UPDATE: HELP ME!! HAWK ATTACK SURVIVOR!! PLEASE HELP!!

[crunchygranola]

Will do. Thank you so much…

 

[crunchygranola]

I wet her food and let it soak. She’s gobbling it up. She won’t drink water otherwise, so I’m just giving her lots and lots of wet food. She’s eating a healthy amount— I put her in a dog crate and put a towel over it to keep it a bit dark. She’s swaddled and cozy.

 

[Eggcessive]

So glad that she is eating. I had a hen who lost balance for 5 weeks, and though she never drank or could get to water, she stayed alive until she could stay upright again by eating very watery cooked egg, chicken feed, canned cat food, and tuna, all watery in a bowl which she ate for me twice a day.

 

[RoyalChick]

I wet her food and let it soak. She’s gobbling it up. She won’t drink water otherwise, so I’m just giving her lots and lots of wet food. She’s eating a healthy amount— I put her in a dog crate and put a towel over it to keep it a bit dark. She’s swaddled and cozy.

Eating is a very good sign. And really wet mash is a perfect way to get her hydrated.
You are doing a great job. Just keep taking big breaths.
I had a little pullet that got attacked by a hawk. It had her pinned to the ground when I got there. The lead hen was attacking the hawk and poor little Piglet was just smushed to the ground.
Amazingly Piglet survived. It took maybe two days for her to pull herself together and then she had this look of pride like ‘I am a great warrior - I survived the hawk’!

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

Eating is a very good sign. And really wet mash is a perfect way to get her hydrated.
You are doing a great job. Just keep taking big breaths.
I had a little pullet that got attacked by a hawk. It had her pinned to the ground when I got there. The lead hen was attacking the hawk and poor little Piglet was just smushed to the ground.
Amazingly Piglet survived. It took maybe two days for her to pull herself together and then she had this look of pride like ‘I am a great warrior - I survived the hawk’!

I have a Polish hen, Autumn, who was attacked by a hawk. She had a deep wound on her neck and underneath her eye was bleeding. Her tail was ripped off. If it was not for the blue jays screaming, then I would have not known about it in time. Autumn's head was injured and she was not able to stabilize herself. I found a cage that we had used for other sick and injured chickens and I put her in that. I took the top of the cage off because Autumn did not try to get out and the dogs never bothered her, so there was no use for it. Fast forward about a week later and she was able to stand up, but her head was definitely not right. Her head would start out looking to the left, and would rotate to the right, then swivel back to the left, over and over again. Autumn started roosting on the edge of the cage bottom and was comfortable being in the house. She started venturing onto the floor and would walk around the room, but she made sure she would always go back to her cage when she had to poop. Fast forward again about a week or two and she was good enough to go outside. My Cochin Bantam rooster, Slate, was the one to show her where to go and guide her because she was still not able to focus and her head was spinning. She still follows him around to this day even though her head is healed. One day when she was outside after getting well enough, she was desperately trying to get inside the house. I let her in and she went under a chair and laid her egg there. That was the first time she had laid an egg since getting attacked. I knew she was well then.

 

[crunchygranola]

Question— How can I clean her wounds? I don’t want anything to get infected… I’m scared the saline will burn her. Right now, she has globs of antibiotic cream on and they’re covered with cotton pads. I also don’t know if a bath will do her any good with her current state of shock…

 

[ChicNmom]

Question— How can I clean her wounds? I don’t want anything to get infected… I’m scared the saline will burn her. Right now, she has globs of antibiotic cream on and they’re covered with cotton pads. I also don’t know if a bath will do her any good with her current state of shock…

A mild saline solution won't burn her. If you have betadine you could use that to flush wounds if you're still worried about the saline. I put whatever I'm using in squeeze bottle with a little spout and gently flush.

 

[crunchygranola]

I did just that. She behaved wonderfully for me and didn’t peck me while I cleaned her with saline.

Noticing this huge piece of skin dangling away from the leg… What can I do for that?

 

[ChicNmom]

@crunchygranola



If it were me, I'd trim some of the feathers away so I had a clear view of everything.

The skin looks healthy. I would be tempted to put a lot of antibiotic ointment on the would and then using some steri strips pr paper tape, put the skin back in place over it.

It the skin looked dead and dried out then I would probably trim off the dead part. Or it will dry up on it's own.

Someone else may have a different opinion.

 

[crunchygranola]

**UPDATE ON BABYGIRL**
She’s moved around a couple of times, eating lots, surprisingly drinking water, starting to make a little noise and is way more alert than last night. I haven’t checked her wounds yet, but when I cleaned them last night, they had scabbed over nicely and it looks like they didn’t hurt too bad.