Fox Attacked my Buff Orpington pullet, but survived with injuries. Advice?

[Jillibo]

Hi, last evening while I was home and had just walked into the house, a fox snatched one of my free ranging Buff Orpington pullets! A neighbor witnessed the fox trotting away with her in it's mouth and quickly drove over to tell me thankfully! We quickly put the rest of the girls back in the coop and assumed she was gone for good. However about 1.5 hrs later, she came back home! She wasn't limping or anything, but upon inspection she had a place under her wing on her breast that the skin was torn off (like 3 inches in diameter.) The muscles underneath looked in pretty good shape. Not much blood and she was behaving as normal. So we went into First Aid mode, and we held her down gently (she is the most patient hen I've ever seen!) and cleaned her wounds. My husband happened to have some sutures, so we gently gave her about 15 stitches and closed the skin up (snipping away feathers as we went and cleaning the entire site. This all took like 1.5 hrs to get her situated. We created a bandage, put antibiotic cream on it and stuck it to her. We also did some online research and put some antibiotics for chickens in her water. She is eating, drinking and pooping fine. She slept all night and I let her "frolic" with her flock for about 20 minutes this morning. I have her in a "brooder" type cage with food and water and quiet time so she can sleep. I don't think we are out of the woods yet. Today, although she is acting ok, I think she may have picked at the sutures. The bandage is still in place but I had to snip a string from under it, so...that my have reopened. She is also very dark pink in the comb and waddle..her feet are very warm, like it makes me think she may have a bit of a fever starting. I'm not sure how resilient these birds are, but if she starts suffering, we know we'll have to make a sad choice. Any suggestions? Chicken prayers?

 

[FeatheredFriends&Horses2]

I'm sorry! Had a similar thing with a dog, left the bird with a permanent limp, but she survived.You sound like you're doing a very good job. Make sure it stays clean and run cold water (hydrotherapy) over it everyday for 15-20 minutes. It's amazing what this can do. We had a mare that tried jumping a barbed wire fence and sliced her foreleg up. She had a big chunk of meat just hanging off her leg. The vet came and stitched it up and we did hydrotherapy for a couple weeks. She doesn't even have a scar. Hopefully this helps!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

she had a place under her wing on her breast that the skin was torn off (like 3 inches in diameter.) The muscles underneath looked in pretty good shape.

My husband happened to have some sutures, so we gently gave her about 15 stitches and closed the skin up (snipping away feathers as we went and cleaning the entire site. This all took like 1.5 hrs to get her situated. We created a bandage, put antibiotic cream on it and stuck it to her. We also did some online research and put some antibiotics for chickens in her water.

Today, although she is acting ok, I think she may have picked at the sutures. The bandage is still in place but I had to snip a string from under it, so...that my have reopened. She is also very dark pink in the comb and waddle..her feet are very warm, like it makes me think she may have a bit of a fever starting

Welcome To BYC

Do you have any photos of her and the wounds?
What antibiotics are you giving?

Chickens are very warm - a mature chicken's body temperature ranges from 105-107F so she likely feel warm to you.

Chickens are pretty resilient when it comes to healing. Hopefully there will be no infection underneath the sutures.

Keep us posted on how she gets along.

 

[Jillibo]

Welcome To BYC

Do you have any photos of her and the wounds?
What antibiotics are you giving?

Chickens are very warm - a mature chicken's body temperature ranges from 105-107F so she likely feel warm to you.

Chickens are pretty resilient when it comes to healing. Hopefully there will be no infection underneath the sutures.

Keep us posted on how she gets along.

She's still looking good, eating, pooping, etc. We still have her in a separate cage, but have let her occasionally hang out with "the girls" as she is rather lonesome. No one seems to pick on her or care about the bandage under her wing. I had not heard about the hydrotherapy option before, but will try that with a turkey baster to see if we can continue to flush it out. So far so good; she's a lucky chickie! (I didn't photograph the injury as we had our hands full that evening, and it's bandaged now. I'll take one once we remove the bandage.)

 

[Jillibo]

She's still looking good, eating, pooping, etc. We still have her in a separate cage, but have let her occasionally hang out with "the girls" as she is rather lonesome. No one seems to pick on her or care about the bandage under her wing. I had not heard about the hydrotherapy option before, but will try that with a turkey baster to see if we can continue to flush it out. So far so good; she's a lucky chickie! (I didn't photograph the injury as we had our hands full that evening, and it's bandaged now. I'll take one once we remove the bandage.)

Update on our fox attacked chicken "Pancake". She is doing just fine. In fact we believe the antibiotics we gave her (erythromycin and a sulfa drug in her water for 10 days) has increased her maturity rate. She has bigger waddles and comb than the rest of the flock and is a bit larger. Once the bandage fell off, we tried to examine. Feathers have grown over her injury spot and we can't see a thing. We can feel scar tissue in the area, and it all seems healed! Miracle chicken! And the big news, she laid her first egg yesterday (ahead of all her other flock sisters)! The only down side is that she is incredibly spoiled : ) She is always the first one out of the coop in the morning and last one in. She sits on our back door step and will slip into the house if someone leaves the door open. I invested in some electrified poultry netting since the attack and have a large fenced in area for them to free range in during the day. I've had to move that away from the back door to keep her out of the house and keep the poop off the porch steps ; p She truly trusts us and will hop up on our laps or shoulders.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Update on our fox attacked chicken "Pancake". She is doing just fine. In fact we believe the antibiotics we gave her (erythromycin and a sulfa drug in her water for 10 days) has increased her maturity rate. She has bigger waddles and comb than the rest of the flock and is a bit larger. Once the bandage fell off, we tried to examine. Feathers have grown over her injury spot and we can't see a thing. We can feel scar tissue in the area, and it all seems healed! Miracle chicken! And the big news, she laid her first egg yesterday (ahead of all her other flock sisters)! The only down side is that she is incredibly spoiled : ) She is always the first one out of the coop in the morning and last one in. She sits on our back door step and will slip into the house if someone leaves the door open. I invested in some electrified poultry netting since the attack and have a large fenced in area for them to free range in during the day. I've had to move that away from the back door to keep her out of the house and keep the poop off the porch steps ; p She truly trusts us and will hop up on our laps or shoulders.

Glad to hear she is doing well!
Thank you for the update