Oh no!!! We came under attack!!!

[ShadyChicks10]

Oh no....poor little girl. My coop was attacked the other night and we had one casualty. It looks like one of our silkies got into the scuffle too, maybe he tried protecting his girls but he was not strong enough. What a sad sad day I've been keeping the coop door open at night so they can exit first thing in the morning but that is changed now and I will do my best to close it every night, it's just hard sometimes when i get home late. So I found some brown/grayish hair on the fencing (raccoon it looks to be), can my flock contract rabies or something else? The silkie has a small wound on his comb that looks to be healing but I want to make sure I watch for anything else too. What is recommended to clean a wound like this, hydrogen peroxide?

thanks in advance to anyone who can help me.

 

[BuffOrpington88]

Sorry for your loss.
There are automatic door openers that are on a timer, so they can get out in the morning and safe when they're roosting. It would be best to use saline or iodized saline such as Vetricyn. Hydrogen peroxide can be a little harsh on the new cells.

 

[mo puff]

I am sorry to hear about your loss. My Mother said she saw a possum in our feild the other day and now i am scared to death it will dig into the coop/run. We did NOT bury a border around the structure. I did read somewhere that i could just pin down some chicwire on top of the ground [ a foot wide], will this work for digging prowlers? anyone have other solutions...I thought our plan was critter proof but am now a little scared, I didnt even think we had possum in this neighborhood, maybe they could smell the coop?

 

[BuffOrpington88]

I have no experience with just putting wire on the ground, but it may work. If you can't bury the wire, then definitely do that. The best thing to do is bury the wire 18" and 12" out in an "L" shape.

 

[Zigmont]

Now that the predator has gotten one, it will be back for more and be extra tenacious about getting in. Our coup has a plywood floor with extra long nails driven down facing the ground. Anything that tries to dig under will be torn up. They are a couple of years old and so far nothing has gotten in, although I did lose one to a hawk outside. It seems that chicken is a favorite for all meat eaters. Good luck.

 

[ShadyChicks10]

Thank you all. I'm starting to put together a first aid kit, better to have it set up just in case. I have the fence buried about a foot in an L shape around the entire enclosure, pretty sure whatever it was climbed over the top, about 11ft high! A better roof is in the works. I am absolutely going to check out the automatic door openers, my biggest fear with these is that the door will shut at the time I programmed and everybody may not be inside.