Long term injury from rooster??

[bwaak]

Hi chicken experts, hoping you can give me some advice as I'm not very experienced with chicken injuries!

In the fall we had a rooster who was over breeding the hens so I sent him away. This was his favorite hen. I thought with time it would heal up but it's been a few months and looks the same. Since about Feb 1st she was likely bred by a different younger rooster who came with my hatched pullets, he was sold earlier in the week. In the time between having the two roosters it wasn't healing. What should I do? I don't see any other hens pecking it but it definitely hasn't started to heal since the initial injury. I've bought some saddles to put on any favorite hens in the future if we get another accidental rooster but my goal is to find cockerals new homes before being intergrated into the flock. Thanks for your expertise!

 

[sourland]

That probably will not improve until she goes through a molt. You will need to monitor closely to assure that flock mates do not feather peck/pluck blood feathers.

 

[bwaak]

That probably will not improve until she goes through a molt. You will need to monitor closely to assure that flock mates do not feather peck/pluck blood feathers.

She is molting now, how will molting improve the injury?

 

[DonyaQuick]

She is molting now, how will molting improve the injury?

I could be misinterpreting the photos, but it doesn't look like the skin is very badly damaged, just a bit irritated/inflamed, maybe with a little scab on the end of one elbow. By molting she will shed those little broken feather stubs and grow new feathers to protect the skin again.

 

[bwaak]

I could be misinterpreting the photos, but it doesn't look like the skin is very badly damaged, just a bit irritated/inflamed, maybe with a little scab on the end of one elbow. By molting she will shed those little broken feather stubs and grow new feathers to protect the skin again.

That makes sense, to me it's interesting that she's had it for so long with no improvement, and now that she's had a little molt it hasn't seemed to improve. Haven't seen anyone pecking it or anything

 

[DonyaQuick]

That makes sense, to me it's interesting that she's had it for so long with no improvement, and now that she's had a little molt it hasn't seemed to improve. Haven't seen anyone pecking it or anything

Some hens can take really long time to molt fully. This winter I had a couple do the fast 4 week hard molt and two others that just kind of dropped a feather here and there for a lot longer. The gradual molters took a lot longer for any damaged feather areas to get sorted out. Unfortunately it could be a very long time indeed if those feathers that got damaged were brand new at the time the damage occurred.