Attacked by Racoon, Severe Injuries, Emergency, Plz Help

[OG Anomaly]

Peroxide can burn/agitate the skin. I usually flush with saline and a syringe. I would put Neosporin or triple antibiotic on the wounds. If u can get some nutri drench..drip it on her beak for fluids. I've had chickens pretty torn up by predators survive some unbelievable injuries. It's hard for me to tell if she's lost both her eyes...she may have so much trauma to the area its just swollen with fluid.keep ointment around her eyes so the skin don't harden. There is eye ointment for livestock u can use to flush her eye. THE PREDATOR WILL BE BACK! ONCE THEY know where an easy meal is they will continue to visit your coop. Predator proof it ASAP. Chicken wire is easy to penetrate by coons, fox and weasals. Good luck...hope ur hen does ok...they are really resilient. Let us know how she does!

Thank you, that's a great tip about keeping the eyes soft, too, I didn't even think about that! Really hoping it is just fluid.
We did get the gap fixed asap & are now locking them in the coop itself at night, at least until we know for sure the creep is gone and finish further fortifications.
I've seen Nutri-Drench mentioned many times and I have added it to my list along with eye ointment and several other things.
I also think the same about the predator and are trying to be prepared.
I've read some really sad stories now, people losing 20-30 birds in one night!? Awful!
I also didn't know chicken wire was easy to get into...will look into that as well.
It's hopeful to hear you've had some survivors of bad injuries!
If her eyes calm down and I can keep her from flies & getting infected...she might make it. She even laid an egg this morning.

*I posted a really long, detailed update with pics, but did it as a reply,(face palm) do you think should I paste/copy & make it an actual thread post?
Thanks again for the advice

 

[OG Anomaly]

You have to survive through at least day three without infection or fly strike setting in before I would relax.

Thank you, that's helpful to know!
It's almost been 24 hrs. It happened around 2-2:30 Sunday morning.
It was crazy we even found them, at that time.
My son and some friends had gone to a show and he locked the keys in the car, smh.
I had to drive into the city and when we got back home, we just decided to walk out back and check out the chickens. I'm fairly certain we interrupted the attack and I would swear I heard something running away as we approached.

 

[OG Anomaly]

Update: She's still alive and, so far, is slowly recovering.
I see there are more responses to my post & I ap


I have never worked with birds before and am learning a lot. Our vet was kind enough to give us some antibiotics and I've been looking at the different topicals for her wounds. I have a list and

I don't know how this reply was posted, I was going to make an update, then saw the new replies/posts and started to reply to those & thought I'd exited the start of the update, smh, apologies

 

[OG Anomaly]

Getting her hydrated is very important.
You can offer her a little chopped egg, tuna or beef liver in addition to her normal feed once she is drinking well. Most feed stores carry poultry vitamins - add those to her water, look for Poultry Nutri-Drench, Rooster Booster Poultry Cell or something similar.

For the eyes, flush them out with saline to help remove any debris. This can be purchased saline or you can make your own - 1/2tsp salt per cup of water boiled for 15minutes. Place in a sterilized jar - make a fresh batch every day.

Triple antibiotic ointment or vetericyn can be used on the wounds. For the eyes there is Vetericyn eye gel, Terramycin eye ointment or some people use plain neosporin.

As far as I know, Tractor Supply still carries injectable antibiotics. Look for Procaine Penicillin G in the refrigerated section. Procaine Penicillin G (PenG) dosage is 1/4 ml or cc injected into the breast muscle 1/4" deep daily for 4days. Alternate sides each day. Use a 20guage needle for your injection.

Place her in a box, tote or cage inside if possible so you can monitor and attend to her.

Just my thoughts.

Wow, wish I'd seen this earlier, I thought I'd get an alert every time someone replied to my post. I'm also on a new pc, maybe I have something checked wrong...I'll figure it out eventually, thanks for your patience.

And thank you so much for the great info, I'm going to try and get some food into her tomorrow.
I was going to buy baby chick food, would it be ok to use in conjunction with the Nutri-Drench? (I honestly haven't looked it up, was going to read labels at the store, but I've seen so many people recommend it that I put it on my list).

Not sure how much she normally drinks, but I've been offering her aspirin water throughout the day and night. Our vet gave us some Tylan to put in the water and I also added a little honey. Electrolytes are also on the list.

I flushed her out with Dakins solution again and reapplied the triple antibiotic ointment. I didn't use hydrogen peroxide at all and will make up a batch of saline solution to use tomorrow. I'm a little uncomfortable using the Dakins so close to her mouth & eyes.

Do you think the Tylan will work, or should I go with the penicillin?

My list of things to pick up tomorrow includes the above mentioned, plus- Terramycin (sp?), Vetricyn, cath/tubes for feeding, more Neosporin, different syringes (all we have are tiny diabetic ones, lol) and some non stick gauze pads. If you think I'm missing anything, please feel free to let me know.

I'll keep working on figuring out the posting(?) system here, too.
Our cat is sick as well and I've had about six hours sleep outta the last 36, I want to respond to these messages tonight though, people took the time to help and I really appreciate it.

Thanks again, hope you a had a great day

 

[OG Anomaly]

Sounds like shes doin really good! If ur keeping Antibiotic ointment on her wounds and she seems to be healing and no infection and esting a bit...thats a great sign.

Thanks!

 

[centrarchid]

Keep up on those antibiotics. Based on what I see in the images an know of how a raccoon does business, you are dealing with a lot of penetrating puncture wounds into the skull. All that swelling hopefully will subside quickly, especially that associated with the eye balls. Birds eye do not handle swelling well, I presume because of the bones in them.

I like the birds posture keeping wings tight. That indicates still strong and inner ears are intact.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Breath, you're doing fine

Are you keeping her inside?

Go with the Tylan the Vet gave you. Adding the honey sounds good, from what I understand Tylan is a bit bitter. Like @centrarchid says, keep them going.

Chick starter is fine, Nutri-Drench is my personal go-to, but any poultry vitamins will work. Nutri-Drench can be given direct ( 1cc per 3lbs of weight). At this moment, once she is hydrated, if she will eat, let her have what she wants - chopped egg, beef liver or tuna are sometimes well received.

Dankin's Solution may be harsh around the eyes/face, saline is more gentle.
Keep the wounds moist with ointment/spray - any of those you have listed will work. Terramycin eye ointment is an antibiotic ointment for the eyes, if you can't find that you can use Vetericyn ophthalmic eye gel.

Again, getting her hydrated is important, minimum fluid requirement is 23 ml per pound per day.

http://lafeber.com/vet/tube-feeding-birds/
Casportpony's thread has videos and show's what supplies you need for tube feeding: http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/805728/go-team-tube-feeding

 

[abraga]

How's your chicken?

 

[OG Anomaly]

Keep up on those antibiotics. Based on what I see in the images an know of how a raccoon does business, you are dealing with a lot of penetrating puncture wounds into the skull. All that swelling hopefully will subside quickly, especially that associated with the eye balls. Birds eye do not handle swelling well, I presume because of the bones in them.

I like the birds posture keeping wings tight. That indicates still strong and inner ears are intact.

Ok, will do!
Good to know about posture.
Yes to the puncture wounds, there are several, you can't really tell from the pics, but the wound on her head looks to be to the bone.

I've just been giving her some tuna water mixed w the Tylan. She's never had tuna before and she acted a little different, turning her head from side to side, I thought she liked it, but then she started to shake her head a little and acting like she was going vomit..? Opening and closing her beak slowly and straightening her neck out...did I do something wrong? Nutri-Drench is en route as I type this.

 

[OG Anomaly]

How's your chicken?

She seems a little better, thanks!
But- I just gave her some tuna water mixed in with her Tylan water & I thought she liked it, but she started to slowly open & close her beak & straighten her neck out and seemed like she wanted to vomit? She did stop, but I don't know if I should do that again?