Month old chick with serious crop injury

[FranklinAdams]

One of my 4 chicks, a month old and healthy, in a pen outside during the day, has been attacked by unknown predator. The crop is open in a few places but what concerns me the most is at one end (?). I extracted food which had gotten stuck there but I am unsure where water and food will go now. I am keeping the chick alive by dropping honey water in its beak which it seems to swallow. It's hard to tell whether or not the water is coming out through the wound. This happened late in the day but I didn't inspect the chick until this morning. It was seriously dried out. With extra heat and water (see above) it came back to life, but what next?

 

[Eggcessive]

Can you post any pictures of the crop? Crop injuries need to be surgically repaired, so I would recommend a vet. Some attempt crop surgery at home, but in a small chick, that might be too difficult, especially with multiple tears. There are numerous crop surgury videos online to look at, if you Google “crop surgery” and go up to videos. Many use superglue to separately close the two layers—the crop and the skin. Stitches can also be used. But beware, a vet would be best. It might be kinder to euthanize the chick.

 

[FranklinAdams]

 

[FranklinAdams]

Above are two pics which may be difficult to analyze!. I can remove what's sticking out of the crop but that's it as far as knowing what to do.

 

[AmyJane725]

That looks really bad. Is it still alive?

 

[FranklinAdams]

That looks really bad. Is it still alive?

No it died after 2 days. We're still trying to figure out what attacked it: a weasel, a marten or a bird?

 

[AmyJane725]

No it died after 2 days. We're still trying to figure out what attacked it: a weasel, a marten or a bird?

I’ve heard weasel attacks are hardly even noticeable. Birds die and you can’t even find an injury. So, probably not that?

 

[FranklinAdams]

I’ve heard weasel attacks are hardly even noticeable. Birds die and you can’t even find an injury. So, probably not that?

That's what I thought too - that weasels suck the blood. I'm going to look up the differences. What do martens do? Birds pick and tear so it looks like it was a bird but what scared it away? There's a small upside down crate the chicks could escape into but if it was a hawk he must have been stupid not to turn over the crate.

 

[AmyJane725]

I don't know what martens do. We need some predator experts in here.

Could it have been a racoon? They have sharp claws. Could have popped the crop right open.

It's hard to say why the predator didn't just kill it outright. Weird.

 

[FranklinAdams]

I don't know what martens do. We need some predator experts in here.

Could it have been a racoon? They have sharp claws. Could have popped the crop right open.

It's hard to say why the predator didn't just kill it outright. Weird.

No racoons here (normally). This is NW Europe. Martens prevalent, weasels too. But I find no information about how they go about killing and there's no mention of sucking blood. This is the time of year that young martens are running around learning how to get their own food.