How much should you isolate chickens with injuries?

This morning after cleaning up

First of all, checking online and in my book, chickens apparently have astonishing, almost miraculous ability to heal from even grave physical injuries, contrary to actual illness and infection.
So yesterday one of my 10 week old Buff Catalana pullets somehow (and God only knows how) got into the orchard rooster only area. It was calling with the distress chirp and I found it, then it hid and I retrieved it. While it looked ok, I was totally taken aback when it bent its neck: the entire length of neck muscles and other structures lay bare. OMG. I still cannot believe it and even if I took a photo, it would need a big warning for graphic image.

Unbelievably had been running  and chirping though and, once I got it into a medium size dog crate, it took treats eagerly (thank goodness). I added a heat lamp in front of the crate because I had read that optimum temperature for a sick bird is 80-85 degrees. I probably did not get that, but at least it was not THAT cold. Taking her into the house was not an option for me -and - it would have put her in a strange environment and might have stressed her out.

So then it came time to roost for the night and she obviously got stressed out not being able to join the others. I had the crate inside in the coop, but that was not enough. The chicky literally STOOD there all night, at least every time I checked. I felt right about adding some warmth via the heat lamp, safely hung, and I even filled bottles with hot water --- and put it into a sock ...for a warm body substitute. But still I could not help thinking it would rather have roosted with rest of them.

So it got me thinking -  under no circumstances would you want ANY chicken even peck at the injury once, at the same time, stress hinders healing. Birds, at least chickens, are VERY social animals and want to move with and stay with the flock ...otherwise, sooner or later, they get stressed out.

So it made it through the night alive, still taking treats ...... so far so good. I could not bring myself to even look at the atrocious injury.
I didn't apply any salves or creams or dressing and I was not set up for suturing. I didn't know it then, but I didn't need any of that.

The next day, to start with, I decided to keep the 15 Buff Catalanas all in the coop for a while....after letting out the older flock, just to keep the chick company. When i went in at lunchtime, the baby had settled down finally inside the crate and some chickens were lying around the crate, one "sunbathing" in the warmth of the brooder lamp that I had re-hung.

She was even drinking water once I got it all cleaned up

I had brought more treats, high protein and nutrient rich treats it learned to like (eggs, meat), plus crumble dust and very overcooked broccoli and zucchini (for added fluid).

I fed this in front of the crate door and the willingness of the other chickens to really go for the treats certainly helps with food intake. (I actually had to put most of the  treats elsewhere  to keep it somewhat controlled in front of the crate :)

All was well - and little chicky settled down again on a fresh bed of straw. A little later I decided to let the others go outside and into the coop run for a little outing. That was when little chicky got upset, pacing and chirping inside the crate, wanting to join the flock ...... ...so I coaxed a couple of chicks back inside the coop and closed the door. After a littel while, things settled down for the 3 of them.

So: YES, isolate right away for healing so re-injury cannot happen. It seems to be a natural instinct to eliminate obviously injured birds from the flock - and they will literally peck it to death if it acts at all sick or has visible woulds. - and NO,  if possible, don't separate the injured chick from the flock as it will stress out the bird. Extra warmth will also help.

Of course if you chicken is used to being in a crate inside your house, that is a different situation.

If you don't have a dog crate, maybe you have some other box or cage which can at least be partially darkened to help with resting. 

(Illness with risk of contamination may be is a different story, talking just about physical injury) This is my observation, and of course, we all just do the best we can under any given circumstance.

It seems to be though that even if it were to die - it would rather die not alone somewhere. In any case, the time this little chick got upset was when the flock moved on and it could not be with them as it was locked inside the crate. Here it had settled down again, though you can barely see her in there, with one of her flock-mates sunbathing under the brooder light. Keeping my finger crossed, praying and running karma wash orbs for the little girl - I named her Harriet. She still seems to have some trouble breathing - like if you were trying to breathe through a clogged up nose. It is possible that one of the nerves that runs along the neck got injured.

ADDENDUM: She was in there for a few weeks and then afterwards I gradually let her back out ...she was quite out of breath at first, but basically she healed well and got back with the flock after a few weeks. Since the others could always see her, I didn't have to go through a real reintegration, but I did transition by making a separate roost and section in the coop where she roosted for a week with a couple of others before she was free to go where she wanted.

I had another chick that got pecked on the head by a rooster and had a bad blood blister .... she seemed ok after a couple of days of isolation and when I could not longer see the reddish blister - she rejoined the flock.