Fox Attack Recovery

Virginia John

Hatching
Jan 23, 2020
9
10
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Please help,
we are plagued by foxes and last night a fox got one speckled Sussex and made a mess of the other. She spent the night in the cold because we thought she was killed as well and my neighbor called this morning having found her. She is missing a bunch of feathers around her neck and has a small chunk of skin missing at the base of her neck. There is a small puncture on her left breast and scrapes and bruises on her back. Her lungs are not crushed I know that much (its happened to another chicken before). I have been trying to give her water all day and she has very labored breaths. I read a thread on here about how to get a sick chicken to eat and I'm going to try it. She is currently being kept warm in a bathtub we don't use. She's having trouble keeping her head up and doesn't stay awake for more than a few minutes. Heres some unusual bits: She laid an egg while in the bathtub, she moved around a bit (meaning she was in a different part of the tub when I went to check on here then she was before). We have cleaned the wounds and applied antibacterial creams. Please let me know if there is anything else we can do.
 
She is very likely still in shock. Keep her quiet and warm, and hopefully she will rebound. Keep an eye on the breast puncture. Scrapes, bruises, and lacerated skin generally heal rather readily. Punctures may abscess and also indicate the possibility of internal damage. The egg that she laid was 'in process', and she will most likely stop laying for a bit. Good luck with her. Good that you have applied antibacterial ointment. :welcome sorry for the circumstances.
 
Thanks for the advice. I forgot some vital info: She doesn't open her eyes and is very limp. It's like she's in a coma or something. She does stand up if I try to move her and is very wobbly. When she does open her eyes its only for a few short moments. She is breathing through her mouth and I can't get her to eat or drink. Her personal attack probably happened around 24 hours ago. We've had her in the house and under supervision for 12.
 
Her lungs are not crushed I know that much (its happened to another chicken before). I have been trying to give her water all day and she has very labored breaths.
She is missing a bunch of feathers around her neck and has a small chunk of skin missing at the base of her neck. There is a small puncture on her left breast and scrapes and bruises on her back.
She's having trouble keeping her head up and doesn't stay awake for more than a few minutes. Heres some unusual bits: She laid an egg while in the bathtub, she moved around a bit
She doesn't open her eyes and is very limp. It's like she's in a coma or something. She does stand up if I try to move her and is very wobbly. When she does open her eyes its only for a few short moments. She is breathing through her mouth and I can't get her to eat or drink.
I'm sorry about your hen, how is she doing now?

The very labored breathing is concerning. Even if she doesn't have crushed lungs(?) she may have a damaged air sac (or more). Do you feel any bubbles of air underneath the skin?
Chickens have 9 air sacs - see the photo below. If you find that she does have a ruptured air sac, this can cause respiratory distress. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/deflating-subcutaneous-emphysema.171121/

If you have photos of her injuries, those might be helpful.
I would look her over really well for any other injuries, while you are feeling of her for a possible ruptured air sac.

It will be hard to get fluids and food into her if she's in distress. Once she's calm, then push fluids, food can wait.

1579837905529.png
 
She is a bit more responsive now and had moved sometime during the night. I lightly stroked her head and said good morning and she opened her eyes, stood and tried to look around but for the rest of me checking up she was laying down with her eyes closed.
I felt around for an air bubble like you said and couldn't find one but in the process, I found another injury on her right side. It seems like she was bitten across the back base of her neck. The most trouble I'm having rn is keeping her cleaned off without getting her so wet that she gets cold (She is perfectly warm rn I'm just worried that if I get a lot of her down wet that she will get cold) And she was very obviously rolling in dirt and such when she got attacked because she didnt have a chance to fluff it out.
I've been trying to get liquid in her but without her being fully conscious she can't really drink.
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This is her back. where my hand is her neck. That first injury is like a chunk missing the upper one is like a scab right now I cant tell if it went deep.
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This is on her right side and one I didnt know about until today (here you can also see her breathing through her mouth.) It's a very small cut (the dark line) and hard to see but there was a lot of blood in the feathers.
0-2.jpg

This is on her left side. There is a lot of bruising around it and the picture makes it seem bigger then it is.
I'm doing my best to keep at the injuries clean with ointment on them.

Could she still be in shock?
Thank you a lot for all the replies so far, I appreciate all the advice I can get.
 
I forgot to mention. The neck injury concerns me because I don't know if the little chunk missing held a tendon or anything of the sort. As you can see in the picture the other side looks like its holding on for dear life and Like I said previously she is having trouble keeping her head up and is definitely not steady. It seems like the other side of her neck (hopefully it's symmetrical) is just skin. Please let me know if you think it seriously damaged her neck movement or if it's just a bit of skin missing.
 
She is a bit more responsive now
It seems like she was bitten across the back base of her neck. The most trouble I'm having rn is keeping her cleaned off without getting her so wet
I've been trying to get liquid in her but without her being fully conscious she can't really drink.
There is a lot of bruising

How is her breathing, is it better?
It's hard to tell in the photos the extent of damage. If it seems she was bitten across the base of her neck, then she may have suffered neurological damage. Poor sweet thing:hugs

I would be inclined to administer antibiotics since she has punctures and she was not found until the next day. Do you have a Tractor Supply? A lot of them carry Fish Mox (Amoxicillin) that can be used, if not look in their refrigerated section and get Procaine Penicillin G, some 20 gauge needles and the smallest syringes they carry.
 
thank you all for your help it was very much appreciated but unfortunately, my father called me in-between classes today to tell me that she had passed. We probably got to her too late or maybe an air sac was damaged and I couldn't tell. Thankfully because of her being asleep and drowsy she probably went as peacefully as she could.
thank you again,
Virginia
 

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