Chicken missing leg

[kdmpa4]

So my daughter who is very animal smart came to tell me the chickens went in the woods and she thought something was wrong. I thought maybe they were scared of us mowing and running a chain saw, so I went to put them in their run.

She found one of them (12 week pullet) just sitting in the coop. When I turned her to look for injuries, there was blood under her and upon inspecting her I found her thigh mostly gone with a few inches of bone sticking out then broken off above where her joint would have been.

We put her down as humanely as we could manage and I checked her and found no other wounds. I took a picture in case that's helpful.

We are new to chickens so we have no history of any type of predator.
We live in the woods in the mountains in PA, so there are many possibilities.
The run was open and is wrapped in 4 ft of hardware cloth, so it's not really an option to believe a raccoon reached through.
We really have no idea of where the injury occurred because I could not find any evidence (feathers blood etc) and really, when it happened is not precise either. I fell asleep last night without closing the run door, but the chickens are good about being in the coop when the automatic door closes at night.
No other chickens were injured that we can tell

 

[JacinLarkwell]

A picture would help. How old were they? We're they in the run or the woods when the leg went missing?

 

[kdmpa4]

I dont really know where she was when she lost the leg. She was found in the coop, just sitting. She was 12 weeks old. There are seven other 12 week chickens. There are also 10 15 week old chickens and 8 12 week old chickens that all free range together.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I would say a racoon, especially if she was penned up. We had a neighbor who had a racoon pulling legs off their chicks when it grabbed them through the wire

 

[kdmpa4]

For all I was sure it couldn't have been. I have decided it WAS a racoon. The hardware cloth that came on the windows of my coop was just too big and I found blood and feathers

 

[aart]

the chickens went in the woods

The run was open

Best keep the run closed up, eh?

 

[kdmpa4]

Best keep the run closed up, eh?

My chickens free range, and I would have restricted them for a while to help the predator lose interest but we discovered an unsecure spot at the windows of our coop where it was built with hardware cloth with squares that are too big. A racoon just reached through and ate her leg up as far as would fit through the screen (which was pretty far since she was young)