picking following minor injury

[sharol]

About 6 weeks ago, my little dog got hold of my EE and took off some feathers around her neck. No wound or bleeding, just lost feathers. They appeared to be broken off not pulled out. She was completely freaked out, but not injured and has continued to lay regularly.

A couple of the other chickens are pecking at the feathers around the site. There is still no blood, and the feathers don't appear to be being pulled out, just bitten off, but the original site is getting a lot larger with a lot more skin showing.

I have upped the protein in their feed (2 of them are molting) to 20% (flock raiser) and they get cottage cheese and vegetable treats in the evening each day. They free range most of the day in the fenced yard, so they are getting lots of grasshoppers and forage. I've eliminated the evening light in the coop so that once they are in there it is dimmer. They have shell and Egg Maker available in the coop and flock raiser in their run.

My concern is that they will draw blood and she will become a target for serious pecking.

I got pine tar yesterday (that stuff is nasty, isn't it?), and I can apply it to the featherless area if that is the right way to go. someone suggested Vick Vaporub and someone else wrote about Blu Kote (which I have). what would be the best deterrent to the pecking issue?

 

[chi-rn]

Remove her from the flock until she is well on her way to healing.

 

[sharol]

She isn't really injured. She is fine except for the missing feather thing. The original event was 6 weeks ago, and the only remaining problem is the feather picking. The others aren't drawing blood or pulling feathers, or at least it doesn't appear they are. It started a week or so after the initial confrontation with the dog.

My question was whether to use pine tar, blu kote or something else to shield the area to let the feathers come in. I'd like them to leave her alone, but she is getting along fine with them until bedtime, so I don't want to create additional problems by separating them.

Quote: