Kicking myself down the road

[Dokdream]

Sunday night I didn't count heads before closing up the hutch on my main coop. I thought I did, but miscounted. Long about 1AM, we were awakened by major commotion. Peering out the window, there was a chicken moving around the yard, outside the hutch. We rushed out to see Precilla, a Brama Featherfoot with a bloody side and most of her beak gone. Fortunately, our vet is a close friend. She had just texted me and I let her know what happened. She told me to bring Precilla right over, and I did. Poor girl fought off the predator, but had been badly hurt. My wife scrolled through the chicken-yard camera images. It showed a raccoon had sneeked up on Pricilla from behind and maimed her. We've been tube feeding her since Sunday and she is alert, though her injuries are severe. Today (Tuesday), our vet was in her hospital and spent about three hours in surgery working on Precilla. She has maybe 40 stitches on her side and a cap on her lower beak. The beaks ought to regrow. It will take several weeks. She is still sedated as I write this, and wrapped to prevent movement. (It is now 1AM, Wednesday morning.). When it is light, we will start administering antibiotics and tube feeding. She tolerates about 20 ml per feeding. I make a mixture of scrambled egg and chicken feed blended with water to keep her hydrated and allow the mixture to be pumped into her crop. Monday night I set up a live trap and yesterday, Tuesday, caught an opossum. But that wasn't the predator who had gotten to Precilla. It was a raccoon, so I'm looking to find and trap it. This is a suburban neighborhood. The laws in this state are screwy. They specify that these animals can be "taken," but not moved -- without authorization from state Forestry. When I pressed for more information, they ignored me. Personally, I can't see seeking "revenge" on a predator acting on instinctive behavior. I believe trapping and moving them to a wilderness area is the way to go, regardless of what any, arbitrary law says. My best friend also has a flock. When he catches a predator in a live trap, he lets it starve to death. We disagree over that -- significantly. The same goes for rats and mice. The feral cats don't do such a great job, and the rodents manage to snatch the bait without triggering the false-floor trap that I've been using. I've managed to catch a few, but I think the rest are wary. Animal intelligence.

 

[SourRoses]

Raccoons can travel many miles to return to familiar ground.
Thus, it's not recommended to relocate them. When they make it back they are 10x more wary of traps.
I did relocate a coon once myself. It was a personable one so we felt terrible to kill her (the mother of a whole gang, we suspected, and pregnant again). So we drove 45 mins to a wildlife area on the other side of marshlands / highways.
Looking back, it was a bad decision.
The move was probably very rough or even deadly for her. Or if she made it, probably rough on the local wildlife. We should have just tolerated her or killed her.
Those are your two sensible choices.

As for your hen, I'm sorry to hear she's been through so much. Chickens don't often survive encounters with coons.
It sounds like you're going the extra mile to save her. That's a lot of work and expense. I hope she pulls through!