Wounded banty pullet

[chicknmania]

We have a banty pullet, one of six bantys about six weeks old, that a friend forced on my son.

We were hoping for all hens, but discovered two roos in the bunch. One of the roos has taken a dislike to his sister, for some reason. He started chasing her, so we separated them except at night. She was so lonely and scared we wanted her to be with her siblings to roost. It worked til this morning, when we were late getting to the barn. By the time we got there he'd pecked a hole on top of her head. We treated it with Neosporin and put a lot on, in the hopes that a lot will help to keep the flies off. Is it ok to treat it with hydrogen peroxide, too, if we can drip it on without it getting in her eyes? Would peroxide kill any maggots or fly eggs that get in the wound? Obviously, we're going to keep her separated from now on; hoping to introduce her to some new friends later.

 

[Backyardfarmer]

I don't know about the medical side of this, but I do have some suggestions. If you want to introduce her to new chickens do it soon or she will end up like the roster. also if this behavior is directed only at her try this, make a rost nere thers but put sort of a wire box around it so the roster cant peck her. You could also try isolareing the roster or punishing him if you catch him doing it. I hope this helps.

 

[chicknmania]

Thank you. We did try that, (putting her in a separate cage near them) but she was so afraid of all of them by then that it didn't really work. We have a very quiet banty roo who has no hens with him now, and he is in a pen by himself. We have been going to let him free range, but were planning on getting these new hens for him, letting them bond first, then turning them all out, so he would have some hens with him. Our plan now is to place both the rooster and the outcast hen in small separate tractors close to each other during the day, so she can see him and hopefully figure out he isn't going to kill her. When her head is healed we are going to try to put them together, then we will release just the two of them after they (hopefully) bond. He is an older rooster, and as I said very laid back and quiet, so hopefully this will work. This happened to us once before and the poor hen was so terrified of other chickens that she never did make any friends to hang out with; she was very tame though and loved people. It's weird how chickens will decide suddenly that they hate one of their own.

 

[dreamgirl]

I think the peroxide is OK, but dilute it 50% with water. You may want to do a search for "wound care" or "first aid kit" here, I know I saw a few good posts when I joined.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I used neosporin on my chick when she got scalped. Once the wound was no longer open, I used my eyedrops to clean her. I was concerned that the neosporin was getting into her eyes and figured eyedrops should be better. I also kept her isolated, making sure she was warm (heating pad) and got plenty of fluids with electolites and vitamins.
She is now a house chicken. She runs away when any other chicken comes too close.