citymeetscountry
Crowing
Around 8pm Central time I mentioned to my husband that the animals all needed to be locked up but it wasn’t dark yet so they weren’t quite ready and could he take care of them in a little while.
Less than an hour later and it’s dark and they weren’t put up yet. So he’s rounding them up as I’m getting the chickens out into their coop and I go to help him. I see something moving around in the dark and freak out and run to get a flashlight and my husband says it’s a duck (they’re about 11 weeks old)
Of course it’s my favorite. I can see she’s bloodied and I go grab a towel. I get her wrapped up and in the house, she can’t quack and I already could tell she wouldn’t make it through the night but I try to get her cleaned up. She starts flailing and then peacefully closed her eyes.
It was hard to get her cleaned up and I think it was maybe 2-3 puncture marks?
I have a few theories of what it could have been but figured I’d reach out for more expert ideas. Their run is fenced with 6 ft welded wire inside of our garden area that’s also fenced with 6ft welded wire (I realize that doesn’t keep everything out). Our backyard also has chain link fencing around it.
We have seen opossum and raccoons in our yard and missippi kite flying overhead. A neighbor has spotted a coyote on his game cam recently. I saw a copperhead in our yard last fall. And a hawk a few streets over last month.
Thoughts?
Less than an hour later and it’s dark and they weren’t put up yet. So he’s rounding them up as I’m getting the chickens out into their coop and I go to help him. I see something moving around in the dark and freak out and run to get a flashlight and my husband says it’s a duck (they’re about 11 weeks old)
Of course it’s my favorite. I can see she’s bloodied and I go grab a towel. I get her wrapped up and in the house, she can’t quack and I already could tell she wouldn’t make it through the night but I try to get her cleaned up. She starts flailing and then peacefully closed her eyes.
It was hard to get her cleaned up and I think it was maybe 2-3 puncture marks?
I have a few theories of what it could have been but figured I’d reach out for more expert ideas. Their run is fenced with 6 ft welded wire inside of our garden area that’s also fenced with 6ft welded wire (I realize that doesn’t keep everything out). Our backyard also has chain link fencing around it.
We have seen opossum and raccoons in our yard and missippi kite flying overhead. A neighbor has spotted a coyote on his game cam recently. I saw a copperhead in our yard last fall. And a hawk a few streets over last month.
Thoughts?
I had asked my husband to put the animals up while I did bedtime with the kids and it just didn’t happen in a timely fashion) Emerald (the white one) is almost fully healed now. I got some spray disinfectant stuff on it and put a spray bandage as well. The wound is almost all gone and feathers are growing back in.
