Saddle resulting in more damage??

[Victimtopoultrymath]

I could really use everyone’s expertise here. Lots of backstory, so please bear with me!
I had a chicken, Alice, who got attacked by a hawk, based on the giant bald patch that appeared on her back between the hours of noon and five (we have turkeys who usually keep them away, and I’m guessing they interrupted the attack?). She had some deep scratches and a medium gash, so I separated her from the flock in a little coop we keep for that purpose. She healed amazingly quickly and, after several days, I released her for an hour with the rest of the flock to dust bathe and forage, after watching for a while to see that everything seemed ok. In that hour, she got flayed open- it looked like the new skin had split, and perhaps a rooster’s claws had caught in the damaged skin and just ripped through her.
At this point, with two areas each the size of a half dollar exposed down to muscle, among other injuries, I wasn’t sure she was going to rally, but we got her cleaned up and settled in her separate coop again. There she stayed for a good week and a half, maybe a bit longer, until she was well healed and there were no more areas that looked like chicken jerky. She had been laying eggs again for a week, so I made her a double-layer heavy denim saddle, with extra-long flaps down her sides to fully cover all of the damaged areas, and let her back out (she was starting to slam herself against the sides of her mini run to get out!). She was fine for a day and a half. Then last night, I flipped back her saddle to check on the healing, and she looked like she’d been skinned. This one was my pet, but I had to put her down: it was too much for even a chicken to come back from.
Obviously, it couldn’t have been a hawk the second two times, so was likely my roo. But WHY didn’t the saddle protect her? I made it fairly stiff, so it really couldn’t flap back easily. Has anyone ever noticed MORE damage to their hens wearing saddles? This is super important, because I have some other hens whose feathers are starting to wear a little thin on their backs...
Any insight would be much appreciated!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Are you chickens with your turkeys? I've seen deep gashes on turkey hens caused by mating. Are your toms perhaps trying to mate chickens?

Do you have roosters?

I wouldn't necessarily guess a predator. Usually there's tons of feathers when an attack gets interrupted.

Check your roosters toe nails and spurs and trim them.

I've never used saddles. I would remove the rooster or see if the turkeys are causing problems. They can be relentless and even kill chickens.

 

[cluckadoodledoo13]

This has never happened to me before but if it’s the rooster then i’d remove him immediately. Possibly trim his spurs that could help?

 

[Victimtopoultrymath]

It’s a big flock, so there are three roosters- I’ll try trimming nails first (no spurs on anyone yet, as 2 are Silkies and the third is only 6 mo old). The turkeys and chickens have grown up together-they’re all a year old except for my copper maran rooster- and the turkeys always watch out for the chickens.
We did find the drifting pile of feathers from the initial assault, another reason we thought it was a hawk at first.
I just can’t figure out how she got so damaged right through the saddle, or of it slid around when a rooster jumped up on her, causing him to scrabble even more?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Turkeys raised with chickens will try to mate them. It won't end well for the chickens. I definitely would keep an eye on it all. The one time I raised turkeys and chickens together the turkeys killed a rooster. How many toms do you have?