Hen Attacked by an Animal

Chickie13

Chirping
8 Years
May 26, 2013
25
1
92
When we went to the coop, one of the hens was shivering on her perch. A lot of her feathers were torn off and there was a bloody hole (about 1.5in. diameter) on her back beside her tail. The blood was black and had dried already when we found her, and a few other parts of her body were scratched and bleeding. What can we do to help her? We have a large dog cage we could put her in for some privacy, and the only antibiotic we have right now is Neosprin. Should we buy some supplies from Tractor Supply?
 
I had a dog attack one of my girls a while back...he literally plucked her feathers out and left a hole kind of like you're describing. I put her in a nesting box and applied Veterecyn hydrogel and made sure she had access to food and water. Within a day she was walking around, slowly, and within the week she was growing new feathers. The veterecyn is about $35 for 8oz, but I haven't regretted the purchase once. You shake it and apply it 3 times a day. Good luck, sorry your girl was hurt :(
 
Thanks! We bought some spray-on vetericin and electrolytes to put in her water, and are going to move her into the empty dog cage right now.
 
I thought my run was secure, but 2 years ago a coon got in and killed 2 hens, and attacked another. She had her skin torn off in about a 4"x3" area on her back. Its important to keep flies away from the wound, or they will lay eggs in it. I cleaned it off with a diluted betadine solution. Then I put antibiotic ointment on the wound. For a few days, I cleaned the wound off with the diluted betadine solution. Then I stopped doing that, but continued for awhile with the ointment. It was amazing how quickly the wound healed. I think it was completely healed in a month........with good feathers covering it.
The important thing is to keep flies away and keep it separated from the others, since they will peck on it.
Also....(just in case you don't know this), keep a watchful eye for a little while on your chickens when you re-introduce your injured one back into the flock. It can be rough at first.
good luck!
 
P.S. A couple more thoughts........whatever attacked your chicken now knows where they are. Please figure out how to keep them safer now.
Also, when my chickens were attacked by a coon (after that, I reinforced their run), even the ones that weren't physically hurt, seemed to go into a depression. They stopped laying and lost their energy........so don't be surprised if you see that behavior.
 
P.S. A couple more thoughts........whatever attacked your chicken now knows where they are. Please figure out how to keep them safer now.
Also, when my chickens were attacked by a coon (after that, I reinforced their run), even the ones that weren't physically hurt, seemed to go into a depression. They stopped laying and lost their energy........so don't be surprised if you see that behavior.

you are not kidding...I lost TWENTY chickens to, what I'm guessing, was a pair of foxes over the course of a week. Someone suggested poisoning them but I couldn't do that to another living creature that was just doing what it knew to do. I reinforced the coop so many times with bird netting, hardware cloth, cinder blocks, and fought with those darn foxes for a good long while. The crazy thing is, I hadn't had a problem for 3 years, but once they knew the coop was there, it was on. My hens also got depressed...and when they were attacked IN the coop, they wouldn't go in at night. My girls free range and I have never had issues during the day because I have guard dogs....but they sleep indoors. ??? smart right? but I digress...needless to say, we now have Ft. Knox and I outsmarted the fox... that kinda rhymed. sorry...it was a 2 glasses of wine kind of day. i'll log off now.
give us an update! hope your girl is okay...
 
Oh that's terrible! We don't think it was a fox, but possibly a hawk. We tied some fishing string across the chickens' pen, so hopefully that will confuse the hawk and keep it from flying in on the chickens. My hen seems to have improved some, but is definitely still in pain. She doesn't move much, and prefers laying in a comfy nesting box with pine shavings over sitting on a perch. The wound has healed a little and I think the Vetericin spray has helped, but she now recognizes the bottle and squawks and flaps her wings whenever I bring it out. The other chickens seem a bit terrified and hide in a bush all day :( and I found some feathers in our front yard from some unfortunate bird (not one of mine) that was killed.
 
Glad to hear she's at least improving. Give her a few days and I bet she'll be okay. The most important thing is keeping away infection and the vetericyn does that very well. my dogs run away when I shake the bottle too!!!
we put bird netting over the top of our run and believe it or not, it helped keep the rat snakes out more then the birds :) they want to eat the eggs, not the chickens...and we cut out probably 3 different rat snakes more then once each....
do you have a rooster? my roo would shoo the girls into the shrubs and woods whenever he heard our resident hawk.
 
you are not kidding...I lost TWENTY chickens to, what I'm guessing, was a pair of foxes over the course of a week. Someone suggested poisoning them but I couldn't do that to another living creature that was just doing what it knew to do. I reinforced the coop so many times with bird netting, hardware cloth, cinder blocks, and fought with those darn foxes for a good long while. The crazy thing is, I hadn't had a problem for 3 years, but once they knew the coop was there, it was on. My hens also got depressed...and when they were attacked IN the coop, they wouldn't go in at night. My girls free range and I have never had issues during the day because I have guard dogs....but they sleep indoors. ??? smart right? but I digress...needless to say, we now have Ft. Knox and I outsmarted the fox... that kinda rhymed. sorry...it was a 2 glasses of wine kind of day. i'll log off now.
give us an update! hope your girl is okay...
Wow..........20 chickens?? Bummer! Were they real young? I know someone who lost 50 young ones to a weasel. I guess they kill just to kill. He was gone on vacation for a few days, so it may have just kept coming back.
I live in the woods, so I have to have Fort Knox. Unfortunately, I thought I did have an impermeable run and coop, but that coon found the tiniest weakest link in the double netting on top of the run. We put utility wire on top of all the netting, and haven't had any more problems. But you never know.......

I had considered an electric fence, but never did that.
My run is utility wire fencing with 1/2" hardware cloth all over it. Plus (and I love this), I laid down a 2' wide 1/2" hardware cloth all around the outside perimeter of the bottom of the run..........so if something tries to dig under, they can't.
Those predators keep us on our toes, don't they? I would love to let mine free range.......but they'd all be dead in a couple of days.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom