Injury from racoon! help please!

[cluckey]

My chicken was attacked by a racoon!I washed her with warm water and hydrogen peroxide then put so ointment on her. This is my first chicken with injuries like this. Do I take her to the vet? Please Any help would be great!

 

[Sylver Queen]

Hi. If you know a vet who treats chickens, then that could help. One of my hens was injured by a dog last year, so I can tell you what I did to help her through. I don't know from the photos if your chicken is injured similarly to how mine was, and I do not have experience with injuries from raccoons, but if your chicken's injuries sound like my hen's maybe this will help. I'll copy and paste what I wrote in a different post:

-- When my Ameraucana hen got injured by a dog last summer (deep punctures to both thighs, damaged wing, skin and fat removed from back) she also had loose skin and fat hanging off. Once I had cleaned her and put her in a crate, the loose flesh dried up really close to her living skin. I read that the dead tissue should be removed to help the remaining living tissue not get infected. I wasn't confident cutting off the dead flesh when it was so close to the living, so when she really began to smell, I tried to "jerkify" the dead tissue by giving her a few different rinses with one teaspoon salt in one cup of warm water.

This greatly reduced the smell, and was only needed for a few days. That along with Vetericyn on the outside and tetracycline hydrochloride on the inside to help fight infection helped her make a full recovery. The old dead flesh eventually fell off like giant scabs, and was replaced by good tissue, even the deep muscle punctures.--


My hen did not seem to have bone or internal organ damage, just serious tissue damage, and she survived it. It looks like your chicken's damage is on the belly? How long ago was the attack? Is she eating or drinking? Open wounds and torn flesh, or raw skin with missing feathers? I rinsed my hen with warm water the first night, too, and did try hydrogen peroxide the next day. But after that first treatment, more was needed, and I did what I wrote above. I hope this can help!

Oh. And I imagine that raccoons' mouths can be pretty nasty, so if there are punctures an internal antibiotic might be a good idea! I was recommended tetracycline hydrochloride and so tried it, and my lady didn't seem to suffer from infection.

 

[emmaie892000]

I haven't had a raccoon attack survivor, but I have nursed a dog attack victim back to health, so I'll pass on that advice.
First of all, is that skin wound the only one she has?
If so, it looks like she should survive. Mine had feathers ripped out (a lot) and a few injuries. Chickens are very hardy and good at healing skin wounds, as long as there are no serious internal injuries. If there is any way you can get to a vet that would be preferable, considering your chicken will most likely need antibiotics in the form of a drench or internal medicine. Predator's mouths are gross. Once the threat of infection is taken care of, your chicken will need to be separated from the others, and given food they enjoy if they refuse to eat. Make sure she's drinking and is warm and comfortable. She probably should move very little for a while.
If the skin on the edges dies, you may need to clip off the edges. Chickens luckily are able to regenerate large patches of skin.

 

[cluckey]

She wasn't bleeding very much but I think the racoon grabbed and pulled bc she has an injury that looks like a pouch on her chest. Like two layers of skin separated. I've been using hydrogen peroxide and spraying her with vetericy. It looks like it's healing up. But it's not pretty. She's separated from the flock for now but I can tell she is itching to get out. Anything I should keep my eye on that should be a warning sign of needing a vet to look at her Besides the obvious pus and smell of infection? Thanks for your advice

 

[emmaie892000]

Definitely keep an eye out for the things you mentioned, as well as other signs of illnesses, like she just isn't feeling well. Considering the raccoon looks to have grabbed the fleshy stomach area, her internal organs could have gotten injured in some way. Hopefully not.
Do you have any updates?

 

[cluckey]

She must be feeling better b.c yesterday when i got home from work i opened the garage and she was walking around outside of her temporary bin that I had her in. The two layers of skin seem to have binded back together with a scab. I'm not scrubbing it a whole lot at this point, just spraying the Vetericyn gel on her twice a day. I know with horses we used to scrub the scabs and keep them bleeding a bit on puncture wounds to keep proud flesh from building up. I dont think that is necessary with her. I"m hoping it was more superficial and will scab over and heal without too much interaction from me. She did lay an egg yesterday, so i am taking that as a good sign that she is on her way back up.

 

[microchick]

Just an FYI. While peroxide is a good antiseptic it can be hard on damaged tissue. It is good for an initial clean up but I would recommend keeping a bottle of Betadine/Provilone Iodine 10% solution on hand. It is expensive at 14$ a bottle around us but it does not sting, it is easier on damaged tissue and it is an excellent antiseptic that hospitals and emergency rooms use on a daily basis for surgical preps and wound care. It's only draw back is that it will stain feathers and anything it touches.

You should be sure to show that picture to anyone who thinks that racoons are cute. I hope that racoon has been dispatched. Now that it has got a taste of chicken white meat, it will be coming back for more.

You've done a great job of wound care there. Hope your girl continues to heal. Watch her for secondary infection. Racoon mouths are sewage pits and their feces is loaded with every sort of parasite imaginable.

 

[cluckey]

Yeah, Peroxide was all i had on hand. I'll have to get some of that Betadine/Provilone Iodine. If it works I dont care much if it stains their feathers. I'd rather them heal correctly. We ended up trapping a coon last night but it was a younger one, not the one that was in the coop. They are cute but I had no problem telling my husband to shoot that thing after what they did to my chicken! We've gone 10months without any trouble from the coons but now it will be a war zone for any racoon that I see on our property! Thanks for the help and advise! I think the ointments and such are the hardest things to get right. So many of them say not to use on chickens but I think that is b.c they assume you will be eating them.

 

[farm-a-zootical]

You can administer aspirin to help with her pain.

 

[cluckey]

How much asprin would you give? I wish I knew this the evening it happened. I'm sure it didn't feel good at all