One of my new Leghorn hens, Fern, got injured yesterday. I'm not sure how it happened, but she had a cut under her eye and a nasty tear on her crop. The crop bled huge, hence all the blood.
We immediately separated her from the flock and cleaned her wounds. We used liquid band-aid on the crop to help seal it. After she had calmed down a bit we gave her a warm bath in the bath tub to get all the blood off her. We used dawn dish soap for a shampoo.
She is now on lock down in the house (she's in the maternity room with our broody hen and eggs.). She is doing much better. We'll keep her on lock down for a couple of days so we can watch for infection.
Honestly, I'm not the biggest fan of the new Leghorns. We've never had the breed before because they are not known for being good quality birds. Unfortunately, greedy humans have really ruined the breed. Here in North America, Leghorns are the breed commercial farmers use. They lay a LOT of eggs. However, they are skinny, have poor foraging abilities and are not very healthy. Their crops are so big, they are more prone to injury and frost bite. They are also really neurotic. We got eight of them for free, so can't complain too much, cause you know, they were free, but I'd never purchase them. They are not hardy chickens.
All looks good for Fern and she should be back our foraging with the flock in a couple of days.
Hugs and love!
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