Raccoon!! Emergency!

[jjthink]

Your gentle reassurance and comforting words combined with good medicine may well pull her through. And if you can have someone get you Rescue Remedy and put a drop in a little bowl of water, dip a dropper in the water and draw up a bit and dribble along her beak line it just may give her relief from stress, if the truly stuff does what the Bach company and so many around the world profess it does. I use it for my furry and feathered friends. It won't contraindicate with anything else in any case. If it's possible to get a bit in her before the other things she has to go through it may help calm her for the rest.

Since the 'looking pretty bad' moments are signaling major stress and exhaustion, her deadliest enemies right now, peace and quiet and lots of soft reassuring words and warmth and comfy bedding, away from all stressors (except the stress of having to go through med treatment) are crucial. As you no doubt know. Even soft low volume music (I played soft classical music for days for a roo I found badly injured and frozen to the ground - kept him warm, in a quiet spot with the music and lots of gentle reassurance - on Day 7 he finally stood. Slowly began eating and drinking and ultimately fully recovered).

You know best whether she has a very close feather buddy that she might draw comfort from, if that buddy were with her (BUT the issue there to watch like a hawk is whether buddy would peck at any wounds - cannot have that of course. My roo is flawlessly gentle with an injured hen...I can trust him to never harm them when they're hurting, but this isn't always the case with other birds so...). If she does have a buddy but you're unsure how it would go you could bring buddy to her for short supervised visits...

Sending lots more good wishes

JJ

 

[Qi Chicken]

I was just going to suggest Rescue Remedy. It can work wonders. Seriously. And like the previous poster said there will not be an interaction with other medications. You can usually find it at any health food store or even some grocery stores. Good good luck to you and your little chicken.

Rescue remedy is made by Bach Flower Remedies.

 

[henney penny]

Hope She Makes It

 

[Qi Chicken]

I was just thinking that if you can't find Bach Flower Remedies you could get a homeopathic teething formula made by Hylands. It is for oral pain and agitation which would probably help. They sell it here (in the middle of nowhere Iowa) at Walmart with the vitamins. I agree her biggest enemy right now is stress. Best to you both!

 

[dieselgrl48]

So sorry about your hen.We have coon problem's here too as well.Even though We had secured run's and coop's the devil's got in ours last summer and Killed some Jersey hen's with babie's and got in the other side as well and got some of hubbie's RIR's and my Americauna's We had just gotten from TSC spring.The poor thing I hope she will be able to eat if her beak is that messed up.The craziest thing I ever had was a duckling 2 summer's ago when We had the RoYal Plam turkeys and one attacked duckling and pecked it so bad most of it's top beak broke off.But Ducks have larger tounge's I guess, that duck ate and everything it was just odd looking poor thing.Keep us updated hope she gets better. Now that Im back on farm and done got some birds out but close to house buying a trap for the coon's.DG

 

[Cati]

Best of luck. You have done so much--bravo! I hope all is going well and that you have good news to report soon.

 

[SilverPhoenix]

Good luck! It sounds to me like she wants to live, and I hope she's able to hang on and make it through. It's wonderful that you've taken all the effort and care of keeping her going, even with such dire injuries. Keep us updated on Cookie--I'll be thinking good thoughts for her!

 

[Hunny]

Update on Cookie? Did she pull thru another day?

 

[chauqg]

About force feeding.... You can get a large syringe at the pharmacy without a needle; fill it with food (might try holistic or organic cat food); The syringe without the needle will allow you to insert food/meds into mouth cavity, press SLOWLY and substance will be forced into her mouth.

I have also used cat food and a popsicle stick. Putting food on the end of the stick and placing it in the back of the mouth above the throat. Regardless of how you get the food above the throat in the back of the mouth, birds will swallow it from there with natural reflexes if it is moist like canned cat food it will be simply. The cat food can be high in protein, but it never seemed to bother either my pigeons or a robin that we raised from 1 day old to adult.

Good Luck

 

[henmomma]

HAPPY UPDATE!!!

You all aren't gonna believe this! I'm waiting a couple more days but have been taking pics.

Hubby had built a nice big "chicken truck" out of wire and PVC with wheels and handle, the whole bit. He won't let me park in the garage, set up 2 saw horses, thick piece of plywood, indoor outdoor carpet, hay, towel for bed, raised the water bucket so she doesn't have to bend her neck to get to it, then put the chicken truck over all. It's a REALLY nice set up for her and it's waist high and easy to get to her when we have to work with her.

She laid another egg yesterday too and is pooping solid/normal.

When she hears our voices and sees us with her one good eye she starts wiggling her tongue in and out and making a sort of chicken noise. Hubby splashed the water bowl, she ran over, dunked her beakless face in and tipped head back wiggling the tongue and DRINKING!!! woo hoo!

She really LOOKS bad but I think it looks worse than it is. I think she will make it. One day at a time.

My dog Chloe the Border Collie has become EXTREMELY protective of Cookie. Chloe has figured out how to open the house door to come out to the garage when we are there. She stands on her hind legs and checks on Cookie, paces while we are there and refuses to come back in the house - I have to practically drag her. She whines at the door about every hour. If I let her into the garage and watch, she goes over, stands on hind legs, sniffs to be sure Cookie is OK, then drops down and tries to go lay under the sawhorses. She is staying under the plywood/sawhorses when out there with us. Animals are amazing. Chloe has always laid outside around the chicken pen and chased off squirrels and such. She knows the chickens are important and her "job"...

Next UPDATE:

I had hubby set the hav a heart trap. He said snarkily "racoons don't run in families/packs..." I made him set the trap anyway. I baited with ham fat and baked beans. Guess what? Trapped one last night right beside the chicken pen with the other girls in it!! This coon is bigger than the one that got Cookie!!!

My heart stopped. I just bought a baby monitor, motion sensor light setup and am all over hubby about making the top of the chicken run and pen HOT with a hotwire setup. Lord, aside from solid tin and no sunlight, I don't know how else to fortify the fort knox chicken pen we already have!

Still hatin' coons and thankful for all your advice and support. Am giving and trying all the stuff you all talk about here - and it's working.
henmomma