Hi there! We had a chicken who was attacked by I'm guessing a hawk the other day. We found feathers everywhere and expected to find a deceased bird by the looks of it. We were, however, surprised to find her hanging out with the rest of the flock a little while later...with all the feather fuzz missing from her vent/butt area. She was bleeding a little around the vent, but not severely. After checking it looks like the hawk did some pretty good damage to her. My question is, how do I tell if she is in pain or not? We have separated her from the flock and have been spraying the wound down with a natural disinfecting solution twice a day. She seems to be eating, drinking and pooping ok. She seems to be her fairly perky self. I just don't want her to suffer, if she truly is hurting terribly! It looks as if the hawk got her down to the thigh meat. Thanks for any insight!
Hens are tough! The universal I don't feel well chicken stance is balled up, feathers poofed, head tucked in. Often they will stand in a corner or off by themselves. If she's eating and drinking normally I would think she's ok. If it doesn't stress her to be away from the flock you can keep her separated. I've found some birds to do worse when separated. The other option is to bring in a low ranking friend to keep her company. Pictures of her wounds would be helpful. I have a girl with a nasty looking injury. It was bad rooster damage that I healed once but the skin was too thin for her to go without her saddle so it got opened up again. You can give them pain medication but I'm not sure on dosage. Hopefully someone else will chime in.
