Hawk injury: Will she heal if kept infection free?

[BuddiesOutBack]

”Potato” is making progress. Her wound is clean and muscle tissue is beginning to heal. Day 13 since Hawk attack. Tough girl!

 

[arwoon]

View attachment 2973822
”Potato” is making progress. Her wound is clean and muscle tissue is beginning to heal. Day 13 since Hawk attack. Tough girl!

You've done a great job with her. She is tough. Poor girl.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

View attachment 2973822
”Potato” is making progress. Her wound is clean and muscle tissue is beginning to heal. Day 13 since Hawk attack. Tough girl!

Looks good! Just keep doing what your doing

 

[BuddiesOutBack]

Day 18 Recovery after Hawk attack. “Potato” shed her scab today. Her skin has reattached to the muscle, and the deep scratch has healed. No signs of infection. Wondering if I should wait longer to re-introduce her to the flock. Temperatures are still freezing at night. I plan to make a sling for her to cover the wound.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

A couple things. First, I had a CX hen recover from a deep penetration to the chest wall, which she kept getting dirty (because it was a CX, they lay down as often as they can), so I had hope. That said, this recovery exceeds all reasonable expectations. You've done very well with the girl.

I would encourage you to bookmark this thread so you can find it in the future, and offer this example as hope to others re: chicken's ability to recover from sever lacerations by another critter, if a little bit lucky and quality, consistent care is provided. I am bookmarking it myself for that purpose.

Third, if you have the facilities, I would reintroduce using a "see and be seen" process of seperated integration - but not till those wounds are closed. I've seen too many reports of chickens picking on an obviously weaker flock member, particularly when under stress - and for most BYCers, the current weather is a stress source. You don't want your recovering bird to become a "boredom buster" for the rest of your flock.

Those are my thoughts, which I am, frankly, unqualified to give. In the case of any dispute, defer to the sage advice on illness and injury offered by @Wyorp Rock, Eggcessive, Overo Mare, Azygous, etc. I'm following their posts to try and learn this aspct of chicken keeping.

 

[juliamichell]

Oh lord! My chickens got attacked by a cat as babies (2 weeks ago) and I bathed them, like full on in the sink with soap so I could see the true injury. I put triple antibiotic on it 3x a day to keep it moist, but at the time they were on tetracycline (via nebulizer for a respitory scare) and they’re fantastic now, the little buggers. i hope this helped at all and good luck with her. I think she’ll be okay as long as her wounds stay moist and she is infection free

 

[juliamichell]

Day 18 Recovery after Hawk attack. “Potato” shed her scab today. Her skin has reattached to the muscle, and the deep scratch has healed. No signs of infection. Wondering if I should wait longer to re-introduce her to the flock. Temperatures are still freezing at night. I plan to make a sling for her to cover the wound.View attachment 2980028

Personally I’d keep her in and separated longer as the others may be interested in her wound?

 

[BuddiesOutBack]

Personally I’d keep her in and separated longer as the others may be interested in her wound?

I thought so, but I’m sure that she misses the flock. Thanks for the input.

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

I had one hen, Bravi, attacked by a sparrowhawk last November, and she tried to fight for her life. I thought all the magpies and crows were fighting - but it was not. They tried to cast the predator away.

I was too slow to realize that something went wrong. When I arrived, the sparrowhawk still sat on the hen, not willing to leave her prey.

When I got into the run and hold her, she had a terrible wound on the neck and chest. Especially the neck, the feathers were gone (the sparrowhawk planned to eat her there, i guess), and the skin was tore apart.

I thought it was her end, but tried to clean and dress her wound. I didn't have sufficient materials at hand that time (now I have everything I should have) and was totally new for such a situation. As she kept bleeding, I used gauze to roughly wrap her neck.

Day 1 and 2 - she looked completely horrible. Basically she stayed in the cage like this way, and I had no idea if she will survive or not.

Day 3, her eyes were open and tried to stand up. Also from Day 3, she tried hard to eat and drink, as much as she can. I gave her scrambled egg, toast soaked in broth or yogurt, water for the first week. Very soon she started to eat even more.

I should not use the gauze as it would stick on the wound, but anyway it was too late when I thought about this. I successfully took most of them, but the last layer was so tightly sticked on her skin - I dared not to take it away. One day, I found the last piece was on the ground - she got rid of it by herself.

She recovered very well, and I kept preparing her good food for her repairing. From the second week, she could stand properly for her meals.

Very strong desire to eat, eat, eat - that's absolutely a good sign.

From the 3rd week, I started to bring her in the garden when the weather was good. Every time when she was in the garden, she tried to move to where her flock was. So later we used the "see and be seen" method mentioned above by @U_Stormcrow to re-introduce her back. She fully returned to her flock after one month and almost immediately started to peck other pullets to secure her original position.

Now the run is covered, first aid box is replenished with proper utensils, and I learned some important lessons. Chickens are warriors.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Day 18 Recovery after Hawk attack. “Potato” shed her scab today. Her skin has reattached to the muscle, and the deep scratch has healed. No signs of infection. Wondering if I should wait longer to re-introduce her to the flock. Temperatures are still freezing at night. I plan to make a sling for her to cover the wound.View attachment 2980028

Personally, I would keep her separated until she starts to feather back in. Looks like it's still open enough for dirt and debris to get trapped. Covering a wound can also come with risks if not tended to daily and cleaned well. I've seen people remove coverings and the wound had molded - not good, so open wound, apply your ointment or spray and give time.

Looks good though!