Cornish X attacked by raccoon or fox - can they still be eaten??

[twochixchickens]

I had about 40 X's out in their tractor and the next day I saw 2 dead inside and about 10 others with varying injuries. Some were small cuts and others were large 2-3 inch gashes totally through the skin exposing the meat. 2 also had their actual wing bones sticking out. When I discovered them, I noticed a dark gray/black tuft of fur on the cage leading me to believe it was a raccoon. A couple days later, during the day I saw a brown fox trying to get to them, so I'm not 100% sure who caused the injuries. I treated the wounds and culled 2 of them. The wounds have started to heal, but my question now is can these still be grown and eaten? They probably have a month or so left before processing. Is it dangerous to eat if any get an infection? What about what ever the predator could have, rabies or something else? It definitely is not worth getting ill over. This is my last batch of meat chickens I'm doing and I'm ready to be done with the whole thing. They are some that don't SEEM to have any injuries (but what if they had a minor scratch I didn't notice?), but some of those have also pecked the injuries of other and have bloody beaks.

Any thoughts?

 

[Ridgerunner]

With a month to go, if they heal up you are fine. If one has a broken bone, dislocated joint, or something that discolors the meat when you butcher I'd toss that part and eat the rest. If one gets an infection and gets over it I'd eat that bird. You do have a month to go.

I would not worry about any potential disease the predator might have, not a month away, unless something shows up in your flock. It is not likely to. My only worry about them pecking a wound is that they can become cannibals and kill the wounded chicken. If you can you might want to separate the injured birds until they heal.

If you were hunting a pheasant, wild turkey, wild duck, quail, or whatever and that bird had been attacked by a predator a month earlier you'd never know it and never worry.

 

[twochixchickens]

All good points Ridgerunner, thank you!

I live in the woods and it has been extremely challenging to have any livestock. Just way too many predators that take the fun out of it. I was at my wits end yesterday.

 

[puddle_drinker]

I had about 40 X's out in their tractor and the next day I saw 2 dead inside and about 10 others with varying injuries. Some were small cuts and others were large 2-3 inch gashes totally through the skin exposing the meat. 2 also had their actual wing bones sticking out. When I discovered them, I noticed a dark gray/black tuft of fur on the cage leading me to believe it was a raccoon. A couple days later, during the day I saw a brown fox trying to get to them, so I'm not 100% sure who caused the injuries. I treated the wounds and culled 2 of them. The wounds have started to heal, but my question now is can these still be grown and eaten? They probably have a month or so left before processing. Is it dangerous to eat if any get an infection? What about what ever the predator could have, rabies or something else? It definitely is not worth getting ill over. This is my last batch of meat chickens I'm doing and I'm ready to be done with the whole thing. They are some that don't SEEM to have any injuries (but what if they had a minor scratch I didn't notice?), but some of those have also pecked the injuries of other and have bloody beaks.

Any thoughts?

As I understand it, it's pretty rare for a bird to get rabies. Although there is one documented case of a chicken getting rabies from a dog.

Rabies symptoms show up once the virus travels through the nervous system to the brain, the shorter the path, the quicker the brain is infected and symptoms show. Once symptoms show it's 2-10 days until death. If one, or more, of the injured chickens get weak and dies in the next 30 days you might want to have it checked for rabies. Since a chicken is small it shouldn't take long for the virus to reach the brain. If one of your chickens brains tests positive for rabies you might want to get the rabies vaccine, in case you came in contact with the virus through cleaning their wounds.

It shouldn't be a problem to process and eat the healthy birds provided they are thoroughly cooked.