I'm back for hen help. A oppossum got in my hen's igloo. It's right by my bedroom window. Three hens stay in there and around 11 pm last Friday night I heard one of my girls let out a Bauk--ERRR!!! I immediately recognized this as a distress signal so I jumped out of bed and ran out to the igloo. I got to it and could only see white. I thought OMG it's a skunk! I ran back into the house and got a flash light came out and it was a oppossum instead. After fighting it with a short 2 x 4 I finally got it out and it ran off.
Anyway, when I assessed the hen situation, one of my buffs was limp and gasping. She had blood coming out her left side of her head. I thought she was a goner, so I closed the front, (something I had forgotten to do) and went back in because I felt that there wasn't anything I could do. About 30 minutes later I was still trying to calm down from it all and crying over her.
Then I heard a bang, bang, bang. I jump up and thought that blame oppossum is back! I went out and it was coming from inside the igloo. I was going how in the heck did that thing get in there. I jerked the door open and out ran the hen I thought was dead. She was screaming and then stopped. I guess she was in shock and maybe that's the last thing she was thinking about doing before she went into shock??? Anyway, I reached down to pick her up and it freaked her out. I calmed her down and when she realized it was me she was okay with me picking her up.
I took her inside and wrapped her in a towel, cleaned her wound, which was just a small hole behind her left eye. I put her in a laundry basket, still in the towel and put her in a dark room. the next morning she seemed much better so I took her to the big pen so she could rest and be by herself. I put a mixture of corn and peanuts out for her. the next morning her crop was HUGE! I brought her in and felt it. It was the size of a softball. I could feel whole peices of corn or maybe it was peanuts. I massaged it and she seemed to like that. I left her to sleep. Sunday morning, she was so swollen she didn't look like she had a neck and her neck bone is curving forward. I withheld all food and water.
Monday she looked much better and the crop was almost empty. I notice a few stringy things about an inch long coming from the sides of her mouth. I tried to pull them but they were dried and broke where they had dried to the side of her beak. I gave her some pellet mash. she ate it all.
Tuesday--crop is HUGE, no neck, standing for short periods of time then dropping down like she's exhausted. I can't get to her, she's in the back of the coop and I'm too big to get to her. I wanted to massage her crop again. I went and got some yogurt and sat it out for her.
Wednesday--She has a neck again, swelling has gone down, but crop looks like a grapefruit out the front. Noticed more stringy stuff bigger pieces, but when I reached to grab them she jumped and went to the back of the coop. So I mixed her some more yogurt (activa) with sweet potato baby food and added some extra virgin olive oil. I also had a packet of tetramycin so I added about 1tsp to 2 quarts water and poured some for her to drink.
Tonight---She is blown back up like a balloon. She will not let me touch her and I can see more stringy stuff hanging out the sides of her beak. It looks like dried spaghetti, but thinner, like straw from a broom. She had drank some water and ate her yogurt. I mixed the same as the night before and added some molasses based vitamins, just a touch.
She is clearly worn out. I don't know how much longer she can make it. What can I do to help her? I don't have a lot of money for a vet, but maybe he will let me make payments if there's no alternative. She wasn't having any problems at all before the oppossum attack. How did this just pop up over night?
My hens eat corn in the morning, then they free range all day. At night they get pellets mixed with some peanuts every once in a while.
Am I seeing worms???? Will the tetramycin help? I didn't have any terramycin or baytril.
I need help desperately!!
