chicken catastrophe 2009: iphegenia

last week i found iphegenia trapped under the window well grate.
the chickens have been loose and the dog will chase them but hasn't made serious attempts at catching them or killing them, so i have let it fly (har har).

when i pulled iphegenia out, her neck was a wreck. featherless, leathery, scabby.
i don't know if the pooch was nipping at her or if her fellow flockmates were—i have been relatively negligent in my chicken duties sad to say. i placed her back in the coop with some scratch next to her and let her be.

next day, i didn't see her out in the yard. and immediately i begin to feel like she was probably dead. probably at the hands of her fellow flockmates. i did some cautious investigating and didn't find her in the window well or with the other hens. i also didn't find her body anywhere either.

but i was just not in the mood to discover and deal with a dead chicken, so i waited.

next day—still no iphegenia. so i started the canvass and after basically giving up, found her—wedged in the woodpile. really wedged in there, to the point where an excavating mission must take place.

she was alive but her neck looked atrocious, so i set into motion creating a separate area for her within the coop with lots of water and food. her neck was bleeding but she doesn't seem bothered by it in the least and when i checked on her later in the evening she had escaped from my enclosed 'recuperation' area and joined the other ladies. so i said have at it and let her be.

that was several days ago, she still looks a fright but is plugging along and not taking any crap from any of the other girls. been debating cleaning her neck and bandaging her, but have yet to do so.

perhaps tonight that will be my plan.
somehow bathing and bandaging a chicken just doesn't sound like fun.