Rooster pecking hen left a large hole!! pics.

[gallinamama]

I noticed the other day that Burton (black hen) had a few feathers missing, I thought that maybe they had been fighting so I didn't do anything... yesterday while feeding the chickens I was leaving and noticed that Burton had a huge hole in her. I am very upset. I have had Burton since last April... I raised her and three other from chicks. My neighbor a few months back gave me this rooster... he is a beautiful rooster, sortof blue black in color... but I can't have this... I lost one last month it is a long story... but the rooster or another hen scared her to death!! she started hiding and not eating... I separated her but it was too late. For treatment I separated Burton from all the others and I put a pad and cloth on the wound.. is there any thing else I can do...( I hope these pictures go through...) thank you for any help. Also I am finding some eggs broken and just the shells.. I think some are eating the eggs!!
The one picture below is a few weeks old.. as you can see Burton the only black hen I have is alright.

 

[gallinamama]

I feed my chickens a schmorgesborg of different foods... fruit, lettuce, meat, poultry feed, cracked corn, oystershells and grit. I feed them once a day and change the water. Am I feeding them the wrong things???

 

[CityChick15]

I am so sorry! When my girls have an injury I wrap it up and pack the wound with Neosporin (WITHOUT THE PAIN RELIEF!).
What breed are your hens, the buff and black. They are so lovely!!

I hope everyone is better soon!

 

[Me&Chooks]

Whoa! That is really bad! Your poor hen

!
The only thing I can think of is to get rid of the rooster..It wont change its ways at that age so it will keep doing it no matter what..And might start on your other girls!

Do you have any other roosters? If you do then do you have around 10 hens for each rooster, that would minimize the rooster getting stroppy and taking it out on the other hens that belong to a different rooster.
If not..It just comes down to the rooster being plain nasty really. Ive had two roosters from babies and both are gentlemen to the hens and slightly cowardly as they won the girls over by giving them food and when ever they were pecked by a hen they ran screaming away, there was none of this fighting going on to win dominance.
As for the hen make sure you keep it extremely clean using anti-septic wipes or anything like that, also that is a good idea what you have done with that sort of diaper you have tied round her but be careful to check underneath it reguarly as the blood could make the cloth soggy and disterngrate in the wound.
Is she eating? Acting normal?
If both of these, great you just need to worry about seperating her and keeping the wound clean.
If neither I recommened using her favourite foods to encourage her to eat but most imporantly make sure you keep her hydrated, a hen can live without food for a bit but not withou water.
Mix sugar in some mild water and that will give her caborhydrates and nutrients all in one go, you may need to use a syringe of just try dipping her beak in the water.
Hope I helped!
And hope your poor hen is okay

!

Oh and also your question about what you feed them, all of them is fine for a daily diet except corn if your birds are for laying, corn is extremely fattening (good for keeping hens broody and ill hens that need weight) but all that weight puts off egg laying and also makes them very lazy and that could cause other probelms. I fed my chickens corn mixed with Layer pellets and they didnt lay for months and months, no molting, and they were high quality laying birds bought especially for laying. Then we phoned the person we bought them off and he said to stop feeding them corn and within a few weeks of just pellets for food the laying started again and they havent stopped since!

 

[sourland]

The wound may initially have been caused by the rooster's toenails or spurs. He and the other hens then proceeded to peck at the wound. Normal chicken procedure sadly enough. What you are feeding your chickens is fine. You may want to back off on the cracked corn a bit this time of year and add some protein-- catfood, hard boiled eggs, etc. Your hen should heal up fine. They are really quite resilient.

 

[gallinamama]

Thank you all so much for the advice. I have just the one Rooster for 8 hens, I used to have 9 but the other one died. Just stopped eating. I am new at this and thought (stupid me) that she was sitting on an egg. After some one told me they are just a year old and too young to do that I took her out of her hiding place and then she hid again inbetween the wall and 2 X 4's!! This was about 3 weeks... so I took her out and put her in the garage to feed her and she would not eat and died. Stupid Rooster... needed to get rid of him then... My hens have layed all winter with no problems at all... a good bunch... I have started having problems in the spring now. This is so bad... I didn't know if I should put neosporin on the would but I will this afternoon after I take my grandson to kindergarten. Thank you so much... I have put the non stick pads on and a clean washcloth on top and a ace bandage with saftey pin to hold it in place.

Me&Chooks :

Whoa! That is really bad! Your poor hen

!
The only thing I can think of is to get rid of the rooster..It wont change its ways at that age so it will keep doing it no matter what..And might start on your other girls!

Do you have any other roosters? If you do then do you have around 10 hens for each rooster, that would minimize the rooster getting stroppy and taking it out on the other hens that belong to a different rooster.
If not..It just comes down to the rooster being plain nasty really. Ive had two roosters from babies and both are gentlemen to the hens and slightly cowardly as they won the girls over by giving them food and when ever they were pecked by a hen they ran screaming away, there was none of this fighting going on to win dominance.
As for the hen make sure you keep it extremely clean using anti-septic wipes or anything like that, also that is a good idea what you have done with that sort of diaper you have tied round her but be careful to check underneath it reguarly as the blood could make the cloth soggy and disterngrate in the wound.
Is she eating? Acting normal?
If both of these, great you just need to worry about seperating her and keeping the wound clean.
If neither I recommened using her favourite foods to encourage her to eat but most imporantly make sure you keep her hydrated, a hen can live without food for a bit but not withou water.
Mix sugar in some mild water and that will give her caborhydrates and nutrients all in one go, you may need to use a syringe of just try dipping her beak in the water.
Hope I helped!
And hope your poor hen is okay

!

Oh and also your question about what you feed them, all of them is fine for a daily diet except corn if your birds are for laying, corn is extremely fattening (good for keeping hens broody and ill hens that need weight) but all that weight puts off egg laying and also makes them very lazy and that could cause other probelms. I fed my chickens corn mixed with Layer pellets and they didnt lay for months and months, no molting, and they were high quality laying birds bought especially for laying. Then we phoned the person we bought them off and he said to stop feeding them corn and within a few weeks of just pellets for food the laying started again and they havent stopped since!​

 

[blueskylen]

what a terrible injury! so sad. i hope that she heals well. you really don't need to have a rooster to have the hens lay eggs, so if he is the culprit, i'd say get rid of him. i had a mean rooster, and altho his spurs were trimmed, he would jump me every time my back was turned. the day that he jumped so high and almost put his claws in my eyes was the day i said " enough!" and he was dispatched. now we have an older rooster that a neighbor gave us, who has 2" long nasty looking spurs, but he does not use them on the hens or anything else. a real gentleman rooster - so there are some good ones out there....

 

[gallinamama]

I didn't know you could feed cat food to chickens! for protien... I will try it.. what kind do you suggest? dry or moist?

Quote:

 

[Lyssa]

I know that people on this site talk about putting Blue Kote on wounds, so that they aren't red and the other chickens will stop pecking at it. Blue Kote seems to be a good germicidal and fungicidal wound dressing.

 

[Me&Chooks]

Sounds like you are doing all you can do, good job!
Also from what you described on how you dressed the wound sounds great! With neosprin and disinfecting the wound regualry she should be fine

On the cat food thing you may want to look on this very website as I have no knowledge on giving them cat food but I'm sure I read somewhere when reading up about potatoes peelings being poisnous to chickens that its not recommneded to give it to them but they can eat it to a good and quick source of protein. But again never done it before so hopefully someone can clear that up

Scroll right down to the bottom of this page to see the catfood section! https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-Treats_Chart