Yikes - Advice needed about hurt chicken....

[aliris]

I think she's surviving!! Thank you all! fbow I followed suggestions here and washed her and the wounds. I think that set her back and opened the wounds, but I was able to clean them a bit and pack them with antibiotics. After that she was really knocked off her game and I stuck her in chicken hospital for a day (the bathroom in a box) where she slept and made mewling noises. Then around dusk she awakened and made it clear she was done with all this, went back with her flock mates and has slowly gotten stronger. She ran a bit yesterday and yowled quite a bit today. She's still under the weather but she does seem like for sure she's going to survive! It's been 9 days since the attack so... We've exported 3 possums since then (live-trap and removal to a nearby creek) and lots of squirrels. *sigh*.

Anyway, thanks all!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

We've exported 3 possums since then (live-trap and removal to a nearby creek) and lots of squirrels.

I'm glad she's getting better.

Sorry, removing a predator (Possum, Raccoons, etc.) and just releasing them somewhere nearby, they often will be back, they can become a nuisance for someone else and/or will likely be hard to catch again. Dispatching the critter is needed.

 

[aliris]

just releasing them somewhere nearby, they often will be back, they can become a nuisance for someone else and/or will likely be hard to catch again.

well, yeah - we live in an urban area and take them quite far away. They are unlikely to find it back here. And I understand they'll be a nuisance wherever they wind up, but there are so, so, so many of these critters around I think their largest jeopardy is from another of their own sort and not finding a place where they're exported to. Which is its own unkindness for sure. I don't frankly know what to do, it's a dilemma. I'm pretty sure it's not legal to kill them, which I do not want to do anyway. For that matter, I'm not sure it's legal to export them either. You cannot believe the density of possums in a mild-climate city....