Hawk attack

[pfields]

I heard a strange sound coming from the backyard and when I went outside I noticed all the chickens were in the coop and the rooster was alarming, then I saw it, one of my EE's had jumped over fence in the backyard and the hawk was sitting on her pecking away at her back. I ran as fast as I could to the backyard and about 10-15 feet away it took off. Once he flew off she ran around the fence back towards the house and hid under a shrub by the garage. My husband was just pulling in the driveway from getting the mail. He got her out from under the shrub. We brought her into the house, cleaned off her back, and put some antibiotic cream on a square pad and wrapped some no stick tape around her stomach to hold down the pad on the wound. She's in the bathtub right now with food and water on some pee pads. My old coup is empty so later today I'll add some new pine shavings and set up her there to heal.

On a side note, I have eggs in my incubator and one has just pecked a hole through the egg.

 

[aart]

Bummer!

It's best to leave the wound uncovered.

Anti biotic cream is good but should not have any pain relief content.....
...any ingredient with -caine can be toxic to chickens.

They heal up pretty good and quick, just keep her quiet and fed/watered overnight,
best to get her back with the flock as soon as possible so you don't have reintegration issues.


WOW all that and chicks hatching... lots of chicken drama at your place tonite

 

[pfields]

This is the third chicken I've had attacked by a hawk in the past year. We didn't use the antibiotic with pain and yes you're right they do heal up fairly quick. The reason I put her in my old coup was so she wouldn't get picked on. She's got a safe place with food and water and a fan since it's hot here at night. She was bleeding a lot from her back and they would pick on her wound. Tomorrow I'll remove the bandage just didn't want any dirt or flies to get in her wound. Last time I used some easy off wrap bandage that was brown. I'm going to look for some tomorrow. It worked great, the chickens didn't notice the bandage at all. After a couple days I removed the wrap and they were good to go.

I'll try to post a picture of her wound tomorrow.

We've got six chicks hatched. They will be RIR/BO (from brown eggs) or EE/BO (from green eggs). I only have one rooster and he's a BO that I've raised from chick purchased from Ideal this past January.

 

[aart]

This is the third chicken I've had attacked by a hawk in the past year. We didn't use the antibiotic with pain and yes you're right they do heal up fairly quick. The reason I put her in my old coup was so she wouldn't get picked on. She's got a safe place with food and water and a fan since it's hot here at night. She was bleeding a lot from her back and they would pick on her wound. Tomorrow I'll remove the bandage just didn't want any dirt or flies to get in her wound. Last time I used some easy off wrap bandage that was brown. I'm going to look for some tomorrow. It worked great, the chickens didn't notice the bandage at all. After a couple days I removed the wrap and they were good to go.

I'll try to post a picture of her wound tomorrow.

We've got six chicks hatched. They will be RIR/BO (from brown eggs) or EE/BO (from green eggs). I only have one rooster and he's a BO that I've raised from chick purchased from Ideal this past January.

Ah flies are a very good reason to cover a wound.

 

[pfields]

She picked off her bandage during the night and started picking at her own wound which caused it to start bleeding all over the place. I didn't have time to get a picture due to taking care of her, the hatching chicks and the hawk came back this morning. I was in the coop with the big door open and all of a sudden they rushed the door then I heard the gun shot. My husband tries to scare them away with his pistol and rat shot. We have a huge roll of netting that we bought so today we're going to string some in the backyard so they'll have more areas to run under for protection.

I've got 9 chicks (1 black, I guess that was one of my BA eggs and 8 yellow) in my bathtub under a heat lamp. Four are still wet in the incubator.