My chickens got scared by something— will this continue?

[RoostersAreAwesome]

My two hens were alarm-calling so I went out to their coop to find them unharmed, but with blood on their combs. It looks like they bashed themselves into the wire? No other injuries, and the blood isn’t coming from their heads or their nostrils, just their combs.

I’m fairly certain it was not a fight between the hens because they were both acting afraid of something else when I came out and they weren’t posturing at each other.

(Their eyes only look weird because of the flash, they don't have impaired vision.)

It was just getting dark when this happened, so they could still see but not very well. Since my dog died there’s been more cats in my backyard, but not much else (I live in the suburbs and my yard is super small). I’m thinking that a cat lunged at them or something and they got scared? What I’m worried about is this happening again, they were also alarm-calling this morning (I checked then too and there were no signs of predators or injuries).

Will they get used to the cats again? Is there anything I can do to make them feel safer?

 

[Tonyroo]

Keep them contained if there are predators stalking them. Cats can do a lot of damage to a chicken especially if there feral.

I do this for my own chickens cause I have bobcats in my neighborhood. Once the predators know they ain't getting a meal they'll move on.

 

[Tonyroo]

I hope you cleaned up the blood on them. You don't want them picking at the blood.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Keep them contained if there are predators stalking them. Cats can do a lot of damage to a chicken especially if there feral.

I do this for my own chickens cause I have bobcats in my neighborhood. Once the predators know they ain't getting a meal they'll move on.

They are contained, their coop stays closed unless I’m in the yard to supervise. I don’t know if the cats necessarily want to eat them, a couple of the cats are mine and they’ve never tried to hurt them before.

I hope you cleaned up the blood on them. You don't want them picking at the blood.

Definitely, thank you for the reminder

 

[Tonyroo]

I had a neighborhood feral cat kill this cockerel about a month ago. He was my pet chicken, I was devastated.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

My two hens were alarm-calling so I went out to their coop to find them unharmed, but with blood on their combs. It looks like they bashed themselves into the wire? No other injuries, and the blood isn’t coming from their heads or their nostrils, just their combs.

I’m fairly certain it was not a fight between the hens because they were both acting afraid of something else when I came out and they weren’t posturing at each other.

View attachment 3353148View attachment 3353150
(Their eyes only look weird because of the flash, they don't have impaired vision.)

It was just getting dark when this happened, so they could still see but not very well. Since my dog died there’s been more cats in my backyard, but not much else (I live in the suburbs and my yard is super small). I’m thinking that a cat lunged at them or something and they got scared? What I’m worried about is this happening again, they were also alarm-calling this morning (I checked then too and there were no signs of predators or injuries).

Will they get used to the cats again? Is there anything I can do to make them feel safer?

Trap and remove cats

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Update; they have healed and haven’t got scared by anything again. I was gifted a trail cam so I can use that to check on them in the future. I did not remove my own outside cats or anyone else’s.