Hello and thank you for any and all advice. I’ll try to be as brief as possible:
Tuesday I lost one of my 5 free ranging 1 year old girls to a predator. I don’t know what kind, but all that was left was piles of feathers. All the other chickens were missing, but all were found hiding and were not injured except one. She was found under a bush standing with her head down to the ground- almost in a pecking stance. I took her inside in a towel immediately and checked her over. She had a scratch on her back and some missing back feathers and a small scratch on her leg.The left side of her neck felt swollen. I was able to get her drinking out of a syringe (it was very hot- near 100 and high humidity the day of the attack). Wednesday found her willing to drink out of a cup herself and peck a little bit of food, but she was very bruised on her back and couldn’t hold her head up. She would stand and hang her head down. Thursday brought a lot of physical improvement: swelling in the neck much better, scratches looking much better, holding head much more normal, although not stretching it up yet. She also puffed her feathers out to do a full body shake. Friday and today continues the physical improvement. She can walk around more and pecks at grass. She even looks like she’d like to preen herself, although she hasn’t done it yet- she turns her head as if she’s thinking about it.
My problem is her neurological state. On the day of the attack she’d have short moments of being “in the moment” where she seemed present, and the rest of the time it was as if she was staring off…we called it “frozen.” I figured she was in shock and let her rest in a cage in our house where it was dark and comfortable. As the days have progressed, her physical state seems to have improved, but her neurological state seems to have regressed. I say that because she has gone from drinking on her own to refusing to drink anything. It’s like she doesn’t know how and shows no interest in it, even first thing in the morning. I’ve been taking her out every morning to be in the yard with her flock mates (under my constant supervision). She “honks” with them, but doesn’t seem interested to be near them. She has stopped pecking at food with them. She just wants to walk under the deck to the same place where she will stay “frozen.” If we pet her she will usually “come out of the freeze” for a bit, walk around and perhaps peck at the grass and then go back “frozen.” At this point I’ve been feeding her whatever she will eat on her own, which has changed from scrambled eggs to strawberries to grapes to crackers along with syringe feeding her a blended up mix of her feed along with unsweetened almond milk and a bit of honey and Rescue 911. I syringe feed her water (which she now tries to refuse to drink- I don’t squirt it straight into the mouth, I squirt it on the side of her beak and she reluctantly takes a bit of it). I do this about every hour to keep her hydrated. I’m giving her vitamin E (in case this is wry neck), Rooster Booster in her water, and 1tsp of liquid Children’s Motrin the last two days for inflammation.
I don’t know what else to do or if I should expect her to improve. The fact that she won’t drink on her own is troubling to me. I don’t want to cull her, but I know she can’t go on if she can’t drink water.
Many thanks to you all!
Tuesday I lost one of my 5 free ranging 1 year old girls to a predator. I don’t know what kind, but all that was left was piles of feathers. All the other chickens were missing, but all were found hiding and were not injured except one. She was found under a bush standing with her head down to the ground- almost in a pecking stance. I took her inside in a towel immediately and checked her over. She had a scratch on her back and some missing back feathers and a small scratch on her leg.The left side of her neck felt swollen. I was able to get her drinking out of a syringe (it was very hot- near 100 and high humidity the day of the attack). Wednesday found her willing to drink out of a cup herself and peck a little bit of food, but she was very bruised on her back and couldn’t hold her head up. She would stand and hang her head down. Thursday brought a lot of physical improvement: swelling in the neck much better, scratches looking much better, holding head much more normal, although not stretching it up yet. She also puffed her feathers out to do a full body shake. Friday and today continues the physical improvement. She can walk around more and pecks at grass. She even looks like she’d like to preen herself, although she hasn’t done it yet- she turns her head as if she’s thinking about it.
My problem is her neurological state. On the day of the attack she’d have short moments of being “in the moment” where she seemed present, and the rest of the time it was as if she was staring off…we called it “frozen.” I figured she was in shock and let her rest in a cage in our house where it was dark and comfortable. As the days have progressed, her physical state seems to have improved, but her neurological state seems to have regressed. I say that because she has gone from drinking on her own to refusing to drink anything. It’s like she doesn’t know how and shows no interest in it, even first thing in the morning. I’ve been taking her out every morning to be in the yard with her flock mates (under my constant supervision). She “honks” with them, but doesn’t seem interested to be near them. She has stopped pecking at food with them. She just wants to walk under the deck to the same place where she will stay “frozen.” If we pet her she will usually “come out of the freeze” for a bit, walk around and perhaps peck at the grass and then go back “frozen.” At this point I’ve been feeding her whatever she will eat on her own, which has changed from scrambled eggs to strawberries to grapes to crackers along with syringe feeding her a blended up mix of her feed along with unsweetened almond milk and a bit of honey and Rescue 911. I syringe feed her water (which she now tries to refuse to drink- I don’t squirt it straight into the mouth, I squirt it on the side of her beak and she reluctantly takes a bit of it). I do this about every hour to keep her hydrated. I’m giving her vitamin E (in case this is wry neck), Rooster Booster in her water, and 1tsp of liquid Children’s Motrin the last two days for inflammation.
I don’t know what else to do or if I should expect her to improve. The fact that she won’t drink on her own is troubling to me. I don’t want to cull her, but I know she can’t go on if she can’t drink water.
Many thanks to you all!
