Reassure me! First chick injury/blood!

[paneubert]

Not the sight you want to see in the coop, especially when you are on the lookout for bloody poop/keeping a watch out for coccidia.

But it looked a little too much like just......actual blood.

Found this on a 4 week old chick.

I don't see any actual injury on the chick, just dried bloody feathers. I am hoping this is just a random occurrence. Maybe someone gave an extra hard peck or something. I separated her into a rabbit cage within the coop, but she is now freaking out and trying to get back to the rest of the flock....

Also, those blood spots on the wood look a lot more like they would have come from a foot injury and not a face injury. The mystery deepens.... I don't know if I can catch all 10 chicks to check on them one by one. Maybe I will try to do a stealth inspection when they are sleeping tonight....hope this was the only source of blood....

Is it even worth me trying to clean this lady's face? It all does seem dry and she seems pretty active.

 

[rkapfen]

I would definitely get that wet and take a look under that dried blood for injury. I once had a chicken who didn’t seem injured at all and then when I finally got the feathers wet and separated her injury was absolutely terrible. So definitely take a look. It would be worth it to try and check the other ones or just sit and observe and see if one chick is being a bully and pecking the other ones

 

[paneubert]

I would definitely get that wet and take a look under that dried blood for injury. I once had a chicken who didn’t seem injured at all and then when I finally got the feathers wet and separated her injury was absolutely terrible. So definitely take a look. It would be worth it to try and check the other ones or just sit and observe and see if one chick is being a bully and pecking the other ones

Yeah, good plan. My betadine came in the mail yesterday. It was fate! I'll wash her up when the wife gets home from work. Probably keep her in the smaller cage overnight just to be safe.

She seems to have accepted her fate. Her flock mates seem interested in keeping close. I caught a few roosting on the roof of the cage. Probably trying to aim for pooping on her head. Little troublemakers....

 

[rkapfen]

Yeah, good plan. My betadine came in the mail yesterday. It was fate! I'll wash her up when the wife gets home from work. Probably keep her in the smaller cage overnight just to be safe.

She seems to have accepted her fate. Her flock mates seem interested in keeping close. I caught a few roosting on the roof of the cage. Probably trying to aim for pooping on her head. Little troublemakers....

Too cute! Let us know how it looks when you clean her up!

 

[rkapfen]

Let us know how it looks when you clean her up!

 

[Kiki]

I'd get the blood off asap.
Hopefully the injury is super small.

Is there anything in the coop she could have hurt herself on?
Double check.

 

[paneubert]

I'd get the blood off asap.
Hopefully the injury is super small.

Is there anything in the coop she could have hurt herself on?
Double check.

I can't think of anything she could have stabbed herself on. There are probably a couple spots where the hardware cloth may have a couple sharp spots, but I have not added any new cloth since I had the quail in there (for years at a time). Never had any quail get injured. But then again, quail are on the ground. So more options for injury with the chickens I suppose.

The only new sharp things in the coop are the two ends of the wire I used to wire the ramp to a cinder block, the two ends of the wire I used to wire the heat lamp to the poop board and......that's about it. The ramp wire is tucked away so that it would be very hard to access the ends, but I am not 100% sure about the heat lamp wire. I will have to check to see if the ends of that may be accessible.

 

[paneubert]

Ok, so nothing jumps out at me in the coop as sharp. The only other spot I saw a tiny amount of blood spatter in the coop was on the chick grit container, which is just a normal plastic 1 quart/mason jar style chick feeder with the circular base. But it looked like splatter and not a source of the injury.

All the wire I was talking about was tucked away and I don't see how it would be an injury source. I am leaning towards this being some freak accident where someone pecked her, or she flew/slammed into something hard. She has always been one of the more adventurous ones.

I cleaned her head with a warm washcloth and did not find the source of the blood.

Since she is white, and I want to get her back into the flock eventually, I did not want to iodine/betadine her nice white fluff/feathers. So I slathered her in bacitracin ointment. Basically a thick aloe paste with bacitracin in it. So now she looks way worse. Haha.

I am sure she is super happy to have a literal ear full of aloe and bacitracin gel. Haha.

She actually seemed to almost fall asleep on me. She closed her eyes for a while when I was cleaning her up.

Put her back out in the coop with the others. Kept her in her "cage". She is not happy about it. She tries to stick her head out between the bars.....which is not good for this injury. I am going to keep an eye to make sure she settles down like last time. If she keeps trying to get out, she is never going to heal the side of her head!

The only other thing I noticed is a possible little abrasion on top of her beak, in front of where the comb starts. But I do not recall seeing it earlier. I think she may have scratched that when I stuck her in the rabbit cage.....

 

[Kiki]

Have you tried putting her back with the others?
As long as they aren't picking on her I see no reason to keep her locked up.

 

[paneubert]

Have you tried putting her back with the others?
As long as they aren't picking on her I see no reason to keep her locked up.

I have not tried putting her back in the general population. But I am fine giving it a shot. My only reason for separating was just so that nobody would try to go after her bloody area.