Wounds -what type of predator does this?

[songbird]

Hi all, I'd like your 2 cents. A day or two ago, I found the feeder in the coop knocked off the hook and completely dumped out. I have discovered a opossum once or twice this year, snacking on the grain, though this time I didnt see a culprit.
Yesterday I couldn't find 2 hens. One emerged from hiding at her bedtime, and the other, Petal, I found crouched under the deck instead of with the flock. I easily picked her up - very lethargic -and saw that she had a cloacal prolapse with some very swollen, inflamed, and necrotic tissue. I brought her in, washed her bum, and reduced the prolapse. I put her up on her roost in the hen house figuring she will be less stressed. This morning, I brought her in to do something more definitive for the prolapse. Well, the prolapse stayed reduced, but when I was cleaning her again, I saw two fairly superficial wounds about 3 inches below, and to the side, of her vent. There did not appear to be deep damage...fat was showing, but the muscle seemed intact. Soooo, whodunit? Does this sound like the work of a opossum? The girls and their husband free range during the day, and are locked up before dusk.

 

[songbird]

Bump...

 

[zazouse]

perhaps she was snake bit a dry bit would not kill her but could cause an infection or she may have prolapsed and the other hens were pecking her.. just throwing that out there.

wishing her a speedy recovery .

 

[shmccarthy]

I've heard that minks will bite hens, only sucking the blood, it could've been a mink

 

[songbird]

Not a snake, too cold in New England. I wondered whether the wounds could have been secondary to the hens pecking at the prolapse. But they seemed awfully big to be from hens. I wish she could talk!