Turkey attacked my 9 wk Polish pullet!

[Hawkeye95]

I went out to refill the feed this afternoon and found a little 9 week old WCB Polish face down in the litter inside the coop. A great deal of her crest had been picked off and she has a bloody head showing through. It doesn't look like the flesh has been taken off -- although, there are some places where it does look like the attack dug deeper into her skull. When I opened the coop door, I saw my turkey standing over her getting ready to peck her more. I tossed out the turkey and grabbed my baby and ran her into the house. She was shivering and limp, eyes closed. I put her in a box with a heat lamp over her. Took about 2 hours for her to warm back up. So I gooped on Triple Antibiotic ointment (NO pain reliever) on her head and put it on thick. I had her wrapped in a towel and after a while, she started to pant. So I made her up some electrolytes in her water and have been using a dropper to put a bit at a time in her beak. She is drinking it down fine that way. She is too weak to stand or eat/drink on her own. She is flopped over on her side, face down. Is there anything else I'm missing??? OH!! I forgot to mention her beak is broke, too. I don't know how my turkey did it (turkey is full grown) but the top of her beak is cracked and moves a bit. Well, it only moved when I tried to put the syringe in her beak. Otherwise, it seems to hold it's place. She has blood around her beak-- is that from the break??? Like I said, I have done what I think I can at this point, but if there is anything I'm missing.. please advise! Thank you!

 

[foxypoproxy]

Oh my god, that is horrible!
I'd be so upset.
Seems like you are doing everything right to help get her better.
So sorry to hear about your poor polish.
I hope she can recovery fast!

 

[Hawkeye95]

I took a couple of pictures of her. I just picked her up and leaned her against the side of the box so she wasn't all flopped over. She held her head up a bit for the picture, but right now, her wing that isn't pinned against the side of the box is flopped out a bit and she has her head back face down in the chips. The pictures show her looking MUCH better than she is. Think she could survive this?? I don't know if there is any internal damage done to her-- she is little and the turkey was BIG!! She is very limp.

 

[tinydancer87]

That looks pretty bad, but I would say that as long as she didn't suffer brain damage, she can heal just fine. Turkeys are very strong and very persistent. I had to sell all 6 of mine bc they attacked and nearly blinded my runner duck, and then killed a hatchling.

When she is healed and reintroduced the turkey will probably do it again. Might even do it to another chicken in the meantime. Might want to think about separating or rehoming the turkey.

I loved my turkeys but it wasn't worth my chickens living in fear and being harassed and bullied. Now I have ducks

Had a little faverolle get attacked and mauled by a fox. Her wounds were horrible but she could have healed, had the shock not done her in. She quietly passed in her heated crate a few hours after I brought her in and doctored her up.

Neosporin without pain relief is your best friend here. Right now she is very shocky--the next 12-24 hours are going to be the hardest for her. I would give her some water, keep her warm, apply neosporin, and just let her rest. Her head looks like the skin is gone; hopefully she doesn't have any brain swelling. Watch her for uneven pupils, abnormal eye or head movements (jerking, ticking), and make sure her pupils respond evenly to light. Any of these indicate brain swelling, sadly there's not much that can be done for that in birds, prednisone and dexamethasone is what we use on dogs and cats, but I am not sure they can be used on chickens without organ damage.

 

[foxypoproxy]

That poor thing!
That does look pretty bad, but i have seen polish survive from a worse attack (where it scalped the hen all the way to the skull).
So i'm thinking she could survive as long as she doesn't have anything like internal bleeding or injuries.
Atleast she has a good chicken owner taking care of her.
There is not much you can do but take care of her wound and make sure she eats and drinks.
I'll be crossing my fingers for you

 

[Hawkeye95]

Quote:
Oh yeah, my turkey is not coming anywhere near my chickens ever again! I can easily separate her out-- it's just that she walked into the coop door when she got in their pen. She attacked them while they were in the coop. I'll be diligent about not letting her in the pen anymore. This has pretty much decided me that I won't be getting any more turkeys-- EVER. That turkey is the sweetest bird (to people) , but I can't have my babies attacked. Because you mentioned it, I just got her out and looked at her eyes. She is looking at me and seems alert when I hold her. She didn't seem like anything was wrong with her eyes or pupils. Seems like I caught the turkey right in the act, and perhaps caught it before it got much worse?? I don't know. I have both Prednisone and Dexamethasone on hand-- but I think I'll hold off since she's not full grown and still pretty little and I don't know what would kill her at this point. I think the Pred would work beter than the Dex (if I were to use it) because the Dex is more of a glucocorticoid which might send her adrenals over the edge. (I worked as a vet tech for many years) Despite that though... I have NO CLUE what to do with chickens!! I'm totally in the dark here. I'm with you-- give me dogs, cats, horses... I'm good! Chickens... I feel so useless. Okay-- so I'm hoping she will pull out of her shock tonight. I'm doing lots of praying here!

Should I leave the broken beak alone for now? See if she makes it tomorrow and then decide what to do?? I'm thinking that's the best plan. How do you fix a broken beak?? Eeek!!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Quote:
I'm putting drops of electrolyte water down her-- and the food-- none. Think tomorrow is soon enough?? She doesn't seem in the mood to eat. I'm using a syringe to get the water down her. Sigh. This is soooooo STRESSful!! Geez.

What about holding her? Good idea??? Bad idea?? She perks up when I pick her up and talk to her. But is that wearing her out and stressing her more than helping?? I just worry when she stretches her legs out behind her and then flops sideways that it's "The End" for her. So I gently stroke her and sort of pick her up to be sure she's not dead and try to prop her up again. I know I can't do that all night.

 

[foxypoproxy]

Quote:
I'm putting drops of electrolyte water down her-- and the food-- none. Think tomorrow is soon enough?? She doesn't seem in the mood to eat. I'm using a syringe to get the water down her. Sigh. This is soooooo STRESSful!! Geez.

What about holding her? Good idea??? Bad idea?? She perks up when I pick her up and talk to her. But is that wearing her out and stressing her more than helping?? I just worry when she stretches her legs out behind her and then flops sideways that it's "The End" for her. So I gently stroke her and sort of pick her up to be sure she's not dead and try to prop her up again. I know I can't do that all night.

I think holding her would be alright as long as it doesn't irritate her or the wound.
Just make her as comfortable as possible.
She may eat once she has enough energy and recovered more, so just focus on the electrolytes for now and try feeding her something like scrambled eggs tomorrow.

 

[FarmFreshEggs]

The same thing just happend to me! My Red Star attacked my Serama. My mom works for the local vet so one of the doctors told me to clean the wound 2times a day, and gave me a special antibiotic.

 

[Jewels1935]

Poor girl! That's sad, I know if that happened here, my husband would have that turkey ready for Christmas! I hope she pulls through for you