- Jul 16, 2013
- 22
- 0
- 22
Two days ago the 5 hens and two turkeys were out grazing in the yard and during one of my regular checkups on them I noticed one of the hens was missing. We have some trees and bushes they like to root around in so I figured she'd show up soon enough. The other hens were perturbed so I assumed a hawk, raccoon, wild cat/dog, etc hadn't nabbed her. That night she was still gone and we gave her up for dead.
A full day passes, no hen.
Day three midday, and bam there she is in the yard! Her tail is all off to one side, one wing is hanging really low, and she has bloody patches on her legs and toes, they look more like popped blisters than bite marks or something. We let her back into the run and she drinks water non-stop for several minutes, when she finally tries to eat some corn water pours out of her mouth (I think she filled up all her pipes with water she was so thirsty.) After that she seems to eat just fine without trouble. The other hens accept her and don't seem to perceive her weakness.
She doesn't seem to have any limp or favor one foot over the other, and her tail has straightened slightly but I fear she may have a broken wing. I don't want to stress her too much by chasing her and prodding her to determine her injuries. She's really feisty and one of the hardest to catch when necessary (mite dusting, etc) despite being friendly when food is around and otherwise not nervous. She doesn't seem to be very perturbed or in severe pain, so I'm hoping she'll be okay. I've seen hens return from quite a bit of injury/trauma so I'm hoping for the best. If she needs to be put down though I'll do it.
A full day passes, no hen.
Day three midday, and bam there she is in the yard! Her tail is all off to one side, one wing is hanging really low, and she has bloody patches on her legs and toes, they look more like popped blisters than bite marks or something. We let her back into the run and she drinks water non-stop for several minutes, when she finally tries to eat some corn water pours out of her mouth (I think she filled up all her pipes with water she was so thirsty.) After that she seems to eat just fine without trouble. The other hens accept her and don't seem to perceive her weakness.
She doesn't seem to have any limp or favor one foot over the other, and her tail has straightened slightly but I fear she may have a broken wing. I don't want to stress her too much by chasing her and prodding her to determine her injuries. She's really feisty and one of the hardest to catch when necessary (mite dusting, etc) despite being friendly when food is around and otherwise not nervous. She doesn't seem to be very perturbed or in severe pain, so I'm hoping she'll be okay. I've seen hens return from quite a bit of injury/trauma so I'm hoping for the best. If she needs to be put down though I'll do it.
