Please help! Something attacked my hen!

[ANiceKaren]

Looks good. Give that wound a few more days and she should be as good as new. If you keep Mildred away from her, you don't need to worry about re-injury.

@Wyorp Rock, I believe, advised keeping the abuser separated from the flock for several days. This will allow your victim to develop confidence and the flock to establish a pecking order without the abuser. Then re-introduce the abuser. She should have had an attitude adjustment and not go back to her evil ways. If she bullies again, remove her for several days and repeat. I would think 3 to 5 days each time. Ideally, I think she should be in a situation where she can see the flock but not actually interact with them physically. Wr call this a "see-no-touch" setup. Of course be sure she has feed, water, oyster shell and grit. Good luck! You can do this. And of course if all your efforts fail she will make lovely dumplings.

Well.. got home from work and let Lilac freerange for a bit with her friends… turned my head for a minute and she decides to take a dust bath!! The wound is a few days old at this point.. 4 days and while there are no feathers on it’s pretty much closed up? Just white flesh.. no red or bloody areas.. I cleaned it again with saline.. is this going to cause infection? I’m hoping the fact she wanted to dirt bath is a good sign? Ugh…

 

[azygous]

Chickens need to dirt bathe regularly even more than humans need to shower. They depend on that to control external parasites and to condition their feathers, which are important for regulating body heat. Rinsing the wound promptly as you did is all you need to do. Bacteria had no time to do any mischief in that short period.

 

[ANiceKaren]

Chickens need to dirt bathe regularly even more than humans need to shower. They depend on that to control external parasites and to condition their feathers, which are important for regulating body heat. Rinsing the wound promptly as you did is all you need to do. Bacteria had no time to do any mischief in that short period.

That’s wonderful news! Thank you! It made sense to me too! Acting like a normal chicken is a good sign that she is healing!

 

[SmiYa0126]

Yay! So glad she's better! Definitely don't worry about the dust bath, she'll be fine

 

[ANiceKaren]

Yay! So glad she's better! Definitely don't worry about the dust bath, she'll be fine

Thank you

 

[ANiceKaren]

This wound will likely heal from the margins (outer edges) inward. You may not notice it at first, but the wound will gradually get smaller and smaller as healthy flesh grows inward from the edges. One day you will suddenly realize how small it has become, and after that it will continue to close up rapidly.

Hi there! Was hoping for an opinion and/or advice on my Lilac. She is still healing. Wound is now 5 days old. She is very timid. Spending a decent amount of time in coop or back of run but also enjoying freeranging. She eats and drinks..and walks around yard normally with breaks. She also layed an egg today! However tonight is first night she didn’t roost… I don’t think she can jump into coop or onto roost however she has been doing that every night since her injury. Is this a bad sign? I continue to clean wound 2x a day with saline and vetyricin, neosporin. The wound has no bad smells. Here it is at day 5. She dust bathed yesterday. I’ve done 4 days so far of antibiotics. I worry something is deeper in this wound as when it happened it looked so deep down her side. The wound is deeper than it appears I just don’t want to pull too hard because I think skin is coming back together… I flushed with saline. If I look back at day 1 I guess I do see some improvement? Her wing and feathers on this side seem a bit lower as well.. is all of this normal? Worried about her not being able to roost or jump into coop. Got myself all worked up over flystrike now after researching it. I went to coop with flashlight.. I don’t see anything moving or any maggots… I assume you’d notice this sort of thing right?

 

[ANiceKaren]

If Mildred has spurs, it's entirely likely that the injuries are from her wicked behavior. You may need to make chicken pie out of her. Yum.

She doesn’t have spurs. I’m going to give it a go at cutting her nails though.. I worry this may make them more sharp?

 

[SmiYa0126]

Can you put her inside at night so she doesn't have to fly to roost? She may have overdid it. The area where her wound is stretches and moves with her wings, which is another reason her wing is dropping. Can you trim the feathers around the wound some more? Just to make sure that every part of the wound is visible.

I would have done the same to check for flystrike. Keep her on the antibiotics and keep cleaning her wound.

 

[ANiceKaren]

Can you put her inside at night so she doesn't have to fly to roost? She may have overdid it. The area where her wound is stretches and moves with her wings, which is another reason her wing is dropping. Can you trim the feathers around the wound some more? Just to make sure that every part of the wound is visible.

I would have done the same to check for flystrike. Keep her on the antibiotics and keep cleaning her wound.

I put her on the roost. So she didn’t have to fly up there. I just figured she would like that normal environment with her friends. I can clip feathers for sure. Will that hurt her? I’ve never clipped feathers before…

 

[SmiYa0126]

I put her on the roost. So she didn’t have to fly up there. I just figured she would like that normal environment with her friends. I can clip feathers for sure. Will that hurt her? I’ve never clipped feathers before…

It won't hurt her to cut her feathers. It's like cutting hair. The only feathers you can't trim are new feathers when they look like pins, they have a blood supply.