Urgent!!! Injured hen

[joyce_huang]

My hen was attacked by some animal last night. Her vent was injured and surrounding feathers were gone. How should I treat her? Can she survive?

Please help if you had similar situation. Thank you so much!!!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

How is she doing?

General wound care is to clean/flush the wound with saline or an antiseptic like Chlorhexidine (Hibiclens) or Povidone Betadine.
Apply triple antibiotic ointment to the wound.

Work on getting her through shock. Sugar water or electrolytes are good to give. Once drinking, see if she's willing to eat.

Keep her separated out so the others don't pick at her wounds, keep flies off the wounds.

 

[gtaus]

My hen was attacked by some animal last night...

Just wanted to ask if you have considered how your chicken was attacked and what you need to do to strengthen your coop/run defenses for the chickens. In my experience, predator attacks don't normally go away on their own.

 

[joyce_huang]

How is she doing?

General wound care is to clean/flush the wound with saline or an antiseptic like Chlorhexidine (Hibiclens) or Povidone Betadine.
Apply triple antibiotic ointment to the wound.

Work on getting her through shock. Sugar water or electrolytes are good to give. Once drinking, see if she's willing to eat.

Keep her separated out so the others don't pick at her wounds, keep flies off the wounds.

 

[joyce_huang]

24 hours passed. I cleaned her wound with benzethonium chlorine and applies multi-antibiotoc. Tube feed her a little vitamin b complex desolved into water. Also feed her some chicken food and water mix. She can now occasionally open her eyes and she actually really struggled hard to stand up and laid an egg. I think It exhausted her again. Followed you instruction, I just gave her some super water and let her quietly recover. Thanks for the advice. I uploading a picture of her now.

 

[joyce_huang]

Just wanted to ask if you have considered how your chicken was attacked and what you need to do to strengthen your coop/run defenses for the chickens. In my experience, predator attacks don't normally go away on their own.

I have kept my flock of 4 for 3 years. This was one time accident that due to my negligence. It was during a time window between 8:30pm to 9pm when I was tied up in house doing something and thought it would be okay to lock the coop door a little after I finish it, which in the past never been an issue. When I heard some sounds from the coop and ran over checking, she was on the ground and feathers.. I didn't see the animal who attacked her. A lesson learned hard - always lock the coop door before dark. A note, I free range them when I am around. Thanks for the suggestion, should always be taking all precautions to make my birds safe!

 

[gtaus]

I have kept my flock of 4 for 3 years. This was one time accident that due to my negligence.

We all make mistakes. Good to hear that your chickens are normally safe from predators if locked up at night. I know my chicken run is predator resistant, but not predator proof. My coop is like Fort Knox. But yeah, they have to be inside the coop with the doors closed to keep them safe after dark.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

24 hours passed. I cleaned her wound with benzethonium chlorine and applies multi-antibiotoc. Tube feed her a little vitamin b complex desolved into water. Also feed her some chicken food and water mix. She can now occasionally open her eyes and she actually really struggled hard to stand up and laid an egg. I think It exhausted her again. Followed you instruction, I just gave her some super water and let her quietly recover. Thanks for the advice. I uploading a picture of her now.

Poor sweet girl!

If she's a fairly productive hen, she may lay another egg or two, even when injured, the system doesn't automatically stop.

I'd give her Extra Calcium for a few days as well, just to help replenish her body and hopefully make it a bit easier to lay an egg if more is on the way.

Calcium Citrate with D3 works well for a crisis situation like this. 1 tablet daily for a week. If you don't have that, 1 TUMS will work.

Giving the B-Complex is a good idea. I hope she pulls through.

 

[joyce_huang]

This is thr 4th day of that attack on my chicken. Floral (my hen's name) is still in no good shape although her condition improved some. I tube feed her water and food with medicine, aspirin, amoxicillin. Clean her wounds w saline and Neosporin. Except her rear she also got a puncture wound on left side of her neck, I am really worried it got infected. I actually think it is. Here is a picture, can someone tell me how to tell if the wound is infected and if so what should I do? Thanks!

 

[joyce_huang]

We all make mistakes. Good to hear that your chickens are normally safe from predators if locked up at night. I know my chicken run is predator resistant, but not predator proof. My coop is like Fort Knox. But yeah, they have to be inside the coop with the doors closed to keep them safe after dark.

I just installed a night camera to see who are visiting my coop at night. Now I think the attack was from a feral cat. It takes home under my storage room not far away from the coop. It has been around for sometime but I had not consider it a threat until now.