skilove3
In the Brooder
A hawk (we think it was a hawk) attacked 3 of our remaining 4 hens (we started with 10 hens four years ago, and lost 6 to hawks during the first two years) last week, taking 1 hen on Thursday and it came back on Friday and attacked 2 more hens, badly injuring 1 hen and taking another hen, leaving us with 1 healthy hen and the injured hen. We found piles of feathers, but the 2 hens just vanished, and we have a 6 foot fence surrounding 3 sides of our property - the 4th side is the neighbor's 4 foot fence with slat openings. Our hens free-range in our yard - we are in the suburbs, and they are secured in their coop at night. The attacks happened in broad daylight. Anyway, we brought the injured hen inside and bathed her, washed her wounds and treated them - she lost all of her tail feathers and she had wounds under her left wing - claw marks I think, and had all her feathers ripped out under that wing too. She seemed okay at first, just in shock. She was walking around and eating, she liked her baths and let me treat her wounds. She rested in my lap and drank water fortified with electrolytes and duramyacin, ate yogurt in her hospital cage (a big dog crate with all the creature comforts). Yesterday she took a turn for the worse - I checked on her at lunch and she was sleeping, but drank water from a medicine dropper, and when I got home from work I bathed her again - she seemed to love it and rested peacefully in the bath with her wings out and drank cool water from a cup. When I took her out of the bath and treated her wounds again, she slept on a towel on the bathroom floor. I let her sleep for a while, cleaned her cage, put her in her cage and she could barely walk so I gently eased her to a corner so she could rest - she lied down and slept until I went to bed. When I checked on her at 3:00 am this morning she had passed. We are heartbroken and I'm left wondering what else could I have done to save her, her injuries didn't seem life threatening. Now we have one chicken left and I'm also wondering if she will be lonely. Any advice would be welcomed. Thanks in advance.