My poor baby got attacked by a raccoon and I have many worries about her, so I'm hoping that you guys could help me.
So this hen is about two or three years old, and she was broody so she was in her nest, warming her eggs.
In the middle of the night, my mother started hearing our chickens screaming, so she went outside to see what was happening. She saw the broody hen in the mouth of the raccoon and she quickly went to grab a rake to scare the raccoon away. My mother thought she was already dead, but she stood up as soon as the raccoon dropped her and started walking slowly back to her nest. She quickly took her and the eggs inside of the house, put her in a basket and slept there the night.
The hen was pretty injured, but she wasn't gushing blood. The raccoon seemed to have tried to rip her head off, because every single raccoon I've seen who has eaten hens, they always take the head and leave the body. I don't know why, since there's so little meat on the head...
So the next day, we go and buy some hydrogen peroxide and some disinfectant cream for her. We put it on her, and I am hoping she gets better.
But I have this worry. Could she have gotten rabies from the raccoon? I've been told that most raccoons (not all of them) have rabies, but I'm not sure if that's true? And I know that birds can't get rabies, unless they are bitten. I don't know if that's true either. So that's what I want to know...
I feel really bad for her, she's one of my favorite hens. The last thing I want is for her to die a painful death.
So this hen is about two or three years old, and she was broody so she was in her nest, warming her eggs.
In the middle of the night, my mother started hearing our chickens screaming, so she went outside to see what was happening. She saw the broody hen in the mouth of the raccoon and she quickly went to grab a rake to scare the raccoon away. My mother thought she was already dead, but she stood up as soon as the raccoon dropped her and started walking slowly back to her nest. She quickly took her and the eggs inside of the house, put her in a basket and slept there the night.
The hen was pretty injured, but she wasn't gushing blood. The raccoon seemed to have tried to rip her head off, because every single raccoon I've seen who has eaten hens, they always take the head and leave the body. I don't know why, since there's so little meat on the head...
So the next day, we go and buy some hydrogen peroxide and some disinfectant cream for her. We put it on her, and I am hoping she gets better.
But I have this worry. Could she have gotten rabies from the raccoon? I've been told that most raccoons (not all of them) have rabies, but I'm not sure if that's true? And I know that birds can't get rabies, unless they are bitten. I don't know if that's true either. So that's what I want to know...
I feel really bad for her, she's one of my favorite hens. The last thing I want is for her to die a painful death.
