Lowest pullet attacked by hens

JoanieShrubs

Chirping
Aug 18, 2022
53
47
81
Brisbane, Australia
Hi friends,
I have ten chickens living in a large covered run in four prefab coops (with ventilation panels added) so there are 2 or 3 birds in each house and they roost with their closest friends / age group with whom they entered the flock.

I’m raising three Sicilian Buttercup pullets who are gentle and submissive, they’re the youngest birds and the bottom of the pecking order. Last night my darling angel children 😏 went up to sort out the coops before bedtime, making sure everyone was sleeping in the right house and locking them up, but they overlooked a pullet who was in the wrong coop and roosting with the 1yo hens who are a bonded clique of 3 and don’t much like ‘outsiders.’

When i went up this morning to let them out of their coops into the run, the buttercup was cowering and bloody and injured, they’ve pecked and damaged her fancy comb (which was just growing in, waah) and she has a torn beak and nostril.

She’s now in a quiet hospital crate indoors, has had diluted hydrogen peroxide spray and neosporin on the wounds. She ate a soft breakfast. I couldn’t get any pain relief into her as her beak’s too sore to touch. i can’t afford a vet at present so will manage it at home with OTC meds and care.

Okay so the plan is: keep her in iso until she’s over the shock, then try to find a blue wound product (we’re in Australia) to conceal the wounds and reintegrate her, correct? How long should I keep her inside? I’m not so worried about it happening again in the run or the yard where they free range all day, she and her sisters are used to dodging the head hens. It was a one-off accident, although it must have been traumatic for the poor girl to be trapped in there with the Mean Girls.

Just making sure I have her care and recovery covered? Please and thankyou for your time and advice 🙏
 
Last edited:
Pics are a bit gory, sorry!
 

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Could you get some pictures of her wounds? Stop the peroxide, since it prevents healing, but you can continue the antibiotic ointment twice a day. If you can get gentian violet from a pharmacy, that can be used to hide a wound. It is the active ingredient in BluKote and other wound bluing agents. Apply it with a QTip.
 
If your wire dog crate will fit into your coop or run, she can be put back in with her flock soon, so that she won’t be gone so long as to make it harder to fit back in.
 

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