Hawk attack yesterday, UPDATED hen not eating well

[lovemyflock]

My 1.5 year old black australorp was attacked by a medium sized hawk yesterday. My husband was able to get to her and get the hawk to fly off. At first she seemed to be in shock with both her eyes closed and was breathing through her mouth for about an hour. Around dusk I put her in the coop and she did hop up and sleep on the roost throughout the night. One of her eyes is swollen and sealed shut...I'm not even 100% sure that she still has the eye. I can't see any other wounds on her body and she seems to be getting around ok, just very nervous/flighty because she can only see out of the one side. What should I do? We don't have a chicken vet around here...should I try to open the eye? anything I should put in it? I feel so bad that this happened, I guess they wont be free ranging unless we can be out there to supervise from now on.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

1) What type of bird , age and weight. Australorp, 1.5 years, normal weight
2) What is the behavior, exactly. Wont open eye, looks a little swollen.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? Hawk attack was around 3pm yesterday afternoon.
4) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. No bleeding, just wont open her eye.
5) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. Hawk attack.
6) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. I'm not sure if she is drinking on her own, I did give her an eye dropper of water this morning just in case. She ate a small piece of bread this morning, I'm not sure if she is eating her pellets.
7) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. Normal-runny
8) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? None
9 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? I'd like to treat her anyway I can myself, we do not have a vet that treats chickens in our area.
10) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. N/A
11) Describe the housing/bedding in use. pine.

 

[naked_heels]

I don't know if u have any poultry medicine at home. Let's just said you do not have, wash wound with warm water and apply Iodine on the wound; give aspirin one/day for 3days. I don't know how bad is the wound, hope this helps.

 

[AmyBella]

Poor girl! I am glad that you were able to stop the attack! Hopefully your girl's eye is still intact, but if it is not, or even if it scratched you may need to treat it to prevent infection. I don't really have much experience with this... if you do a search of the forums you may get some good advice from other threads! Good luck!

 

[chickerdoodle]

It never hurts to rinse area with sterile saline. Check all of her for other wounds (talons may have punctured her somewhere). If she has the eye you can use an antibiotic eye ointment (no steroids) from the feed store. Give her a vitamin boost (no iron) and water as well as scrambled eggs to get her to eat. Keep her warm inside. Waiting for someone who knows more to help you.

Need to keep her hydrated--electrolytes are better if she wont drink well.

 

[lovemyflock]

ok, I have her in the house for the night. I've given her vitamin water with an eyedropper and she ate a whole scrambled egg. She seems a little weak, but I'm hoping that's just because she hasnt been eating as much as she should. I did open her eye and it is there. Her 3rd eyelid was blinking, so hopefully that is a good sign. I used to work for a vet (who doesn't see birds or chickens) who I called to talk to about her today. She called in a prescription antibiotic ointment that she said should be safe to use.

I really hope she pulls through, she's such a pretty girl.

 

[AmyBella]

Awesome! That is so cool that you have a vet resource to help. I'm pulling for her!

 

[lovemyflock]

Well today she seems a little weaker

I'm starting her on oxytetracycline 343 in her water instead of just the vitamins/electrolytes. I called durvet to get the dosage and they said 1/4 tsp per gallon of water.

I just don't know what else to do at this point. Her eyelid looks red today. She's not eating as well as yesterday, but ate maybe half of a scrambled egg this morning. I don't think she is drinking on her own, but we are giving her water with a dropper to the side of her mouth. She is still inside since we are having a very cold and windy day today.

Any other suggestions?

 

[AmyBella]

Hmmm, I would keep trying to tempt her with favorite treats... anything to get some calories in there! Whenever my chickens have a problem I offer them mash or pellets moistened with warm water, yogurt or applesauce. For some reason this appeals to them more than the hard, crunchy pellets. Probably easier to digest too.