I have a 4 month old bantam Buckeye pullet. She was kept with a group of older chickens, quarantining from a show she was really too young to go to. (Oops, now I see the downsides of my mistakes.) Well I saw her face was swollen and I immediately thought she had a respiratory disorder, but I found that she was completely healthy in the respiratory aspect. No discharge, no swollen sinuses, no irregular breathing. Additionally, she is active and eats and drinks.
The face is very swollen and blue and green though. And, if you look closely, there is a scab to the top back of each eye. The pen is spacious with high roosts but it does have chicken wire. We have a raccoon problem, it killed many young birds. It is highly possible that if the bird stood right next to the wire it could grab her. I confined her with another chicken who was injured.
Was this injury caused by chickens somehow pecking the sides of her head? Was this caused by a raccoon literally biting her head? Or should I worry about respiratory distress?.
I suppose this is probably normal and I’ve just never seen a bruised chicken before.
The face is very swollen and blue and green though. And, if you look closely, there is a scab to the top back of each eye. The pen is spacious with high roosts but it does have chicken wire. We have a raccoon problem, it killed many young birds. It is highly possible that if the bird stood right next to the wire it could grab her. I confined her with another chicken who was injured.
Was this injury caused by chickens somehow pecking the sides of her head? Was this caused by a raccoon literally biting her head? Or should I worry about respiratory distress?.
I suppose this is probably normal and I’ve just never seen a bruised chicken before.
