How I Saved My Chicken After A Hawk Attack *GRAPHIC WOUND PICS*

BackyardFarmMom

Songster
11 Years
Mar 27, 2012
1,730
42
216
Michigan
DAY 1:

My 8 week old naked neck frizzle was hawked. My BF walked up to the run and scared the hawk off of her.
I feared the worst... that she was dead.
Only to learn that truely the worst was that she was still alive and suffering.
I picked her up and expected there to be more blood. The most visable wound was on her head, and I brought her inside the garage, inspected her, and cooed softly to her.
I had to make the desicion to the question... Could she make it? And I believed the answer to be yes.
During my inspection of her, I found a gaping wound on top of her head, her left eye shut tight but still there, several feathers had been plucked, and a few talon wounds on her wing and shoulder.
All the wounds seemed easy enough to take care of... except the large one on her head.
What should I do with this quarter sized hole on the back of her head? It looked mostly like the skin was missing. No muscle or bone had been removed...
So I pulled out my secret weapon, as a mother, and covered the large head wound in triple antibiotic ointment (TAO).
I, also, dabbed a good sized amount on all the smaller wounds I could see. She fought me every step of the way and, because of that, I knew she had a chance!


It was very clear that she was in pain, so I gave her a small amount of childrens liquid ibprophine (CLI).
I made her a comfy place in a bin (my brooder that she was in just weeks before as a chick) to stay in, in the garage by herself. Water, food, pine chips, and a heat lamp. She insisted on trying to roost on the water dish, so I added a few bricks for hight, and she was finally resting.
I was not worried about her eating that night because I know she had a full crop (you can see it bulging in the picture on her right side)

I hoped she would make it, but told her that I knew she was in pain and if she needed to go she could and it would be okay.
I went to bed that night not knowing if she would be alive in the morning.

DAY 2:

When I woke up, I hesistated to go check on her, but I did and found her peeping and looking at me with her open eye. However, she had not eaten any of the dry food that I had put in the bin with her. I wet the food and mixed in some poultry drench (vitamins and electrolytes) I held it up to her face and she seemed disinterested, but did drink some water. Again, I was not too worried about getting her to eat because she did have a full crop and she was still eliminating (and that looked normal)
The heat lamp dried out the TAO on her head so I turned it off (It was a warm enough day)
That day I had to go to my parents house. Before I left I smeared her eye and head wound with TAO and gave her some more CLI. She struggled and tried to get away when I touched her poor eye. It had to be super sore. I was worried to leave her, but I knew that she needed to rest and heal.
When I got back from my parents, she had her eye open! I knew she would be a fighter after that!
She continued to only eat a peck her and there when I made her...
I took her out to see her buddy because I thought he might be worried about her. She was excited to see him and kicked to get in the coop with him. he seemed too interested in her boo boo, so I held them together for a few minutes. I put him back in the coop and her back in her bin to rest.


DAY 3:

Again I woke up and turned off the heat lamp. Her head wound had some yellow and white spots that I assume were puss. I had no money to get her antibiotics. I hoped that the TAO would take care of any infection until I got paid.
I decided to give her a bath so I could find all her boo boos and clean them out.
I preheated the bathroom with a space heater to 80*F... It was hot to me but I didn't want her to get a chill.
While I was bathing her I found a few more talon cuts and a wound by her vent. I wrapped her up in a towel and dried her with my hair dryer on low for a few minutes, then I put lots of TAO on all of the wounds and let her finish drying in front of the heater.
I came back a few minutes later with some wet food mixed with poultry drench and yogurt (her fav). She was more than happy to eat! I was over the moon. I gave her some leftover scrambled eggs and she chowed those down!!!


DAY 4 and 5:

I did not put any TAO on her wounds. The puss that appeared on day 3 was still there but was dry and did not look like it was producing anymore. I let her head scab up. She continued to eat wet food and scrambled eggs.
I let her play with her friends and made sure no one pecked it and reopened the scab. She was put back in the garage when I could not watch.

DAY 6 and 7:

I applied more TAO for good measure. I continued to supervise her and her friends and seperate her when I could not watch them. You can see how I really gobbed it on. The second pic is the cut by her vent.




DAY 8:

I gave her another bath because day 6 and 7 she wiped all of the TAO all over her feathers and was unable to fluff up. She could not go back into the coop with droopy feathers, it was starting to get cold at night. I kept her in the garage with the heat lamp fo one more night.


Poor wet chicken!



It is amazing to see how fast skin can heal!


DAY 9, 10, and 11:

She has been in the coop with her friends and all of them leave her boo boo alone!


Not sure if she will get some of those feathers back on her head, but I don't care!


Shawarma with all of her friends!

I am glad she made it through. It was well worth the effort.

Thank you for reading.
Good luck to you!!!

BYFM
 
I am glad to hear that NT!

It makes all the hard work worth it to see her running around and dust/dirt bathing again! (her favorite pastime)
 
Amazing! It shows how delicate, yet so tough, chickens are.
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That's really wonderful! Thanks for sharing an showing the photos. Pictures always help to compare to things that happen to us so we know if we're on the right path! I had a Silkie attacked by a hawk, but thankfully he had only pecked at her eye. The first one attacked was killed, but this time we were aware of what was going on. We were gone at the time of the other attack, sadly. She was more in shock that anything else and hid all the time. But I kept bringing her out to the feeder and eventually she felt safe again. I also netted her whole run so no hawks could get in... she just didn't know that of course! :) So thanks for sharing this great story!
 

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