fox attack - take to vet??

[62058]

Oh come on! The bird I just posted abotu a few hours ago with feather troubles was just dragged off into a field by a fox. I ran after and it dropped her in time. doesn't look too badly hurt, just a bloody leg. Helping her now.

Would you try to take her to a vet? Are they just gonna say, 'why don't you just put her down'?

NEED ADVICE!!

 

[StephanieD]

She's having a bad week! Can she stand on her legs and walk o.k.?

 

[62058]

She can only stand on the one leg. She's trying to use the other, but it's bloody, and kind of just hangs when I pick her up. I brought her inside and wrapped her in a sheet, and she's eating now and looks alert, so hopefully she'll be okay.

 

[RedneckChikns]

The truth is...unless you have a BEND OVER AND SCREW YOU type of vet..most vets wont deal with poultry or if they do...well hope you have a high limit credit card. Best you do with chickens is treage on the homefront. Chickens are resielient. Wrap the leg if that bad....clean first with antibacterial wash, maybe some bedadine and apply neoporyin in generous amounts, then wrap if needs, box so it can rest quietly and keep warm. Pics would help. Hope you can save!

 

[StephanieD]

Just remember not to use anything with "CAIN" in it! It is deadly to chickens. I can not find any local vets that will treat chickens around here! I agree that you should try to treat it at home and hope for the best!

 

[62058]

Actually just found a vet that sees chickens. Going to try to clean and dress the leg myself but she keeps struggling and I don't want to hurt her further. If it gets too bad, I'll just go to the appointment at 6:30.

 

[lgallegos]

I had a duck attacked by a dog. I took it to the vet since it looked fine except the leg. There was a hole at the top of the leg in the abdomen that would get infected. He put in antibiotics and sewed it up. I took her in every other day for a shot of antibiotics for a week. $189 and now she's fine. I did pour peroxide on the wound and it really helped it heal up much better than without it.
The vet has his own chickens so he is very good with exotic animals. It's been a month and she's still not laying but it takes a while I guess.

 

[tammye]

depending on how bad the wound is maybe you can care for her. if you think you can take care of it you can wash it out with 1/2 water 1/2 peroxide solution, apply some antibiotic ointment to the wound, keep it clean and dry, keep her separtaed from her flock mates until she is healed and lloks like you need to fox proof your hen house and yard asap, he will be back, i bet it was the fox that caused the original feather damage another missed assult. good luck

 

[LaBaze]

Well the best thing to do would be to clean it and dress it and if still not doing good take her to the vet. As far as the fox goes I would get geese. We had feral cats coming in and sleeping in the nesting boxes and occasionally attacking our chickens. But we fixed them up when we got our "guard dog" geese. Everytime we have a cat come anywhere near the fence they go a honking with their feathers out ready to fight. We haven't had a cat come in since we got them and Ive heard of geese that have gone up against coyotes. Hope your chicken does better!!!

 

[62058]

Thanks so much for your advice everyone! What a wonderful community. I'm happy to report that Marybell seems to be doing well. The vet gave her a tongue-depressor splint and a shot of penicillin, all for a reasonable $40. Surprisingly, he said: "Now I gave her the shot in the breast meat, so if you're going to eat her wait at least a month." And I'm thinking, if we were going to eat her I wouldn't have even brought her in here in the first place…

For the curious, here are some recovery photos: http://bit.ly/g6Jo7Y