Hawk Attack

[asorensen]

I found my black star hen with a large wound on her back and i am assuming a hawk tried to get her. I put some wound care on the injury and gave her an .3 cc injection of baytril. I am not sure of the correct dose of baytril (anyone know?) just gauged by what I give my parrots. Any suggestions as to how to care for her wound? Should I leave it open or cover it? Can I give her something for pain? I feel so bad for her she was in the bushes sitting on the egg she laid today....so sad.

 

[RhodeIslandRedFan]

Hello asorensen - How is your chicken doing today? I don't have any first-hand experience with injuries and I can't answer your question about Baytril, but here is a link to information on caring for sick and injured chickens. Also, if you do a search on this site, you will find a lot of information on would care. I hope this helps. Please keep us posted. http://www.brittonclouse.com/chickenrunrescue/CARING%20FOR%20A%20SICK%20OR%20INJ%20%209_08.pdf

Here is an additional link on wound care. http://poultrykeeper.com/poultry-diseases-and-disorders.html

 

[asorensen]

Quote:
Thank you for your help but sadly she didn't make it.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

So sorry she didn't make it. It sounds like you did what you could.

 

[pcord]

For what it's worth (and for the future), I had a hawk attack earlier this year. The hawk opened up a pretty good gash on the chicken's side complimented by a few puncture wounds. The attack-ee was behaving relatively normally after the attack despite have a 2" wide gash down to the muscle. I read on here to never close a would and that birds heal extremely quickly. I applied some neosporin to the would on two occasions and monitored the healing which took place nicely. Now she's back to new without any symptoms. Closing the wound would likely allow infection. Leaving it open allowed it to heal from the inside out. I suppose there's a point where the wound is too large to leave open but the bird may be a goner at that point. Not sure- just thought I would offer my experience.

 

[sweetpeachicks]

Very sorry for your loss. We lost one of ours to a hawk last fall, and then again in January we lost our largest RIR top boss hen to what we assume was an owl(it was almost dark). I found it just 40 feet from the coop in the woods where it looked like the predator dropped her, maybe because she was so heavy...It will never be something I get used to, and I always feel responsible somehow. I make sure there are things the chickens can run under for safety here and there hoping it could make a difference. Other than keeping them from running free, I don't have any other ideas for you. I have no experience w/wound care for chickens, but the open healing makes sense, depending on the size.
Good Luck in the future.

 

[Wayne&Kim1963]

I have had lots of hawk attacks in years past. I always clean the wound with lots of water ,I take 10 cc syringe and add little bit of salt to water, I take syringe suck up water and spray it gently with syringe to clean up wound andthen I remove any dead tissue by clipping it away with scissors. Put some neosporin in it and loosely stitch it up with white thread and needle or I have regular sutures that I sew up my chickens with if they need it. At bottom of wound you leave about 1/2 inch gaping area for drainage. I give birds 1 cc of penicillin under the skin on the breast. The chicken will have to be put in cage with food and water and be kept alone for several days. Sometimes they have to be hand fed. I will give the bird 1/4 of asprin for pain once a day if I think the bird is in alot of pain or with fever.
Once in while I will have to re-open wound because some tissue died and needed to be cleaned out again and re - sutured looseley. The chicken always recieves a penicillin shot every other day and peroxide is execellent cleanser of wounds. I rarely loose a chicken from this method.