me around very obviously. I know the others do it too, but not to this extent.

I have more like a pet relationship with her and I don't sell, so I'm ok with that part continuing. When I see her sticking her head under the fence to be with them, I feel very bad about it. I've opened the gate to some supervised visits, which has been basically feeding behavior on regular pellets, followed by her retreating and looking very depressed about it. Then I feed her.

Three weeks. Am I doing this right? Should I just be putting her in the coop at this point since they traditionally don't feed then?

What can I do better?

 

[Fallenone05]

If the beak had just been split or fractured, it would have repaired naturally. But honestly if she's eating fine now and doing things on her own, I think you've done what you can. There's battery hens that get rehomed to personal homes. They all usually have trimmed beaks to keep from pecking each other and they do just fine with their beaks trimmed. As long as she's staying a healthy weight, eating + drinking, I think you're fine to reintegrate. Just keep an eye on her since she's been out for three weeks. The other hens might not recognize her.