Raccoon!! Emergency!

[henmomma]

We are in Florida - our whole lives and have noticed last year and this that the racoon population seems to be exploding. Cases of rabid coons, rabid animals of all sorts, not rabid as well, distemper outbreak so bad in my county that every adoptable dog in a shelter was euthanized. Broke my heart.

I know what life is all about. Ups and downs and everything and everyone has an end. The one thing I have learned through losing family members and pets is that when I did the Hospice thing and the shot at the vet for the dogs, I felt overwhelming guilt that I didn't fight for them when they were fighting so hard. Like I gave up on them. I decided after the last dog that I wouldn't do that anymore.

There is pain management in our world. If there isn't pain, the suffering is minimal if at all. I won't be giving up again on something or someone I love. Yes there is quality of life and all of that but I have seen some miracles in my life. I forever will wonder if I prevented a miracle by making a decision I shouldn't have. I guess it's a personal thing but if they are going to fight, so am I - period.

The vet said Cookie was too stressed to try to clean her up while we were there. He said all the blood would have to be soaked off and for me to try a little at a time but it's not working well at all.

I could use a little advice on how to get this 3 day old dried blood off of her feathers and her really sore spots. Just warm water and more cotton pads like I've been doing? Is there a better way or product anyone has heard of? I need to get it off so the vet can do whatever he thinks he can do. Stitches or whatever. Her neck looks like the coon's claw sliced it all the way around. The skin kind of slid down and wadded up exposing trachea and all that stuff. No punctures or anything to any of the stuff there though. He needs to stitch that but I have to try to get the blood off the skin so he can. I know I can do it more gently than he can. No sign of infection - guess the antibiotics are helping.

Going to tube feed her this afternoon too. Little nervous but excellent instructions I found on a board here. Hubby has very tiny tubing brand new - smaller than fish tank even. It should work fine and I will be careful but she's got to have food and can't without her beak.

Should I do yogurt or just her laying mash softened and mixed with water and do a bunch of that or what? Any idea about how much - can't give too much or it can come back up.

Thanks again for all the help and the HUGE following! You guys are great!

 

[Qi Chicken]

Just wondered if you were able to find the rescue remedy or the homeopathic teething disolvable pills made by hylands? I would try to get some calming meds into her before cleaning. I'm sorry but I don't know of anything that would work better than plain warm water. The only thing I can think of would be very diluted dawn dishwashing detergent as it is gentle and breaks things up. But it might sting or be bad on abraded skin. Good luck to you and DO try to find one of those two things to help calm her!!!

I know you have a lot on your mind and there is no need to answer while you're in the middle of everything but, like Ed, I would like to know how the coon originally got in through the space between the hardward cloth and the roof. We are getting our chicks in just a few weeks and are building a run. We have foxes, and many many coons and hawks and I want to make SURE they will be safe.

Thanks and good luck again!

 

[Intheswamp]

I'm not sure if this would be good or not, but diluting some hydrogen-peroxide with some distilled water 50/50 might help to break up some of the dried blood. ???

Ed

 

[Kittymomma]

Read the second post down (by threehorses) on this thread. It's the best article on bird wound care that I've read. Good luck with your girl. Apoligies if someone already posted this, I'm short on time today and didn't read the entire thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=213146

 

[Bat Cave Silkies]

It sounds like Cookie's neck injury is very similar to my Peaches' neck injury about 6 weeks ago. Diluted hydrogen peroxide is the best for removing dried blood; its best if you can spray it on and let it sit, to dissolve the blood (try to NOT get it on the open areas). Peaches' skin was sliced completely around the base of her neck by my dog; the skin had rolled up all the way to the base of her skull; I didn't think she or Honey would survive and I don't have a poultry vet, but I am a retired RN. So, I just cleaned the "meat" thoroughly with warm soapy water, picked out the large debree, slathered her neck with antibiotic ointment and pulled the skin back down to its natural position. I didn't stitch it closed because I was concerned with infection, and wanted everything able to drain out. To look at her now, you'd never known it happened, except a small area on the back of her neck where the feathers have not grown back in completely.

You're doing an EXCELLENT JOB !!!

 

[AmyBella]

Wow! What a saga! I am pulling for Cookie!

I had to syringe-feed a bird for a month and I made up a slurry in a base of her mash and baby bird handfeeding formula from the pet store. I wet it with warm water and each day I would add something different for variety... yogurt, applesauce, egg yolk, tomato puree. It was a challenge, but I am so glad that I made the effort. Good luck!

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
From reading back I saw that I missed the part where the coon tore into the top of the coop (I guess my comprehsion level is ebbing.) I may be wrong but it sounds like the coon tore through chicken wire that was being used as a cover/top to the run, and that the chickens had free access back and forth between the coop and the run.

Coons are smart and patient. They will poke, pull, nudge, bend, push, and wiggle till they find a weak spot and then they're inside. Chicken wire as a cover is good for avian predators and good for keeping chickens in but not for keeping coons out as evidenced by this coon tearing through it. A run that is always accessible to the coop should have a heavy wire mesh such as welded wire fencing completely enclosing it. It seems that the wire would cut the coons paws but nature provides them with some very tough pads. If chicken wire is used at any place in forming a fully covered run then it would be wise to secure the chickens inside the coop at night behind the pop door and hardware cloth/welded wire. Experience, unfortunately, is sometimes the best teacher.

Best wishes to you henmomma, I hope your patient continues to heal. I was doing some further reading and you might want to keep the peroxide out of the wound areas and use it just for removing the dried blood from around it.

Here is a quote of a message that dlhunicorn posted back in 2007 about treating a hawk attack victim:

you need to flush the area with sterile saline daily (you can make your own by boiling 1/4 tsp of salt in a quart of wtaer...make fresh daily) ...squirt the saline solution over the wound...use triple antibiotic creme the first week generously on the area to keep it moist though if you possibly can, then I would suggest you get GRANULEX V ... you can often find this in the Horse section of your feed store or sometimes in the pet medication section for dogs and cats... here is an online source so you can see the details of the product and what it looks like:
http://www.bullwrinkle.com/ShoppingPages/granulex.htm

Here is a link to that entire thread.... Diamond was attacked! HELP! (Graphic Pics )

Best wishes,
Ed

 

[chuckzoo]

Do you have time to give us an update? How is Cookie doing today?

Where you able to get the blood off her feathers?

Thinking about you.

P.S. Your husband sounds like a great guy for rigging her a comfortable little setup.

 

[AndreaS]

I have been following this thread since it first started and have thought of you guys often. How is cookie doing?? We're pulling for her!

Andrea

 

[henmomma]

Hi everyone,

It took me a few days to be able to write this. Yes, bad news. Cookie didn't make it. She crossed to the other side of the road somewhere between 11PM Saturday and 5AM Sunday.

I left you all with wondering how the tube feeding was going. Friday when I got home, no problem with getting the tube down the right hole. Lots easier than I thought. Trick was getting hubby to hold her head straight up. Pressed the plunger slowly and it all dribbled and shot out of her neck!!!

OMG! My heart fell straight to my feet. We and the vet didn't think the coon had cut her throat, just the skin! Oh no...called the vet, brought her back in. The coon had cut esophogus and trachea. That's why I could hear her bubbly lungs. I thought I heard them through her mouth - nope.

He put a spray of some kind on the cut but worried that it may be too late. He said he can't do any stitching of the trachea and esophagus because they are cartiledge - kind of like you can't stitch a human tongue. This means the whenever something went down her throat - even water she was drinking on her own, it was going into her lungs.

At this point we didn't feel we had the right to take her life from her. She had fought too hard and deserved to go in her own way. I took her home. She wasn't happy but she cheered up Saturday morning when I took her out in the grass. She walked around, tried to peck at the grass and ran straight over to her sisters in their pen. They cooed and clucked at her and she back. The littlest chicken - small like Cookie - just stared and stared and stared at her like in shock "WTH happened to your FACE!" kind of look. Cookie was feeling really skinny.

Cookie pooped and walked around for about a half hour and got tired and sat down. I put her back in her chicken condo in the garage. She just turned her head away from any offering of water or dropper. We knew. She looked just like she went to sleep, eyes closed, nothing odd or bad. Just peaceful. I cried.

She rests in her own little place with our 2 dogs we lost last year. Hubby was so mad - said "she didn't deserve to die this way. We trapped THREE more coons over the weekend and we think we have the whole family now - nothing took the bait for 2 days. There is a coon rescue place (yuck) about a mile away that came and got them. They release about 50 miles away. Hubby's anger took us Sunday after the chicken funeral to Home Depot where we dropped over a hundred bucks on barrel latches for the 2 chicken pen doors, motion detector lights, etc.

When it's dark, if you go near the chicken pen it lights up like a maximum security prison and the chickens squawk brrrrrooooocckkk!!!!!! I got a set of baby monitors so I can hear when I'm in the house and our dog Chloe (border collie and extremely protective of the flock) parks herself whenever she is outside, right beside the pen with her back to the chickens and nose in the air. She knows they are part of the family. She thinks of them as her job I think. We considered putting her IN the pen a night or two. I'm sure she would have protected the girls but I didn't want to risk a coon getting Chloe too.

So now we are down to 4 girls and they are all back to laying - no eggs for 3 days after this crap. Hubby hasn't been caring for the girls, he pretty much has me do it. He's afraid he will fall in love with another one I think. I'm making him do it today.

We all thank you for your support and help and advice. If I had to do it over again I would but I would not have had the vet give her diruetic for drying the lungs. I think it dehydrated her too much. The antibiotic alone was working well. I also would have cleaned her up IMMEDIATELY instead of waiting for fear of pain. A little shot of pain and cleaning her up would have allowed us to see the cut in her neck better. That's it. Everything else I would have done the same.

We luvs you guys -

henmomma and henpoppa~