Help! Hawk attack! Exposed bone

[Jeffnnrr]

My 18 month old sexlink hen screamed yesterday and when 3looked out the windows there was a hawk on. Top of her. I ran out in a foot of snow in my socks to get it off of her and scoop her up.The injury looks devastating and I was sure she'd be dead within hours so my husband should probably put her down but she wasn't bleeding much and didn't seem bothered by it so we thought we'd see if she made it through the night. Well, here we are and she's perky and her comb is good and red but she has so much exposed bone I just don't see how it can heal. Its mostly her shoulder so amputating the wing is no help. My husband did 22 years in the army and was trained as a combat medic and want to try stitching her shut when he gets home from work this morning. Ive started her on amoxicillan and kept antibiotic ointment on the wound. She's been nibbling worms and drinking water. I attached this Pic of the wound although her wing is folded. It looks so much worse with it spread. I had to keep it folded while I took the Pic though or she'd flapp away. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

 

[Jeffnnrr]

Wow. I don't get it. Did I say something wrong? Every other plea for help on here gets a slew of replies, right down to pasty poop, and I got nothing? Thanks for the support.

 

[firechicken76]

I don't know how much this will help because it's anecdotal, but we had a raccoon get a good gnaw on one of our hen's wings this summer.

We kept her indoors for the first few days after the attack and applied Vetermicyn and Neosporin (without pain relief). We fed her chick starter and added vitamins to her water. She seemed to have good energy after maybe a week, so we let her go back to the flock before she was fully healed and they accepted her right away. We kept applying Vetermicyn and Neosporin at night while she was on the roost. Putting her back outside with the flock that quickly was against general advice, but it worked. If they hadn't accepted her, we would have brought her back inside until she was more healed.

The wing eventually fell off on its own, but it left exposed bone. We haven't inspected it in several months, but she's still running around with the flock and laying like a champ.

It's amazing what they'll recover from even with novice care.

 

[Debbie292d]

Sorry nobody got back to you faster.

It sounds to me like you've done all the right things.

I presume you got the amoxicillin dosage, but in case you didn't, it's 57 mg per pound of weight every 12 hours for 7 days.

She doesn't sound like she's in too much shock, but if you feel she is, I'd give her electrolytes just for a half of a day.

I'd try getting her to eat her feed as she needs the nutrition. If you wet it to make a mash, most chickens think that's a treat. Scrambled eggs is a nutritious treat too.

If you have or can get any poultry vitamins, a vitamin boost would help her recover faster and help fight any infection. Most here use Poultry Cell and/or Nutra-Drench, which goes in their water.

You can cut any feathers that are getting into her wounds, and I'd keep your antibiotic ointment on there.

As the example in the post above mine shows, chickens are very resilient, so she will probably be just fine. I'd keep her indoors, though, until it heals over, so she doesn't get flystrike or picked on.

 

[Jeffnnrr]

Thank you both for your replies. She's incredibly resilient! My husband did the stitching job and it's healing quite well with no signs of infection. There is still exposed bone at the shoulder where there wasn't enough left to stitch but hopefully that will grow over? We are keeping everything slathered in neosporin. And yes, thanks to reading the threads here I was able to get the dose of antibiotics correct. Her appetite is good and she's eating lots of scrambled eggs, pellets and dried worms. It's like it doesn't even bother her. On the downside, that damn hawk came back this morning and killed one of my other girls. I was mad as hell. As much as it pained me to do it, I took her little body and used her as bait. I laid her out in the back yard on the snow. Sure enough that damn thing came back for her about an hour later. It had an introduction to my .22. Problem solved. It's a shame because I don't like killing anything. And it was a beautiful bird, but it was killing all my girls! Now I can bury my little sweetheart and the rest of my flock can live in peace for now. Someday another hawk or owl will show up eventually, but it doesn't happen often thankfully. Again, thanks for all your help.

 

[tripletfeb]

You might want to remove that last post, at least that part about killing the hawk. That's against the law and we have some "Karen's" on here that will surely report you

 

[BlueO]

Hi, so sorry about you girls! I’m glad to hear she is doing ok, hopefully the skin will grow back over it. I had a chicken get attacked by a coyote and she had a bad puncture wound. We kept neosporin on it and I was amazed how quickly it healed! That coyote had already got a few of our birds, and well you could say that was the last time he got a chicken. Hope your girl heals up good!

 

[Justagalwithchicks]

I haven't had this type of injury happen before, but read your post because I'm always trying to learn. Just want to say I hope your girl makes a full, speedy recovery! Sounds like you did all the right things to help her. We had to put poultry netting over our one run that isn't covered, because a hawk was sitting on the fence and watching them. We also have to stay out with them when they free range because we have seen them so much lately.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry to hear about your hen. I would probably keep your chickens locked up in a secure run right now, because of the snow, the predators are probably having trouble finding food. Usually I would just keep spraying the wound with saline or wound spray (such as Vetericyn,) and apply plain Neosorin triple antibiotic ointment until it heals. Betadine10% might be better for the exposed bone. A vet might be of help to cover the tissue. Hawks are protected birds of prey, and when we had a bad problem with them and our chickens, I had to remind our helper who wanted to shoot one, that if the game warden saw that, he could get a $20,000 fine and 6 months in jail at that time. We occasionally lost a chicken, but mostly they stayed in their coop when snow was on the ground. Yes, they can be a problem. Sorry about losing the other hen, but I hope this one survives with your good care.