Silkie with attack wound in back-new to this/don't know what to do

[winekntrychicks]

I would really like to know what happened to Shelly.

 

[Erika]

I'm sorry I didn't post an update sooner because it is good news! Shelly is doing great. I can hardly believe it. He had several days of the oral antibiotics-still amazed I figured out how to get THAT in him, but hey, now I know. The day before we left on our trip I made him a little duct tape saddle (challenging because there weren't that many feathers left for it to stick to!) and put him out with the others to watch what happened. The roo who decided once Shell was out of the picture that he was the "big guy" pecked at him a couple times and one of the guineas even had the nerve to bug him a little, but overall it looked promising, and he even seemed perkier being with the others than he had been in the bathtub. I tried to prepare myself for the worst though, while we were gone. When we got home 8 days later I ran in to check on them and Shelly looked great! I could see feather regrowth beginning too. My nephew said the duct tape fell off after a couple of days. He is still rather lopsided-looking, since that fox took a real chunk out of him...maybe enough feathers will grow to cover, but it doesn't seem to be bothering him.

Our problem now is that newly emboldened roo, Skip. Interestingly, he is leaving Shelly alone, but is just relentlessly going after the 3rd roo, Friday. (Tell me how, when we decided to hatch a few eggs, we wound up with all roosters!?) Friday has lost some feathers on his back to those attacks, and had started spending all his time wedged into the corner trying to look inconspicuous. Skip and Friday were about the same size but just in the past few weeks Skip is visibly larger too. We've started putting Skip in "solitary" during the day. Actually we put a wire-type bin over him right in the middle of everyone. He has a little room to move around and it gives the others some peace. I figure he's about 9 or 10 hours in, the rest out--any thoughts on that solution or other ideas?

Thank you all again for the support and advice. This whole thing was so upsetting to me, and it was just so encouraging that I could post my plea for help and right away, there was help!

Erika

 

[winekntrychicks]

yeah good for you and good for Shelly!!!!