Rooster causing wounds on hen. Best treatment ideas?

[Gee2]

The favorite hen in our flock is sustaining some pretty rough skin damage from a constantly mating roo. I need ideas for treatment and should I just remove the rooster? I have never had this problem before.

Thanks.

 

[ThinMintTheChicken]

The favorite hen in our flock is sustaining some pretty rough skin damage from a constantly mating roo. I need ideas for treatment and should I just remove the rooster? I have never had this problem before.

Thanks.

I usually use Vetericyn pet spray to clean the wounds and then Blu-Kote to prevent the other chickens from picking at it. You may have to separate the rooster if he's causing major damage until he calms down

 

[Battlepants]

If it's just mating related wounds, you might be able to get a chicken saddle for her to mitigate the damage. Going forward, adding additional hens can spread out the damage so they can heal between mating sessions.

Additionally, if the roo is just young, he is likely inexperienced and will cause less damage over time.

If the hen saddle doesn't work or there is damage not covered by the saddle, I would suggest removing the hen to allow her to heal for a few days. During this time, it might be wise to remove the rooster as well to mitigate damage to the other hens.


On that note, how many roosters and hens do you have in your setup? What are their ages?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

The favorite hen in our flock is sustaining some pretty rough skin damage from a constantly mating roo. I need ideas for treatment and should I just remove the rooster? I have never had this problem before.

Thanks.

Please give some more info along with some photos of the damage.

Age of the "roo" and hens, how much space do you have in your coop/run, how many hens?

Hard to know how to treat unless we see the damage, but general care is to clean the skin, then apply a thin coat of triple antibiotic ointment. Vetericyn is good to use if you have it.

If the rooster is causing a lot of damage, remove him from the flock and give the hens a break. Isolating and separating a hen for a period of time, you will likely have to go through re-introduction/re-integration and it can be very rough on her making her way back into the pecking order. A rooster flows through or revolves around a flock of hens for the most part and is not part of the pecking order so is usually just put back with no major issues.