Never seen anything like this before: I was outside yesterday (07-19-2025) with my precious Silkie baby, Lil Bit, that stays by my side as I work in the yard. At about 6:45pm ET and out of nowhere, I was slammed in the back of my lower leg by a hawk going after Lil Bit, who was right at my left foot. It knocked me down, while the two birds (hawk and tiny Silkie) tumbled under a big bush of sea-grass that I had been standing beside.
Instincts took over instantly, and I grabbed the hawk by the neck (bare-handed no less!), scooped up the baby and screamed for my husband. He took the baby, but she appeared to die in his hands within seconds as her eyes glazed over and closed, then her neck went limp. He persisted with her, rubbing her gently over and over, talking to her saying her name and to stay with us, even chirping to her repeatedly. A half minute later, she showed some life signs, so we wrapped her up instantly to keep her warm, and I held her for the next 2 hours gently talking to her non-stop.
She survived the night and is still alive as of now (2:00pm ET), but her level of shock concerned us so much last night that we didn't look for wounds though there was a tiny bit of blood on my husband's fingers when rubbing her. Her level of shock remains high, and we found some dried blood on both sides of the rear lower head/ear area this morning, worse on the L than on the R. We cleaned all the blood off, but can find no punctures, but we're near certain that she was either bitten on both sides of the head, or talons got her on both sides, the L side of her head taking the brunt of the attack. She might have even taken the attack in the ear canal, but with Silkies' black skin and so many soft feathers, it's nearly impossible to tell. Also, she has a lot of swelling on the L side as shown in the photos.
We've managed to get electrolytes in her via a small dosing syringe, are keeping her warm, and watching her closely, but it seems as if she may have a neurological issue caused by the attack, or she's just in heavy shock. If we touch her, it seems to irritate her a bit, but we are getting chirrs and cheeps out of her even in her condition. We've cleaned the areas of swelling with antibiotic soap and applied antibiotic cream, and she's opened her eyes a couple of times though they have remained mostly closed since the attack last evening.
Last, she had a full crop when this occurred, but it hasn't gone down much at all since the attack, and she has normal stools through this writing. The vet is an option, and we're not scared of big vet bills, but short of identifying a fracture that we won't be able to treat effectively anyway, what more is there to do?
We are also concerned about her crop not going down much at all, but she's expending maybe 10% of the energy she usually does...
Link to her behavior post-attack:
Photos: Note the swelling that can be seen in the comparison photos taken from Left Rear and Right Rear of her head in the 4th and 5th photos below.
When cleaning and redressing the L side of her face, we finally found the wound, which clearly looks like a talon puncture.
Updated photos:
Instincts took over instantly, and I grabbed the hawk by the neck (bare-handed no less!), scooped up the baby and screamed for my husband. He took the baby, but she appeared to die in his hands within seconds as her eyes glazed over and closed, then her neck went limp. He persisted with her, rubbing her gently over and over, talking to her saying her name and to stay with us, even chirping to her repeatedly. A half minute later, she showed some life signs, so we wrapped her up instantly to keep her warm, and I held her for the next 2 hours gently talking to her non-stop.
She survived the night and is still alive as of now (2:00pm ET), but her level of shock concerned us so much last night that we didn't look for wounds though there was a tiny bit of blood on my husband's fingers when rubbing her. Her level of shock remains high, and we found some dried blood on both sides of the rear lower head/ear area this morning, worse on the L than on the R. We cleaned all the blood off, but can find no punctures, but we're near certain that she was either bitten on both sides of the head, or talons got her on both sides, the L side of her head taking the brunt of the attack. She might have even taken the attack in the ear canal, but with Silkies' black skin and so many soft feathers, it's nearly impossible to tell. Also, she has a lot of swelling on the L side as shown in the photos.
We've managed to get electrolytes in her via a small dosing syringe, are keeping her warm, and watching her closely, but it seems as if she may have a neurological issue caused by the attack, or she's just in heavy shock. If we touch her, it seems to irritate her a bit, but we are getting chirrs and cheeps out of her even in her condition. We've cleaned the areas of swelling with antibiotic soap and applied antibiotic cream, and she's opened her eyes a couple of times though they have remained mostly closed since the attack last evening.
Last, she had a full crop when this occurred, but it hasn't gone down much at all since the attack, and she has normal stools through this writing. The vet is an option, and we're not scared of big vet bills, but short of identifying a fracture that we won't be able to treat effectively anyway, what more is there to do?
We are also concerned about her crop not going down much at all, but she's expending maybe 10% of the energy she usually does...
Link to her behavior post-attack:
Photos: Note the swelling that can be seen in the comparison photos taken from Left Rear and Right Rear of her head in the 4th and 5th photos below.
When cleaning and redressing the L side of her face, we finally found the wound, which clearly looks like a talon puncture.
Updated photos:
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