I have 4 red sex links and one amber link - so one of my birds is white. I noticed what looked like spots of blood on her feathers hear and on her tail feathers and started looking around - there's no visible signs of a wound that I can see - not her comb, under her feathers, her legs/feet/toenails. I look inside the coop for clues and there's a spray of little dots of blood on the roof and walls of one side at the end of the roost and two dots under the roost - like it dripped.
Now I go back and check all the same things on the other birds - one or two have a few dots of blood on their feathers in the same area - their tail feathers.
There doesn't SEEM to be blood in the poop.
Is it a blood feather?? Should I continue looking for one - on all the birds?
There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with their combs but will a wound on the comb be obvious to me?
The coop is a little over 3 X 7 ' and, while nowhere near ideal, is not 'overcrowded'.
Their run is 8X8 and - admittedly - small - but we only use it when we're not out there with them - and I let them free range in the evenings (for fear of hawks that did get one of them recently).
Their roost is a *little* close to the wall - not so much that their tail feathers are all squished although I'd like to move it farther away this summer...
They are just a year now - or will be soon - so they are used to being with each other in that very coop.
I realize there's still the 'clean everything up and wait and see what tomorrow brings' technique - but I was worried that I was missing something and didn't want someone to bleed out.
Now I go back and check all the same things on the other birds - one or two have a few dots of blood on their feathers in the same area - their tail feathers.
There doesn't SEEM to be blood in the poop.
Is it a blood feather?? Should I continue looking for one - on all the birds?
There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with their combs but will a wound on the comb be obvious to me?
The coop is a little over 3 X 7 ' and, while nowhere near ideal, is not 'overcrowded'.
Their run is 8X8 and - admittedly - small - but we only use it when we're not out there with them - and I let them free range in the evenings (for fear of hawks that did get one of them recently).
Their roost is a *little* close to the wall - not so much that their tail feathers are all squished although I'd like to move it farther away this summer...
They are just a year now - or will be soon - so they are used to being with each other in that very coop.
I realize there's still the 'clean everything up and wait and see what tomorrow brings' technique - but I was worried that I was missing something and didn't want someone to bleed out.
