Hawk attack

[Thechickenchick2]

so, we are currently in the process of moving so our chicken run is roofless. Long story short my mom is in town and just witnessed a hawk attack on my flock. One is dead and the other 5 are in their house right now. I am beside myself and my mom is too afraid of the hawk and the chickens to be of any help in knowing if any others are hurt.

I am stopping at TSC on my way home to get any supplies needed for an injured chicken - my only question is what exactly ARE those supplies?

 

[dawg53]

Betadine, neosporin and gauze for basics until you see the extent of wounds. I would expect punctures. Flush with betadine, pack with neosporin. For severe tears and rips for of open flesh, penicillin G procaine injections might be required.

 

[Thechickenchick2]

This is so helpful thank you so so much!!!

 

[Thechickenchick2]

All of my other girls are ok except every single one of their beaks are broken.... they aren’t terrible split or broken but what the heck do I do?! Will this impact them forever? How did this happen?? Attacking the hawk?

 

[dawg53]

Split beaks from my experience: Watch and see how they eat. Some beaks might be worse off than others. If they cannot pick up a granule of feed, you'll know there's going to be a problem of malnutrition if they dont eat.
You'll have to mix water in their feed in order for them to eat, preferably in a deep bowl so their beak wont hit bottom causing further injury to the beak.
Keep the gruel liquidy throughout the day, the water is soaked in the feed and can harden
as time goes by.
Be prepared for possibly a long process of beak regrowth and healing. Have patience, the beaks will heal/regrow eventually back to normal.

 

[beccaisfirst]

we lived through severe hawk attack, we gently washed bird to determine where injuries were, located, if severe, needing sutures, went got some antibiotics from feed store, cleaned and flushed wounds sutured up and watched for inflammation and infection...
keep separated from flock to watch closely as will need attention to make sure eating and drinking, add electrolytes to the water, and some probiotics as well and hope for best.

 

[Thechickenchick2]

They all are able to eat... some def broke into the “quick”. Should I be putting anything on them for pain? To help “glue”? Crushed Tylenol in their water or anything? I feel SO awful. Yesterday was a terrible terrible day. Somehow all of my girls laid this morning even after all of this trauma. What in the world could have cause all of their beaks to crack/break? I know it doesn’t truly matter as its already done but I’m just so curious

 

[Nambroth]

After a dog (unsuccessfully) attacked their run, two of my chickens had varying levels of broken beak because in their panic they ran headlong into the fencing/coop. It's very likely that during the attack your chickens were in a panic and caused their injuries accidentally.
Directly dosing painkillers is more effective, but hard to do when the bird has a broken beak (I speak from experience)! It matters how much you wish to do for them. My one hen had a severe break and I obtained a prescription from our vet for metacam, which is anti-inflammatory and pain relieving.
Some people use baby aspirin (aspirin ONLY!!) for chickens, if they can't go the vet route. Here's a thread about it.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/using-aspirin-on-chickens.840411/

In the meantime, see if you can get some sort of cover going for them... even stringing yarn across the run in a "grid" in smaller than 1' gaps can deter a hawk for now.