Hen bringing up everything she eats. 12 days after injury by hawk

[mjplay]

Hi, I have a hen that was pinned down by a hawk. He punctured her throat high in the neck, injured her eye and pulled off some feathers. She seems healed from all of those. Her pupil is shaped weird now but her neck wound healed perfectly. I managed her care at home. Initially poured betadine over the wound. Yesterday we let her go back with the flock. Although she's eating, it comes back up....she stretches her neck up several times and out it comes, then she flings it. It looks like softened layer feed and a tiny bit of grass. She looks weak and tired even though I saw her run fast across the yard to get to the chicken run. She makes a snoring sound sometimes, I don't know if that's normal for her. When I saw the Hawk on her she was making that sound a bit......kind of like a breathy honk. when she's resting I hear it more. I checked her crop last night and tonight. It seemed empty so i don't think it's impacted or sour crop. Any thoughts?
I'm attaching 2 pics of her neck and eye healed. It won't allow a video but I have one of her bringing up her food.

 

[casportpony]

Do you have a tube of some sort that you could insert down her esophagus to check for obstructions?

 

[mjplay]

Do you have a tube of some sort that you could insert down her esophagus to check for obstructions?

No. I can't imagine she'd let me do that. I started treating it as impacted crop with epsom salt in warm water. I give it to her twice a day. She gurgles when she drinks and I still saw evidence of stuff coming back up on her beak this morning. She tends to eat more with the others around so I let her come and go a bit. She wanted to stay in the barn by herself all day yesterday but today she's out and about. I still don't feel anything much in her crop. She does poop so something is getting down, right?

 

[RockinFlock]

Did you have an update on your girl?

 

[mjplay]

Thanks for asking. She is back with the rest of the flock and happy as can be. I had to separate her a couple of times due to the choking, gurgling and spewing. I ended up giving her Panacur horse paste in case she had gapeworm. I gave her epsom salt drench to fix any kind of blockage and eased her onto garlic water, then yogurt, some egg and layer feed. She still does a strange neck twisty thing but I'll call it nerve damage?? Her injured pupil healed and she has some vision in it but it's shaped weird now. A few weeks ago we had another girl taken(probably a large hawk or eagle). Now we only let them free range when we're home and I am constantly watching out the window.

 

[RockinFlock]

Thanks for the update. Glad to see she's doing well. A few months ago one of our girls was attacked by a hawk. She survived, but she stands funny now and is a little slower than the other girls. But she's alive, just with a lopsided stance. Chickens are tough

 

[mjplay]

Thanks for the update. Glad to see she's doing well. A few months ago one of our girls was attacked by a hawk. She survived, but she stands funny now and is a little slower than the other girls. But she's alive, just with a lopsided stance. Chickens are tough

How did your girl get away from the Hawk? I came around the corner and ran screaming at it. It flew off and I scooped up Maybel. All other hens and 2 roosters were down in the coop hiding.

 

[RockinFlock]

We've had two attacks. With Crowe, the one that now stands with a lean, we didn't know she was hurt until the end of the day when we did our coop count. She was just laying there. My daughter, earlier that day, saw the hawk in a tree but was just mesmerized at how majestic it looked. Neither of us thought about a possible attack.

The other attack was the other day. They were on their way back to the coop. I watched for a bit and then went to sit down. Heard my rooster making a LOT of noise. Got up and saw him standing in the snow (which he usually avoids walking on snow like the plague). He was SUPER LOUD. And I know he ran back to her, because he was already closer to the coop when I walked away. Went to go check and saw one of my buffs just lying on the ground. I ran to lock the other girls up and went back to scoop up Thyme. However, she hopped up and ran to the coop! I picked her up and checked her out and didn't find any damage. I was hating hawks at that moment. If you had asked me about the rooster before the attack, I would've said he would totally run away. But no, he stood up to the hawk!

In the spring, when we expand the run, we are also going to put up netting and some roofing panels.

I love the name Maybel by the way!

 

[mjplay]

Netting and roofing panels are a great idea. Will you post pics?
Because of bird flu I'm thinking about expanding our enclosure. The wild birds are everywhere and come in with our chickens. I think It'll be best if I can keep them enclosed. They have always free ranged our 4 acres. I feel like I'm being so mean. I'm Not able to do it just yet.
I don't know where all these hawks are coming from but I have witnessed many near misses from a ferruginous hawk to cooper's hawks in March. The neighbors probably think "she's a little crazy but she can sure run fast!"
We had a hen that went after a hawk(saw it afterwards on the trailcam). That was a surprise!

 

[RockinFlock]

We haven't extended the run yet, but we did buy the hardware cloth and the netting. I got a higher quality netting the is used in orchards. I hope it'll last. We probably will only add 1-5 panels because they cost a lot. After buying the hardware cloth aye Yi Yi. The extension will be add 25x25x25 ft of space.

We've just been letting them free roam, which I feel bad about. They hang out under the bird feeders! I can't figure out how to stop that, but the run that we built when they were smaller ( and we thought would be too much room for them, ha!!) Is just too small. They just hang by the side that faces the house.

We had a bear on our porch the other day, he went for the stored wild bird food. He didn't go after the bird feeders, nor did he go near the coop. Whew.

I'll post pics when we add the extension for sure. And don't feel bad about protecting the ladies!! I've totally accepted the sheer amount of worry and stress that my girls cause me! And I'm sure my neighbors are used to me running out and making a (terrible terrible) hawk warning call when the girls are totally oblivious to one spotted flying!