Help! Something ripped a leg off of my day old chicks.

[bamaslady]

I went out this morning to check on my chicks that my hen hatched yesterday. There were 3 yellow chicks and one black chick. There was one chick dead with a missing leg and another one crying and when I picked it up it was missing a leg too. My hen is free range but I felt I needed to put her and her new chicks in a pin to keep them away from predators. I think a raccoon or something must have gotten under the pin and tried to pull them through and tore their legs off. I don't know what to do. Should I leave the one legged chick in with the other two and the hen or take it out???

 

[GimmeCake]

Take it out, disinfect it, and wrap it up in medical tape (not too tight, or it won't heal that fast). Change the medical tape preferably every day. Do this for a week or two.

Hopefully this chick will live a good life without a leg. It's sad when these kinds of things happen.

Sorry for you loss! Anyway, hope this helps!

 

[Eggcessive]

I would suspect rats in your coop. A pen with hardware cloth would keep rats out.

 

[GimmeCake]

I would suspect rats in your coop. A pen with hardware cloth would keep rats out.

If there's a rat in the coop, I'd consider fixing the whole coop myself. In my coop that I'm currently working on, the rats either need to chew through lots of wood, or have a screw driver on hand to get in.