*UPDATE* dying her own way.... please help with hen trying to recover from predator attack

[Carchick]

Hi all,

I was sick to my stomach when on Tuesday morning I went down to the coops to let the chickens out and looked over to my other coop that housed 2 guineas and 2 other chickens to discover probably an opossum got in there and killed my beautiful, guineas and partially attacked one of the hens named Summer. For right now her eyes are closed, I don't know if she is now blind, but she as dried blood on her nostrils. Right now Summer is in a cat carrier resting in our garage with nothing in there and keeping it dark. Should I attempt to clean her nostrils and what about trying to get some water in her? I'm thinking I should not force the water in her, but I do have a bowl in there. As she is trying to recover, and hopefully makes it, I don't know how much to disturb her and what if anything I can do to aid in her recovery.

Thank so much for any information you can provide.

 

[torilovessmiles]

You can give her water with a dropper, but just a little at a time.
How do you feel about using antibiotics? I used oxytetracycline (powder dissolved in water) on my pullet and my ducks after a dog attack, and they didn't get an infection at all. I also rinsed their wounds with iodine (please don't use peroxide) and put triple antibiotic ointment on them for the first few days. Bite and scratch wounds can be really nasty when left untreated...
Her wounds do need cleaned, but be careful around her face. You don't want to get water or iodine in her nostrils!
Adult birds are very resilient, and heal pretty easily, so she's got a good chance! I hope she gets better!

 

[Carchick]

Thank you so much for your help. I tried to clean up her face the best I could. She has some dried blood around her nostrils and I was able to get some of it off. I'm trying to be gentle and put her through the least amount of stress as possible. When cleaning up around the beak area, I would get a separate towel and squeeze a little water around the area with a little bit of poly-vi-sol. At this point there is no way she will be able to eat. I will have to put up a picture of her tomorrow. She is a tough girl and stands up when she hears me talking to her. She is still in the garage where it's warm, dark, and quiet. Unfortunately I do not have any antibiotics at home. I will put triple antibiotic ointment around her face but I don't know what to do about the eye area. I don't know if the area is swollen or if she lost her eyes, I know, I should probably know the difference but at this point I do not. I will have to look at some pictures and see what I can find out.

 

[Carchick]

I am needing some opinions about my hen. I don't know if I should try to keep her alive or not...I don't want her to suffer. She is still alive, but I am not getting much fluids into her. I have her a baby aspirin today, partial in her water/yogurt mixture which she would only accept perhaps a partial syringe from. I am trying to open her beak with the syringe. I tried it again this afternoon...only a few drops, and then tonight with a non cooked scrambled egg...just a few drops. This attack happened on Tuesday. One of her eyes is open now and the other one is a swollen balloon. Has anyone had chicken survive her barely would drink anything?

 

[torilovessmiles]

I am needing some opinions about my hen. I don't know if I should try to keep her alive or not...I don't want her to suffer. She is still alive, but I am not getting much fluids into her. I have her a baby aspirin today, partial in her water/yogurt mixture which she would only accept perhaps a partial syringe from. I am trying to open her beak with the syringe. I tried it again this afternoon...only a few drops, and then tonight with a non cooked scrambled egg...just a few drops. This attack happened on Tuesday. One of her eyes is open now and the other one is a swollen balloon. Has anyone had chicken survive her barely would drink anything?

The fact that she's still not drinking really worries me. If it were my personal decision, I would choose to put the bird down at this point. To me, it's sad, but I can replace a chicken with another chicken. However, if this bird is an important pet to you, I don't see the harm in giving her a few more days before making the final decision. It's possible she could come out of shock once the pain begins to fade, and it's also a strong possibility that she won't pull out of it. There is always a chance that she would start drinking on her own and recover, but she will be in a lot of pain until she gets there, if she gets there. If you feel like it is worth it, by all means, keep trying for a few more days.
This is a bit of a different situation, but let me tell you about my little pekin duck.
I went outside to find one of my young Rouen ducks dead in my driveway, and my Pekin unable to move her legs or tail, waiting for someone to come save her. Our dog had gotten out and attacked our bird. I was sure she would have to be put down, but I had to catch the dog so I just picked her up and sat her down in the bathroom. After I found all of our remaining birds, I went inside to check everyone's injuries. This want around an hour after the injury, I noticed a very faint reflex when I pinched a toe on her left foot. I figured I'd give her until the morning to make some progress before we killed her. To my surprise, I found her scooting all over her cage with her left foot! She was unable to move her right foot at all, but this was progress, so I decided not to give up on her. Fast forward one month, Violet the Pekin duck is walking, keeping up with her sister! Though she has a slight limp, she is getting around wonderfully and getting better every day! She is able to swim and run like a normal duck, as long as she is able to take a few extra breaks! I also had a chicken in the same attack that survived as well!
The point to telling you this story, is that birds can be very resilient, and can pull through a lot of bad situations. Of course I have had birds die from shock as well (especially chicks), but sometimes a couple days of rest is all they need. The big difference is that my birds were all drinking water, and none of them had a severe injury to the head. It's your call, and either decision is totally acceptable.
I'm sorry this whole thing happened. It's the hardest part about owning chickens

 

[Carchick]

Thank you so much for your very touching response. I loved reading about Violet and her will to live, thrive, and keep up with her sister. She sounds very precious. It seems like animals have such a strong will to live and I respect it so much that I feel like it is not my call to decide it for them. After the attack where I found my guineas dead, I saw my 2 birds hiding behind a fence in the coop and they both were moving fine. When I came back about 30 minutes later to take care of things, Summer was limp on the ground. I really think she tried to show me she was alive and gave it she had in her to do that. It is just so sad and tough to see her like this. I will see how she does tomorrow if she is worse, about the same, or a tiny bit better. I love my birds and hate that anything like this happened to them. I am an animal lover and I cannot believe I would want any harm to come to raccoons or opposums, but I had my husband borrow a trap and so far we have caught 2 raccoons and 1 opossum. I don't want anything like this to happen again.

 

[Carchick]

Summer has continued to go downhill and yesterday after debating back and forth about whether to help her end it or not, I decided to do it, or rather my husband. I did not want to be there, so I left and drove away crying all the way to work. My husband called me 30 minutes later and I thought he was going to tell me he had done it, but he didn't. He had said he took her in the backyard, sat with her in his lap for a little bit. He was getting ready to do it when all of sudden she got up and ran and ran, squawking as she went. Our rooster saw her and went up to her and was nice to her. Well, she was letting us know she did not want to go that way. My husband said he just couldn't do it. I had hope that perhaps she wanted to live or she didn't want to go that way. I was able to give some baby aspirin with water and egg yesterday....very very little bit. I knew this morning would be the tell tale sign. Well she just wants to sleep. She turns her head when I tried to give her anything so I just held her in my lap. She was extremely content like that and just went to sleep. We stayed like that for about 5 minutes and I gently put her back in her sleeping quarters. Maybe I am naïve but she seems to be more at peace and not in pain anymore. This is the way she wants to go, on her own terms, and I am respecting her last wishes.

 

[torilovessmiles]

Summer has continued to go downhill and yesterday after debating back and forth about whether to help her end it or not, I decided to do it, or rather my husband. I did not want to be there, so I left and drove away crying all the way to work. My husband called me 30 minutes later and I thought he was going to tell me he had done it, but he didn't. He had said he took her in the backyard, sat with her in his lap for a little bit. He was getting ready to do it when all of sudden she got up and ran and ran, squawking as she went. Our rooster saw her and went up to her and was nice to her. Well, she was letting us know she did not want to go that way. My husband said he just couldn't do it. I had hope that perhaps she wanted to live or she didn't want to go that way. I was able to give some baby aspirin with water and egg yesterday....very very little bit. I knew this morning would be the tell tale sign. Well she just wants to sleep. She turns her head when I tried to give her anything so I just held her in my lap. She was extremely content like that and just went to sleep. We stayed like that for about 5 minutes and I gently put her back in her sleeping quarters. Maybe I am naïve but she seems to be more at peace and not in pain anymore. This is the way she wants to go, on her own terms, and I am respecting her last wishes.

I am very sorry about your hen, but I'm happy to hear she is going in sleep and peace, rather than clinging to life. I believe that's a very noble decision of yours. God Bless you