Chicken survived hawk attack

[DFerg13]

Hello All- My beloved ISA Brown Olive was attacked by a hawk this afternoon. My husband came out just in the knick of time. We found her hiding and stunned. She lost a load of feathers and has one very large visible wound between her wings on her back. I have read numerous post stating to bathe her but I am hesitant due to the pain it may inflict. We also tried hydrogen peroxide around the less deep wounds and she was very unhappy. I stopped and just covered the area with neosporin. I have her in the garage in a dog pin with a heat lamp w food electrolyte water and such. Is there anything I can do to help her with healing the deep wounds and pain?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Don't use hydrogen peroxide on animals. A bath will hurt far, far less

 

[Little Chickadee]

Has she been in the garage before? If not, you may want her inside so she can hear you. Being in shock is the biggest issue right now. Keeping her warm, water with electrolytes.. bathe her tomorrow. Let her rest tonight.

 

[Shezadandy]

Hello All- My beloved ISA Brown Olive was attacked by a hawk this afternoon. My husband came out just in the knick of time. We found her hiding and stunned. She lost a load of feathers and has one very large visible wound between her wings on her back. I have read numerous post stating to bathe her but I am hesitant due to the pain it may inflict. We also tried hydrogen peroxide around the less deep wounds and she was very unhappy. I stopped and just covered the area with neosporin. I have her in the garage in a dog pin with a heat lamp w food electrolyte water and such. Is there anything I can do to help her with healing the deep wounds and pain?

Give her sugar water to help with the shock. Keep her warm, and if you can, inside your house. Trim away all feathers that when wet OR dry will lay into the wound (you don't want feathers dipping into the wound).

Vetricyn (the all-animals kind will do just fine, it's twice the volume for about the same price as the "poultry" formula) will not hurt like hydrogen peroxide and alcohol ... and can be used throughout the healing process.

Aspirin- as long as there's no bleeding - can help with the pain. I use the 81mg chewable (cherry) "low dose" aspirin. I crush it over whatever the hen will eat, or if you know how to tube feed, you can do it that way. 81mg treats 3lbs of bird, so if she's around 6lbs, 2 chewables per day. I like them because it's a lot easier than messing around trying to divide a 325mg pill into the right dose. Tastes better too!

Nutridrench for poultry can be helpful to bridge the gap if she's off her feed for a couple days.

If she won't eat/drink willingly from dishes, use a syringe. 12cc is a good size. While you can force the beak open and "syringe" them, I like to just lay the tip of the syringe at the corner of their beak and slowly dribble fluid in- like greasing a hinge. Don't force the head up or back- it may take some tries, but they catch on to capturing the fluid and swallowing it down usually- and you won't have to fight with her to get it down that way.

Scrambled and/or hard boiled eggs ... her normal food made into a mash with warm water - and generally whatever treat she'll accept.

Wound treatment - After the initial cleaning, spray with Vetricyn then slather on antibiotic ointment to keep it moist.

 

[micknapp]

I had a hen survive a hawk attack a few months ago. she was essentially ‘scalped’ on the back of her neck, lost a part of her eyelid, and lost half her comb.
we went ahead and made 1 gallon of water mixed with 1/2 low dose aspirin and it REALLY made all the difference in her recovery. she would actually eat! make sure you put regular neosporin & not the pain relieving kind. that can interact poorly with a chicken’s internal organs. we went ahead and spoiled her with food just to get nutrients in her. we gave her lots of scrambled eggs & meal worms. i agree with the others on vet spray. it’s pricey but it doesn’t hurt them.
also in my experience, letting her take aspirin before a bath works wonders. if at all possible, when drawing her bath try to get the water as close to chicken’s internal temp as possible. she’ll actually be comfortable in the water. however, we waited a few days to give her a bath. it can be too stressful sometimes. our chicken was just covered in her own blood for a few days, but she didn’t really notice haha.

 

[micknapp]

I had a hen survive a hawk attack a few months ago. she was essentially ‘scalped’ on the back of her neck, lost a part of her eyelid, and lost half her comb.
we went ahead and made 1 gallon of water mixed with 1/2 low dose aspirin and it REALLY made all the difference in her recovery. she would actually eat! make sure you put regular neosporin & not the pain relieving kind. that can interact poorly with a chicken’s internal organs. we went ahead and spoiled her with food just to get nutrients in her. we gave her lots of scrambled eggs & meal worms. i agree with the others on vet spray. it’s pricey but it doesn’t hurt them.
also in my experience, letting her take aspirin before a bath works wonders. if at all possible, when drawing her bath try to get the water as close to chicken’s internal temp as possible. she’ll actually be comfortable in the water. however, we waited a few days to give her a bath. it can be too stressful sometimes. our chicken was just covered in her own blood for a few days, but she didn’t really notice haha.

forgot to mention- sometimes saline can be used to free debris from the wound. it doesn’t feel as bad as water. you can also warm it so it’s not so shocking to the bird.

 

[DFerg13]

Give her sugar water to help with the shock. Keep her warm, and if you can, inside your house. Trim away all feathers that when wet OR dry will lay into the wound (you don't want feathers dipping into the wound).

Vetricyn (the all-animals kind will do just fine, it's twice the volume for about the same price as the "poultry" formula) will not hurt like hydrogen peroxide and alcohol ... and can be used throughout the healing process.

Aspirin- as long as there's no bleeding - can help with the pain. I use the 81mg chewable (cherry) "low dose" aspirin. I crush it over whatever the hen will eat, or if you know how to tube feed, you can do it that way. 81mg treats 3lbs of bird, so if she's around 6lbs, 2 chewables per day. I like them because it's a lot easier than messing around trying to divide a 325mg pill into the right dose. Tastes better too!

Nutridrench for poultry can be helpful to bridge the gap if she's off her feed for a couple days.

If she won't eat/drink willingly from dishes, use a syringe. 12cc is a good size. While you can force the beak open and "syringe" them, I like to just lay the tip of the syringe at the corner of their beak and slowly dribble fluid in- like greasing a hinge. Don't force the head up or back- it may take some tries, but they catch on to capturing the fluid and swallowing it down usually- and you won't have to fight with her to get it down that way.

Scrambled and/or hard boiled eggs ... her normal food made into a mash with warm water - and generally whatever treat she'll accept.

Wound treatment - After the initial cleaning, spray with Vetricyn then slather on antibiotic ointment to keep it moist.

Thank you so much for the response. I've gone down to check her routinely this evening and she is alert and coos to me. She is eating scratch ( I put that and pellets out for her). Ill do mash in the morning. Have not seen her drink but will get a syringe first thing as well as the Vetricyn first thing.

I did just notice she has dropped what appears to be an unformed egg (no shell).

 

[DFerg13]

Update: Olive seems to doing well. Alert, eating and moving around. I cleaned her wounds this morning with the Vetricyn and lots of neosporin. I also mixed in a bit of nutridench in her mash.
One thing I did notice was an unpleasant smell coming from her wounds. Any idea what this means aside infection? Thanks in advance for the feedback.

 

[aart]

Update: Olive seems to doing well. Alert, eating and moving around. I cleaned her wounds this morning with the Vetricyn and lots of neosporin. I also mixed in a bit of nutridench in her mash.
One thing I did notice was an unpleasant smell coming from her wounds. Any idea what this means aside infection? Thanks in advance for the feedback.

Please post some pics of her wound.
Get any feathers in the wound removed.
It needs to be flushed/cleaned with saline solution...
or there are other products that @Eggcessive can advise you about.

 

[micknapp]

Update: Olive seems to doing well. Alert, eating and moving around. I cleaned her wounds this morning with the Vetricyn and lots of neosporin. I also mixed in a bit of nutridench in her mash.
One thing I did notice was an unpleasant smell coming from her wounds. Any idea what this means aside infection? Thanks in advance for the feedback.

I agree to see photos. it depends on what “unpleasant” smells like- i personally think the smell of dry chicken blood is very unpleasant. Just keep flushing it as best you can!