Chickenlady46
In the Brooder
Hello,
Found one of my hens with her chest feathers covered in blood 4 days ago. She was obviously weak and not feeling well. On examining her she has a very small lump (about a little finger nail size) at the base of one of her upper/middle chest feathers that had been bleeding over night.
I cleaned it and it bled quite a bit from a small 'hole' - doesn't seem deep, at the top of the little lump and at the base of the feather shaft. Bandaged her up for 3 days until the bandage was falling off, so removed it. It was dry and scabby. She was back to normal again after her 'blood loss'.
Unfortunately, she has pecked it again and it started bleeding. I again washed it - but there really seemed to be a LOT of blood coming out of it. Took a while to stop it bleeding and she is now bandaged up again and is again weak and looking like she is suffering from the loss of blood.
Does anyone know what may have caused this or what it is? Are chicken wounds like head wounds on people and bleed/look worse than they really are?
I'm reluctant to take her to the vets as all our local ones seem pretty clueless where chickens are concerned and just dish out antibiotics and/or say they don't really know.
Any help would be appreciated.
Found one of my hens with her chest feathers covered in blood 4 days ago. She was obviously weak and not feeling well. On examining her she has a very small lump (about a little finger nail size) at the base of one of her upper/middle chest feathers that had been bleeding over night.
I cleaned it and it bled quite a bit from a small 'hole' - doesn't seem deep, at the top of the little lump and at the base of the feather shaft. Bandaged her up for 3 days until the bandage was falling off, so removed it. It was dry and scabby. She was back to normal again after her 'blood loss'.
Unfortunately, she has pecked it again and it started bleeding. I again washed it - but there really seemed to be a LOT of blood coming out of it. Took a while to stop it bleeding and she is now bandaged up again and is again weak and looking like she is suffering from the loss of blood.
Does anyone know what may have caused this or what it is? Are chicken wounds like head wounds on people and bleed/look worse than they really are?
I'm reluctant to take her to the vets as all our local ones seem pretty clueless where chickens are concerned and just dish out antibiotics and/or say they don't really know.
Any help would be appreciated.
. Pleased you joined but sorry about your chicken. For the best advice on your issue, the following would be the place to post. 
Much appreciated. My hen is ok again and back with her buddies. Keeping the bandage on (with regular checks) until the scab/lump has gone so she can't peck at it and re-open it.
