possum attacked last night!

[h_musick]

Ok, last night a possum climbed up 8 feet of chicken wire and attacked the chickens over and over.

The chickens are all alive. But one has a swollen face(bites around her head), and Mr. Roo was bit on his comb.
what would be the best thing to use to treat them?

thank you!

 

[mrsgibber]

Oh that's terrible. I hope they will all be ok.

 

[Chik-N-Crazy]

Not to over react, but if you have some type of broad spectrum antibiotic I would give it to them ASAP. My mom had a cat that was attacked by a possum, the cat died, the vet told her it was b/c their mouths are so filthy and it created infection inside the bites VERY quickly.

 

[h_musick]

we went ahead and gave her some Dura-pen. so we hope it helps. I have not been able to catch the rooster yet. so i will have to wait for him to roost, then we will shoot'em up.
hope it works. any more advice would be great.

 

[eggchel]

The possum will be back. Do what you can to keep him out or lock the birds inside a predator proof cage until you catch the possum.

 

[bunch-a-chickens]

just stay up a little later and shoot the possum

 

[TheDuckCrew]

aw i'm sorry, but i'm glad they are all still alive. i would give all of the chickens that were bitten antibiotics, just to be safe. i would also keep them seperated from each other if they are bleeding or have bald spots. chickens peck at anything red and can kill each other.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Aww, I'm so sorry. I'm not at all fond of 'possums that bother chickens, but I didn't think they'd attack full-grown birds. I've only had them hurt/eat chicks or ducklings, and bother broody hens for the e g g s they were incubating. I've lost broody bantams to opossums, but they didn't even eat them, just bit them on their heads to kill them.

What a waste & a shame.

I lost 5 ducklings to an opossum, she ate the heads off 2 of them one night, and injured a 3rd so badly with bites to his head that I had to cull him. Then she came back early the next evening, before I had a chance to set the trap & cage the ducklings, and ate the heads off the last 2.

I finally trapped her using e g g s for bait.

 

[h_musick]

thanks, I am thinking about getting out the baseball bat (as awful as it sounds) we don't have a gun.
we will see.
wish me luck.

But that is about all i guess. I think the victims of last nights attack will be ok.

 

[Whispering Winds]

I saw a fence, that was actually around a garden, but it was a good idea. They made the fence about two foot higher than the actual post, so when the coon would climb up, it would grab ahold of the loose wire, which would bend down and he would drop off. The creator of it said that the animal would become so frustrated after awhile, it would just give up. Would something like that work on a chicken fence? Possums are so darn funny, but they are relentless about food. I am sorry it messed with your chickens, please keep us posted about their recovery, as I am in complete agreement about their dirty mouths and all that bacteria.