Need help with two survivors of a raccoon attack...

[heyhennyhenny]

We had a raccoon get into our small coop a week ago and kill one of the hens. The others were scratched up around their heads and seemed quite upset. We cleaned up the coop, resolved the raccoon issue, resecured the coop. The three chickens stayed mostly in the coop and seemed, idk, upset? They have been mainly off their feed but have been drinking. I had them out last night and looked them over and didn't notice any problems. I've been trying not to handle them too much in fear of increasing their stress. Only one hen has been laying every other day or so since then (daily eggs from all 4 before this).

However, this morning one of the chickens smelled *very* bad and we discovered a badly infected (and magot covered) wound on her belly. It had been hidden by her thick feather and also maybe absessed over night. I took her to the vet and had her put down this morning.

The remaining two chickens I have looked over very closely. I don't see any other wounds. The vet noted that sometimes due to the feathers it might be hard to see until it bursts (

my poor girls! ). We worked on cleaning off their heads and feathers of various accumulated goo and blood. One of them is moving around as seems more or less ok. The other bird has been holding her head twisted to the side and is unsteady on her feet. I'm not sure what is wrong with her. She drinks water ok. I can't see any wounds. I thought maybe she lost vision in one eye and is trying to adapt. I just really don't know.

Any advice on how to treat the girls to make sure they are ok, what to look for, and any advice at all would be welcome.

Thank you in advance!

 

[kalvinkrazy]

thats so sad maybe some internal injuries and maybe some head trama... look them over dayly and maybe give them each a bath (make sure that they're completely dry befor putting them back in their coop) and look then over again to make sure you didnt miss anything like bruises and cuts
you can treat the cuts with triple antibiotic ointiment
make sure they have lots of bedding and stuff to make them comfortable to bring down the stress even more

hopefully i helped

good luck with your girls hope they get better

 

[heyhennyhenny]

Thank you Kalvin. I cleaned up the remaining birds and gave them some free-range time today. They seem so listless. They did walk and scratch a bit. They were not interested in the yogurt (one of their favorite treats) that I gave them.