Possum scare

[sphinxface]

Will chickens ever bolt into the darkness?

Just chased off a possom, we havent had a problem till now with an open coop at night. Can't stay lucky forever I guess...

So the most dominant hens feathers are EVERYWHERE(I imagine maybe she tried to protect the others?), and I swear I saw her while chasing the possum, but now we cant find her or a body. It may not have been her I saw, it was dark and hectic, but then I wonder how far she would have gone in the darkness?

I assume she must be alive since possums aren't known to drag off prey, there is no blood or body parts anywhere.. we will look more when it gets light out but just curious about it now and still freaked out...

 

[Pork Pie]

I guess they would if the threat was sufficient. She may be hiding somewhere - mine do if theres been a hawk attack - they can hide for a few hours (and thats in daylight) so on a night time, she could have fled and holed up somewhere.

Fingers crossed she's ok

CT

 

[sphinxface]

Found her, no idea where she was actually hiding but the other chickens drew her out. At quick glance (she is a feisty one), she has a huge gash on her backside and is missing all of her tail feathers and some on her sides. Probably going to try taking her to a vet because I dont know a lot about caring for that kind of thing even if I read all about it on here.

 

[Pork Pie]

Well its good news about finding her. Chickens are quite hardy - a bit of vet care and I'm sure she will be fine.

CT

 

[sphinxface]

Looked at the wounds with the vet. She's got quite a few wounds, big gash with a couple small punctures on her back, punctures on her tail skin, really big gash by her leg but not punctured into the muscle.. so the vet will fix her up and I think she will be ok.

Im not sure what I would have done if it was worse than that though ;0