- May 24, 2010
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About 3 weeks ago my barred rock chick (then 7 weeks) was attacked by 2 of my older hens. Her wounds were pretty severe- pecked clean from the back of her comb to her upper back and around the sides on her head. (Her back wasn't bad- just a strip down the middle with missing feathers). There was hardly any skin or flesh left. Pictures at end.
I treated her by washing wound and spraying with a burn/wound spray a few times per day for the first 4 days or so and then just applying antibiotic ointment daily. And isolating her.
She is healing well. She has always seemed completely fine other than the wound. I need to continue to keep her mostly isolated because she still has a rather large scar that bleeds if she gets bumped/pecked/etc. However, I am letting her out and free range with the mellower of the same-age chicks. A few of the others in her flock have lightly pecked at her head- even with the 'no-peck' ointment/lotion applied.
Current set up is a divided coop with the young chicks on one side and the older chicks on the others. The older chicks are out during the day when it isn't raining. I have been blocking the younger chicks in a smaller enclosed area when I am home and can sort of supervise since it is the same set up the barred rock escaped from when she got attacked. There are 4 older hens (easter egger, 2 buff orpingtons and a polish) and 8 younger (2 black australorp, a polish, dominique, speckled sussex, RIR, silver lace wyandotte and barred rock).
My questions are:
1) will she likely grow feathers again?
2) once she is scab-free what would be the best way to integrate? Both with her same-age flockmates and the older hens?
Note: the attached photos are from 2 weeks post injury to give you an idea of the extent of the wound. The large scab has since fallen off leaving a small pinky nail size scab.
I treated her by washing wound and spraying with a burn/wound spray a few times per day for the first 4 days or so and then just applying antibiotic ointment daily. And isolating her.
She is healing well. She has always seemed completely fine other than the wound. I need to continue to keep her mostly isolated because she still has a rather large scar that bleeds if she gets bumped/pecked/etc. However, I am letting her out and free range with the mellower of the same-age chicks. A few of the others in her flock have lightly pecked at her head- even with the 'no-peck' ointment/lotion applied.
Current set up is a divided coop with the young chicks on one side and the older chicks on the others. The older chicks are out during the day when it isn't raining. I have been blocking the younger chicks in a smaller enclosed area when I am home and can sort of supervise since it is the same set up the barred rock escaped from when she got attacked. There are 4 older hens (easter egger, 2 buff orpingtons and a polish) and 8 younger (2 black australorp, a polish, dominique, speckled sussex, RIR, silver lace wyandotte and barred rock).
My questions are:
1) will she likely grow feathers again?
2) once she is scab-free what would be the best way to integrate? Both with her same-age flockmates and the older hens?
Note: the attached photos are from 2 weeks post injury to give you an idea of the extent of the wound. The large scab has since fallen off leaving a small pinky nail size scab.
