Little D'uccle Attacked by Hawk!

[SuburbSpurs]

My Golden Neck D'uccle was attacked by a hawk, I saw it swoop in, but I scared it off before it did very much. When I got her, her head was bleeding and it looked like she lost an eye. I cleaned her up and now her eye looks fin but it looks like the back corner of her eye lid was ripped a little. When I first brought her in her eye was open now it is closed and I am worried she will either loose her eye or keep it shut forever. Will she heal?

 

[Spangled]

Oh, poor thing. I'm so glad she survived!

No promises, but she will very likely heal. I say this only because my chickens' ability to heal has constantly amazes me. Over and over again. To me, it's beyond anything like what I've seen in humans; that's for sure.

And an added benefit is that she'll likely also be more aware of what's overhead. Poor thing will probably be a little skiddish for a few days though.

 

[SuburbSpurs]

Oh, poor thing. I'm so glad she survived!

No promises, but she will very likely heal. I say this only because my chickens' ability to heal has constantly amazes me. Over and over again. To me, it's beyond anything like what I've seen in humans; that's for sure.

And an added benefit is that she'll likely also be more aware of what's overhead. Poor thing will probably be a little skiddish for a few days though.

Yeah she is my indoor chicken at the moment, I swear this one is disaster prone, but it only makes me love her more.
Do you have any idea how to clean it? I just used warm water to whip away the blood. I want to make sure it doesn't get infected. Is there some product I should use?

 

[Spangled]

Yeah she is my indoor chicken at the moment, I swear this one is disaster prone, but it only makes me love her more.
Do you have any idea how to clean it? I just used warm water to whip away the blood. I want to make sure it doesn't get infected. Is there some product I should use?

I don't know what you should do at all.

I almost always just leave them alone because I think that they do best when I don't fiddle with them and they can just live where they're used to living/sleeping/eating and not have me interfering and stressing them out. I know stress on animals makes it harder to heal. However, I cannot say that my way is best; it's just what I feel comfortable with.

As for cleaning ... warm water is probably not going to hurt a thing. But once that's been done, would it need to be done more? Maybe, I guess, if there is a lot of junk floating around in the coop, but there's every chance that she's already immune to everything she comes in contact with in her coop and eyes do often flush themselves out.

As for infection ... I don't know. You'll have to go with your gut. I know I (me, the human) can use the eyedrops with boric acid (listed as an inert ingredient) and keep myself from getting pink eye. And keep my hands out of my eyes. But I have no idea about a chicken's eye. Plus they have that extra eyelid. And do you really want to force her eye open and possibly damage it? Or does she sometimes open it. I'm all for hands off and she'll get better, but I can't guarantee that will work.

If no one else joins this thread by tomorrow late morning, I'd start a new thread where the title is something like: What is a good eyewash for my hen so her eye doesn't get infected after a hawk attack? Someone out there has likely used something for eye infection prevention.

I'd certainly give her some vitamins. Just do a search on Poly-Vi-Sol with no iron and someone will have the dosage for a chick. They're found in the baby section of stores. No iron. And infections are most easily fought when a body isn't protein deprived. A nice source of protein is canned fish, but not too much for a bantam. Only a teaspoon in the morning and one in the evening should be plenty, at least that's what I think.

 

[SuburbSpurs]

Yeah thanks, I have her inside in a kennel with some water with a little poultry nutri-drench in it. I had her on my lap for a while, she flew up and wanted some petting. I am worried because her eye was open and now it is tightly shut. I don't know if it is swelling or getting infected.