Help! What happened?!

[LaFleche]

this happened at approx 12pm, which I don’t think is their typical hunting time

They will hunt around the clock.

 

[Lizzy733]

Could very easily have been a predator. If you are in a region where they exist, they will very much be in urban areas even if you haven't noticed them.

Also, terriers were historically bred for hunting small game and tend to be 'more' likely to be aggressive around poultry.

When a bird is initially attacked, they can be 'very' out of it due to shock and there can be a lot of blood, but it's not always as bad as it first seems. I had an older hen who was on the way out (acites) who was attacked by her flockmates after two days of separation to get her over a cold snap. She was floppy and on her back with a very bloody headwound. It seemed bad at the time, but ended up being all superficial. After cleaning the wound and giving her some personal care for the evening, she was back to normal the next day despite how rough the wound looked.

With her bleeding from the mouth, you likely made the right call, but hens can easily look too far gone when in shock from an injury, so if it's possibly superficial, getting them cleaned up and providing electrolytes with a quiet warm place to recover may be all that's needed.

If it was a predator attack, the rest of the flock is likely to act defensive and flighty. In fighting doesn't cause the same level of anxiety and they'll go about their day as normal. -cant see another hen fighting to the point of causing internal injury though.

 

[SCchickengal]

I’m only curious why if it were one of those types of animals, why in the world it didn’t take the bird. I almost would’ve preferred that scenario. I sure hope we made the right call. After she flopped around spastically everywhere, seemingly partially paralyzed, she finally ran into the chicken wire portion of their run folded up like a pretzel. Still breathing but everything else looking very unwell and dead-ish. Ugh. I’ve been so upset all afternoon and I’m very anxious we’ll have this happen again, assuming there is a predator. Thanks for your feedback. I’m slightly relieved that y’all don’t think it was a fight. My Brahma is so sweet, I didn’t like to think of her as a bully. Now I’m just worried for her.

 

[Suzz]

Foxes live in suburbia and jump over high fences all the time:

And coyotes just as well:

And coyotes just as well:

foxes are very cat like or vice versa was reminded of my cats watching that
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[/QUOTE]

 

[jus10inla]

Hawk / owl. Seen them swoop in middle of day plenty times. It did the damage but droped it on the way out. Guarantee u if u plucked it it woulda been full of cuts u couldn’t see under all the feathers

 

[kurby22]

I’m only curious why if it were one of those types of animals, why in the world it didn’t take the bird. I almost would’ve preferred that scenario. I sure hope we made the right call. After she flopped around spastically everywhere, seemingly partially paralyzed, she finally ran into the chicken wire portion of their run folded up like a pretzel. Still breathing but everything else looking very unwell and dead-ish. Ugh. I’ve been so upset all afternoon and I’m very anxious we’ll have this happen again, assuming there is a predator. Thanks for your feedback. I’m slightly relieved that y’all don’t think it was a fight. My Brahma is so sweet, I didn’t like to think of her as a bully. Now I’m just worried for her.

Brahmas are pretty big chickens so it may be that a raptor attacked or a cat and the other chickens scared it away or you came home and scared it away? I would guess raptor or cat…I do agree with you that it’s weird the others seemed okay like nothing happened. It may have been a fast thing they didn’t see happen? If they free range…I’m so sorry for your loss. It’s such a traumatic thing to lose a pet, especially this way :-( My dog ate two of my baby quail and killed one of my hen quail that escaped and there were SO many tears.