what the heck is killing my chickens!?! (Graphic)

[lolgan]

i've lost 8 in the last few weeks.

it always happens during the day.

since it happens during the day i'm thinking it could be a rabid possum or something? (supposedly no coon rabies in missouri)


i found it while it was still warm and the body was basically untouched so i plucked/cleaned it and threw it in the crock pot.

just thinking now about the possibility or contracting rabies......hmmmm i know rabies can only infect mammals and i was thinking cooking thoroughly would kill the virus.

what do you think?

thanks!
-Logan

 

[Sunny the Hippie Chick]

Could have been a neighbor hood dog. Looks like what a dog would do when it plays with an animal. Some days think they are play things. And dont eat them.

 

[Mahonri]

Dog or a coon.

 

[Kittymomma]

The one I lost to a raccoon had the head chewed off, not just plucked. I'd be looking at the dogs in the area especially since it's happening during the daytime.

 

[jensen]

When we've had coon trouble, they have always come in and done their damage at night which makes me wonder if it's not dogs or something of that kind. Has anyone had coons take birds during the day time?

 

[HippieChickens]

.

 

[lolgan]

thanks for the reply guys!

i really appreciate it!

 

[doubled]

IF you suspect rabies, the only test is brain matter, send in the head...

 

[pedro24]

lost to a raccoon supposedly
you can never tell until you
catch it

 

[dragonlair]

I don't think a rabid animal would come back day after day and kill, since they can't eat or drink. If they do have the "furious" rabies, rather than "dumb" rabies, they would tear the animal apart, not just the neck. If the animal did have rabies, it would most likely be dead by now. Usually a rabid animal is too sick to wander very far anyway, so you would have found it by now, either alive or dead.

Were your hens free ranging or were they fenced in? She looks like something pulled her head thru a small hole in a wire fence. I had a coon do that to a hen one time. The hens would stick their heads thru the small openings in the chicken wire to peck at the grass outside. The coon grabbed her head and pulled her, trying to get her thru the fence. He ended up killing her but her feathers were rubbed off by the wire and the neck left really raw, like your picture. The coon never got her thru the fence, so I found her like that in her pen.