Should I quarantine my chicken indoors?

[MeaghanCasey]

Hello all,

One of my chickens was attacked by another and had a lot of her back feathers pulled out. We have her in quarantine with food and water but have seen little improvement in the last four days.

I'm wondering if we should bring her inside the house until her feathers have regrown. We have been leaving her in our shed for protection from the elements but it gets below -10 Celsius pretty consistently now and I'm worried that without her feathers, she's much more suceptible to the cold.

The second part of my question is, if we bring her inside should we put her outside every day while the sun is out or keep her inside until she's fully healed?

What would be the best plan of action? New chicken owners here.

Thanks so much!!

 

[1muttsfan]

Hi Meaghancasey, welcome to BYC

When you say you don't see improvement, do you mean she is injured or ill apart from missing her feathers? If you plan on returning her to the coop, you would likely be better off keeping her someplace cool, with maybe a small local heat source. Once you take her inside where it is warm she will have a hard time reacclimating to the cold outside air. Small heat bulbs that provide warmth but not light are available at many pet supply stores - often in the reptile department. If you provide heat, make sure you triple secure it with wire or chain out of reach of bedding or any flammables, not rope or plastic ties, to decrease fire danger.

Do you have a strategy for handling the aggressive bird?

 

[MeaghanCasey]

Hi 1muttsfan. Thank you for your repsonse.

She's just (still) not well. She's listless, and not moving around her cage. She hasn't pooped that we've seen and we're pretty sure she isn't eating or drinking.

Not sure what to do for her

We plan to remove the aggressor for the couple of days and have her re-join the group after our sick girl has re-acclimatized to the flock.