Injured hen

[eworms]

One of my pullets (9 weeks, Austra White) has dried blood on her head and a toenail that is bleeding. I didn't probe carefully and didn't find the wound, but something is there. The toenail looks like the tip broke off. Other than that, she seems fine. I had a heck of a time catching her, even with help from my eight year old who is uncannily good at catching chickens.

Do y'all think she requires any especial care? I assume that the wound on or near her head has scabbed over since the blood is all dry. I've seen toenail injuries like that once before and I think it happened while she was fleeing from us.

I'm not sure how she sustained the head wound though. That's something I'll have to watch for. I doubt it was predator related since I don't have any dead or missing chickens, which leaves pecking by other birds or some sort of self-inflicted accident.

P.S. When I uploaded the picture, I noticed what looks like something in her eye. I'll try to give that a closer look next time I'm out there.

 

[LaFleche]

Check her again very thoroughly for any puncture wounds as they are easily overlooked.

Then gently clean all the blood as it can and will entice her flock mates to peck at her wound which often leads to cannibalism.

Disinfect her wound and spray with BluKote so no more red will be attracting the flock mates. You can spray several others with a light touch of BluKote in the same area so she will not stick out.

Check her wound daily for possible swelling and infection.

ETA: For the bleeding toe nail you can use styptic powder or corn starch.

Let us know how she gets along.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

Exactly this advice. I use blue kote no matter what else I might use under it, to make sure there is no "Red" wound for the other chickens to see and go after. They can turn a nothing into a huge something in no time.....

 

[eworms]

I don't have any blukote, but will pick some up the next time I'm at a feed store. Hopefully tomorrow.

I cleaned her up as well as I could and did my best to pat her dry. Didn't find an obvious wound, though I found what looked like a missing feather or two near the bloodiest spot and smeared some abx ointment in the area.

I had hoped to isolate her in a large box with a window cut out and wire over it, but she fairly threw her head and feet at the wire for several minutes before I took her out to prevent further injury.

 

[LaFleche]

I had hoped to isolate her in a large box with a window cut out and wire over it, but she fairly threw her head and feet at the wire for several minutes before I took her out to prevent further injury.

Yes, they can be very unruly patients sometimes and to prevent them from ramming against wire tops it is best to cover the wire with a semi dark towel while at the same time cutting a multitude of holes in the sides of the cardbord box to allow proper air circulation and some light.

 

[eworms]

The Austra White seems to be doing well. What I wasn't able to clean yesterday, is turning brown and the others seem to be leaving her alone.

Unfortunately, now I've got another pullet (Ancona) with an identical looking injury. I did a head count a few minutes ago and every chicken is still accounted for. Any ideas what may be causing this? I'll spend some time in the back yard tomorrow so hopefully I'll see it happen, if another one has the same problem.

It took longer than I had hoped, but I got some Blu-kote today. I can give that a try tomorrow too, especially if I observe any pecking.

 

[LaFleche]

Check for any nail or piece of wire sticking out, and also for holes where they may stick their head into to rech for something on the other side of the fence.

 

[eworms]

Well, both birds have recovered and no others have been injured. The Austra White has a brown spot on her neck, but isn't getting picked on. I did some looking around and have addressed a couple possible issues, but couldn't find any definitive proof of what happened.

I do suspect that it happened while my daughter was in their run. After I forbade her catching them, no further injuries occurred. When it comes time to harvest the extra cockerels, I plan to have her help me catch them and watch for new injuries to see if I can identify what happened.

Thank you all for sharing your wisdom and experience. I also picked up a can of blu-kote that I'll keep handy for the next bird to get injured.

 

[LaFleche]

When it comes time to harvest the extra cockerels, I plan to have her help me catch them

Grabbing them one by one from the roost at night/in the dark will be much easier and their meat will be more tender as there will be no release of stress hormones (adrenalin) from previous chasing them around.