What happened?

cityslicker69

Hatching
6 Years
Mar 16, 2013
5
0
7
Is this from pecking? The hens are 30 weeks. What do I need to do to stop pecking and heal this?
400
 
It may be from pecking, a rooster overmating her, or possibly a predator attack. Is the wound deep? You may want to wash it out gently with some warm water. Then, put some antibiotic ointment (without "caine" ingredients or painkillers) on it.

Do you have a rooster? Roosters can damage a hen while breeding her. Watch your other chickens for a few minutes, and note whether any particular bird is pecking at the others. To stop picking, give them something to do (scratch for some corn, peck at a seed block etc). Insufficient protein can also lead to picking, so increasing the protein in the feed may help.

Make sure that the other chickens are pecking at this bird any more, as they could make the wound worse. If she seems to be getting picked on, isolate her until the wound heals. You can also spray BlueKote antiseptic spray (should be able to find this at a feed store/livestock supply store), and this will coat the wound blue and make it less interesting for other chickens to peck at.
 
It looks to me like the others are pecking at her. That seems to be the favorite spot for them to peck for some reason. The more raw it gets and the more it bleeds the more they will peck at it. You either need to bandage it up so it is covered and not exposed for the others to peck or separate her from the flock.
 

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