Reintroduction to flock after extreme injury recovery (hawk attack)

[eugenebackyard]

Hello! Thank you for having such a great community, I've used these forums for my entire time raising our chickens (almost a year now!). First time posting.

Two months ago, one of my four chickens was attacked by a hawk, saved just in time by my wife. We thought the chicken was going to die because her eyes weren't opening and she had a giant hole in the back of her neck, about 1" diameter and all the way deep to her spine exposed.

A small side note, a lot of the information we've found online has been for minor injuries. This was a life-threatening injury, which has made every stage of the process more difficult. We were heartbroken when she was attacked because these little gals are our pets. Turning her into stew is not an option.

We had an online vet help us with medication recommendations, and now two months later she's basically miraculously healed. Eating, drinking, laying eggs, eyesight and personality back. She just has a bald spot on the back of her neck where the hole used to be, and some slight scabbing on the new skin that is more or less smooth. She's currently living in our spare bathroom in a large wire dog crate, and I let her out to play in the big yard (in sight but separated from the others in the chicken run) a few times a day while I work at home. I also installed a bird net over the chicken run, so that we don't have to worry about hawks anymore.

Last night, I tried to reintegrate her to the flock. I had heard that the best way to reintegrate a chicken is to sneak her in at night when the others are getting ready for bed. I left my windows open at night so that if I had heard squawking, I could run out and break them up. There were no attacks overnight, and today was going alright, but one of the chickens kept pecking her (at least 4 times that I witnessed). Her scabs were irritated at first, and then one last peck drew a little blood from her wound, so I pulled her out and put her back in the bathroom.

So I guess my questions are... Do we keep her inside until her feathers have come back in, so she has protection from the others pecking her? Will the feathers even come back after such an extreme injury? Do I just let this last scab heal, reintroduce her, and then pull out the bully hen and put her in the crate as punishment? Is a little blood from a pecking order debacle ok, or did I do the right thing by pulling her?

Thank you for reading and I appreciate your advice.

 

[nuthatched]

Her feathers may not come back in that area, depending on the scar. You can put some blukote on it and try to keep her nest your chicken run most of the day. An integration may not be seamless.

 

[eugenebackyard]

Her feathers may not come back in that area, depending on the scar. You can put some blukote on it and try to keep her nest your chicken run most of the day. An integration may not be seamless.

Thanks! Did you mean "next to", as in outside of the chicken run? Or like put on the Blu-Kote and put her back in sooner so she can continue reintegrating?

 

[nuthatched]

Thanks! Did you mean "next to", as in outside of the chicken run? Or like put on the Blu-Kote and put her back in sooner so she can continue reintegrating?

Yes, next to, I'm sorry.
They need to see her most of the day and be next to her.

 

[eugenebackyard]

Yes, next to, I'm sorry.
They need to see her most of the day and be next to her.

Yeah, that's what we've been thinking about having her in the big yard. It's not chicken safe, hawks can get there, no shelter from the rain, but for a few hours a day it's ok. I'll try putting her out there longer, all day if possible for the remainder of her recovery, set out food and water, etc. Thanks.

 

[OhDangBro]

I would def do blue kote. I’ve had a similar situation and got a small dog crate and would put the crate next to the coop touching with the chicken I was trying to reintroduce.