Hi everyone,
We've been having rat troubles in our coop for the last few weeks. We have six 6 week old babies being raised by two broody mommas in there and last night a rat attacked one of the babies. We heard the commotion from the momma and when we got to the coop, the baby was laying on the ground with a wound on her head. She had two bit marks on the top of her skull.
When I picked her up she was limp and appeared to be barely with us. I brought her inside and cleaned her wounds, they're very small, two cuts that are deep, but don't appear to be big enough to penetrate the skull. Last night she steadily improved, and was peeping and trying to flap her wings and get up but kept collapsing. When I look at her it seems as if she's weak on her left side, she keeps her left eye closed, although she can open it and does for a moment. Her left wing is drooping although she can flap it, her left leg is weak and she can't stand. She refuses to put weight on that leg but I can't feel a break anywhere. When I touch her right foot it curls around my finger but the left foot is totally limp.
Last night I thought she was just in shock from the attack and we gave her a night inside of peace and quiet, but today it seems more like a stroke. She won't drink water and when I try to dribble some into her mouth it just runs back out again. Other than her obvious left side troubles, she's very alert, is peeping and struggling to move normally but just can't. I've heard of chickens recovering from strokes, but if I can't get her to drink water she doesn't stand a chance. I'm at a loss this morning.
Does anyone have any advice? If it is a stroke, is there anything I can do about it, or is culling the only option at this point? Thank you for reading and responding
-Meredith
We've been having rat troubles in our coop for the last few weeks. We have six 6 week old babies being raised by two broody mommas in there and last night a rat attacked one of the babies. We heard the commotion from the momma and when we got to the coop, the baby was laying on the ground with a wound on her head. She had two bit marks on the top of her skull.
When I picked her up she was limp and appeared to be barely with us. I brought her inside and cleaned her wounds, they're very small, two cuts that are deep, but don't appear to be big enough to penetrate the skull. Last night she steadily improved, and was peeping and trying to flap her wings and get up but kept collapsing. When I look at her it seems as if she's weak on her left side, she keeps her left eye closed, although she can open it and does for a moment. Her left wing is drooping although she can flap it, her left leg is weak and she can't stand. She refuses to put weight on that leg but I can't feel a break anywhere. When I touch her right foot it curls around my finger but the left foot is totally limp.
Last night I thought she was just in shock from the attack and we gave her a night inside of peace and quiet, but today it seems more like a stroke. She won't drink water and when I try to dribble some into her mouth it just runs back out again. Other than her obvious left side troubles, she's very alert, is peeping and struggling to move normally but just can't. I've heard of chickens recovering from strokes, but if I can't get her to drink water she doesn't stand a chance. I'm at a loss this morning.
Does anyone have any advice? If it is a stroke, is there anything I can do about it, or is culling the only option at this point? Thank you for reading and responding
-Meredith
