Vent Pecking

[Ronaldkirkwood]

Hi all,
got my chix this easter. They started laying in august nd they are laying quite steady now, BUTT!
this morning noticed what seemed to be one hen egg bound and bloody. KY'd her and dislodged the egg and then noticed 5 of my six were all pecked bloody. One hen had blood all over her beak/face. She is now called Marie Antionette.
I cleaned all their butts with peroxide, put a little Prep H and Neosporin.
Put Marie out of the coop.
Went to local farm store and purchased Hotpick, but when i sprayed them they started picking each other again.

I still have the culprit separated.

Please help me with any info you have.

Most people are telling me that Marie should go in the pot.......

Ron

 

[robin416]

First, do not use peroxide it causes further tissue damage. Use betadine for cleansing.

Blukote is reported to stop the picking, give it a try.

You might be able to break Marie from it by removing her from the flock for a while and changing her standing in the flock. If not then rehoming or the pot.

 

[Ronaldkirkwood]

I'm from New Castle PA and there doesn't seem to be too many places around here to get poultry products.
Thanks for the info. Storey's guide to raising chickens said to use the peroxide.
Why would one do that to the others?

Ron
New Castle, PA

 

[robin416]

Sometimes there are birds that do it without explanation. Red seems to attract their attention so once blood is drawn then its a free for all. Some other possibilities are not enough space, the birds are bored, or not enough protein in their diets.

Stories needs to catch up. Its been understood for a bit now that peroxide can be damaging to already damaged tissues. My own doc told me to use peroxide cut in half with water to clean where he blasted off a skin cancer. That was several years ago.

Books are a good tool to get started but they need to be kept up to date too. Just don't fret that you've done them more damage, you haven't. But over time with retreatment you could.

There are other antibacterial cleansers out there but Betadine is my personal favorite. I read somewhere that Betadine is supposedly damaging to tissues but I've never found that to be the case and only read it the one time in a post.

Blukote is one of those things you should be able to find readily, its used on horses, cattle, dogs, cats. So your feed store probably has it over where the horse and cattle supplies are.

 

[Pine Grove]

Try Vicks vapor rub, It will work when others wont

 

[Ronaldkirkwood]

Vicks??? Really????
I tried to put here back this morning for a few minutes, and she started again. However, one of my black sex links was beating the crap out of her when she tried to peck her. I let her free range again today and the others seem to be healing. They are still laying eggs, god bless 'em..

Going to give them much more room this weekend and changing Pecker to Broiler ration...

Believe it or not, no knowledge of bluekote either. and this is a farm town/area.......

Thanks a million for you info.

Ron Kirkwood
Edinburg, PA

 

[Julie in Al]

Also some of my old chicken buddie swear by Noxema cream. Said the chickens can't stand the taste.