One of our favorite hens was discovered this afternoon badly mauled - mainly her head and neck area. She does not seem to be in distress - no panting, heavy breathing, unsteadiness. There is no continual bleeding from the injuries now that she's been cleaned up. Eyes are closed/swollen over (?) Since she does have some open wounds - we have sequestered her from the other chickens - she has a heat lamp on her now, and I will probably bring her into the house overnight, since I really have no where else to put the flock except their current house. My concern is whether she is going to eat/drink on her own.....I held the waterer up to her and literally tipped it so her beak was wet, and she did take a few sips. With her eyes swollen shut, I'm assuming that she can't see the food. Her craw (?) seems full. Can't feel any swelling or other outside injuries anywhere on her body. We did have a coyote hit out in front of our house the other day on the road in the middle of the afternoon.....not sure if our daughter's arrival home from school spooked a coyote or if we have a neighbor's dog prowling the property. I always thought a coyote would grab and run.....this looks more like something had ahold of her and just went to shaking. We did have a hen come up missing last night when it came time to lock up; we do free range...locked up at night. We haven't had any issues until now. No evidence of that hen anywhere.
Sounds like you're on track by keeping her separated and calm. My guess is she'll eat and drink more when she's over the shock, and a quiet night in the house is probably just what she needs. Best of luck, to her and yourself! Bryan
I say she's worth keeping an eye on for now. It sounds like she's got a chance of making it if she doesn't seem to be in distress. She might need a little help eating or drinking if she can't see.
Is there a vet that can look at her? If she is helpless the other birds may not be good around her. Good to keep her separated until she doesn't come across as injured or wounded. So sorry she met with such trauma. Vets often look at chicken as expendable. Sad I know.
I've had good luck giving sick/injured birds scrambled eggs--it's a good high protien food and most of them really like it and will eat some even if they don't have much of an appetite. Poly-visol (infant vitamins NO iron) can also be helpful given 2-3 drops on the side of the beak 2x a day as well as neosporin (or similar) without lidocain to coat the wounds. Threehorses had the best post/article on wound care that I've seen, try doing a search (blue bar at top of screen) on wound care using her name--if you can't find it I'll try after I get the kids fed. I think you're on the right track keeping her warm, comfortable and away from the others. They can recover from some really horrific stuff so hopefully she'll be feeling better soon. Oh, the shaken but not taken sounds more like a dog that thought it found the coolest squeaky toy ever...the ones I've lost to yotes are just gone, hardly even any feathers left. ETA:
