What type of predator could have caused this? :(

[shbouton]

So now I have another problem... Out of the 5 remaining survivors, one was badly injured or so I thought. I was able to save her and she is now fine but one of my others is no longer able to walk and I had thought she was fine. I picked her up and checked her back and she too had been attacked but the bite was healed over, thank goodness. Off to the vet we went and after X-rays there are no broken bones, he seems to think it is neurological, spine related, although he did think it was odd that it took that long to develop. So I now have her in the house on antibiotics and pain medicine, although he said she does not appear to be in pain, she is eating and drinking very well and very content inside the house she just can't stand. The vet said that chickens are amazingly resilient but that if she doesn't improve in a couple of weeks, that we should consider euthanasia. Anyone have any experience with this type of recovery?

 

[cmom]

In the past I have had both coyote and fox either attempt to do a snatch and grab during the day or do snatch and grab. Both killed some birds during the day. Here they mostly hunt at night.

I had a young male in the same situation and couldn't stand. I put him in a special coop with a special bird. At first Gladys wasn't too friendly but she eventually warmed up to him. He got to where he would try to follow her and take a few steps at a time and then fall over, but he kept trying and did eventually regain the use of his legs. Gladys would wait for him. She was a good therapy chicken. Unfortunately she was one of the birds that has been killed by a fox during the middle of the day. Sometimes you have to put them down. I think another male had a stroke so it was not a predator injury. He got to where he couldn't walk, as hard as he tried, and kept falling over. He was older. Whatever happens, good luck...

 

[Throbak]

I’m betting Dog Looks like Dog hair to me Had a fox Get Mine last summer He would pack the bird off And come back next day for another 8 birds in 9 days caught him red handed with a Barred Rock in his Mouth day 9 In my experience Wild Predators Kill what they can eat and not ever in one night

 

[shbouton]

In the past I have had both coyote and fox either attempt to do a snatch and grab during the day or do snatch and grab. Both killed some birds during the day. Here they mostly hunt at night.

I had a young male in the same situation and couldn't stand. I put him in a special coop with a special bird. At first Gladys wasn't too friendly but she eventually warmed up to him. He got to where he would try to follow her and take a few steps at a time and then fall over, but he kept trying and did eventually regain the use of his legs. Gladys would wait for him. She was a good therapy chicken. Unfortunately she was one of the birds that has been killed by a fox during the middle of the day. Sometimes you have to put them down. I think another male had a stroke so it was not a predator injury. He got to where he couldn't walk, as hard as he tried, and kept falling over. He was older. Whatever happens, good luck...

Thank you! She's in great spirits, just can't walk, that's why I'm not sure I can euthanize her.

 

[Throbak]

What I’ve seen here and I deal with Coyotes ,Bobcats Red Fox And smaller Cooper’s hawks and Coons and Possums and Dogs Coyote , Fox And Bobcats Pack them off and all I find is a few feathers Coopers set there and Pluck them and eat there or again pack them off Coopers go for the small birds don’t serm to bother larger birds Coons an Possums it will look like a massacre with head or parts of each bird eaten on . Dogs just kill to be killing nothing ate and go for the whole flock and try to kill them all in my experience over the last 50 yr trying to keep bird

 

[Nyhillbillies]

So now I have another problem... Out of the 5 remaining survivors, one was badly injured or so I thought. I was able to save her and she is now fine but one of my others is no longer able to walk and I had thought she was fine. I picked her up and checked her back and she too had been attacked but the bite was healed over, thank goodness. Off to the vet we went and after X-rays there are no broken bones, he seems to think it is neurological, spine related, although he did think it was odd that it took that long to develop. So I now have her in the house on antibiotics and pain medicine, although he said she does not appear to be in pain, she is eating and drinking very well and very content inside the house she just can't stand. The vet said that chickens are amazingly resilient but that if she doesn't improve in a couple of weeks, that we should consider euthanasia. Anyone have any experience with this type of recovery?

Some gentle physical therapy on her legs could help. If you hold her with one hand, and let her cup the back of your other hand with one foot, does she resist you? You want to gently remind her she has legs…

 

[Folly's place]

This thread is three years old!
Mary

 

[Bags]

Good afternoon all,

It is with great, great sadness that I write this post. I lost 8 of my 13 pet banties to a predator a couple of days/nights ago and I am still boohooing. Something got into what we thought were coops that were basically impenetrable. We had lost chickens to hawks before because we were free ranging and to the heat (we live in Florida) but have never lost a chicken to anything other than that.

We started chicken keeping about 5 years ago and other than the hawk attacks and one raccoon encounter (we had forgotten to take the food out of the pen at night so it wasn't actually after the chickens) we have had absolutely no attempts on either of our coops even though we are surrounded by woods. When we stopped free ranging so that we could protect our flocks from hawk attacks during the day, we researched coops and from the very beginning didn't make the mistakes that folks usually make starting out and have therefore been able to keep our girls safe at night from day one. Frankly, we built the bigger coop with better siding than what is currently on our house! Until now...

Attached are some pictures of what happened... It appears to have happened somewhere between 2 and 5 am. There were a couple of dead chickens in the coop, several outside of the coop but in the pen and several scattered outside of the pen. And one that had been attacked walking around stunned and with a severe bite mark on her back. I'm trying to save her. The funny thing is, none of them had any signs of obvious trauma, although I was so distraught I never looked under their feathers before I buried them, except for the one that survived and one that was half eaten, abdomen/breast area only, the furthest one away from the coop in the yard.

Now here is the caveat, when my dog alerted from inside the house, I opened the door to let him out and there was a husky standing in the yard accompanied by about a 40 - 50 pound black and white lab mix (my yard is surrounded by picket and farm fence but they were somehow able to open the gate to come into my yard). They were not in either pen when I escorted them out of my yard and walked back around with a flashlight, everything looked in order so here is my hypothesis. It was a fox or a coyote and the commotion drew the dogs to our yard so at this point I am holding them harmless as I just cannot believe that a dog would go in and out of that hole, the big one certainly would not have fit and the smaller one would have had to perform some kind of circus act to balance on the fence and literally chew through what was hardware cloth bolted to the coop and go in and out with chickens.

Oh and I forgot to mention that whatever it was did get into by big coop run area, he just lifted the chicken wire and walked in and proceeded to start biting apart the hardware cloth on the door along with the wood slat across the middle of the door. I don't have pictures of the damage to the big coop but I did attach picture of the coop itself. Thankfully it did not get to the big girls in that coop.

Also, until today, we have had a severe drought for a couple of months and it looks like whatever it was must have been starving.

So my guess is fox/coyote... Certainly it wasn't a dog right? Oh and we found a clump of semi coarse white hair (pic attached) on the chicken wire but no scat or tracks...

I am just so devastated and don't know what else we could have done. I've lost 15 chickens, including the 8 a couple a days ago, over the 5 years, all to predators and each time has been heartbreaking since I make them pets but this is especially so since we thought we had them fully protected.

All thoughts/comments are appreciated!
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Could be a fisher cat, they are very viscous and can pull hardware cloth easily. I'm not sure if you have them in Florida but if you do I suggest a live trap

 

[TOR]

Could be a fisher cat, they are very viscous and can pull hardware cloth easily. I'm not sure if you have them in Florida but if you do I suggest a live trap

It was the neighbors dogs and this is from 2019. The owner of the chickens posted it was the dogs and the matter was settled.