The Poultry Keeper

Lady Penelope · Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 1

Hi everybody, I'm new here but I've been keeping poultry for nearly two years.
I've come across something new and I'm wondering if anyone can help. Last Friday a fox got into the henhouse and attacked my layers. I found one dead and two injured. As I keep most of my poultry at a local allotment, I took the two injured ones home with me to see if I could save them.
One had been bitten low down on it's back, right next to the 'parson's nose'. It looked like little more than a scratch, if a little deep but it was visibly bloodied so I cleaned the wound and put her in the garden with the bantams so the other hens wouldn't attack her. She is fine now and I'll be taking her back tomorrow.
The other was much worse off, she was standing hunched in the run and looked close to death. She was covered with blood and was being pecked viciously by the other hens. I brought her home and examined her. From between her shoulder blades to just before the beginning of her tail feathers, widening to the full width of her back, her skin has been ripped completely off.
I clipped the feathers off that were touching the wound so they wouldn't dry into it, cleaned it with warm water and put her in a box in my living room. She wasn't interested in anything at all so I spoon fed water to her and kept her quiet. When I went to bed on Friday night, I was pretty confident that she was going to be dead when I got up on Saturday morning. Saturday came with a big surprise. Not only was she alive, she was hungry! She ate and drank by herself, then she pooped so she seemed to be over the shock of the attack.
It's almost 2am on the Wednesday after the attack and she is still here, still fighting. Her wound is dry and there doesn't appear to be any infection but I'm worried that she may not be able to heal a wound with a surface area so large. Does anyone have any experience of such injuries? Can I hope for the best or just prepare for the worst?

poultry poofs · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 5:19 am Post subject:

Hi
If you need advice and you dont know if you can deal with the injury you are best taking the bird to a vet.
We had a Cochin hen that had been badly gashed on both sides of the chest wall by the cockerels spurs last year.
The wounds were both about 2 inches long and through to the muscle.We kept her quiet overnight in a box for the vet to see the following morning and found that the wound despite its severity had closed up and dried up.We kept her quiet in a seperate quarantine box for a week on anti-biotics to prevent infection and the wounds healed perfectly.There is no sign of any previous injury under the feathering now.
We trimmed the cockerels spurs to prevent this happening again but ironically he got his comeuppance a week later when he was eaten by a fox.
We also had a Khaki Campbell duck that sustained some serious mauling injuries from a fox and made a full recovery after a similar period of quiet recovery and treatment.
So long as the bird is not bleeding and in shock she most probably will get over it, you can try using sterrie strips available from a chemists to close the wound up.Treat her with anti-biotics from the vet.If in doubt though take her to the vet but we have found often it causes more stress to them than the injury has,so you will have to decide what is best for her and act accordingly.
We have had quite a few birds whose injuries are inconsistent with life and have had to cull them but on the whole poultry are fairly resilient creatures.
Hope you get on OK
regards Rich

Deb_Moderator · Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posts: 3661

Wow! Good reply Rich. Sorry to hear about your bird Lady Penelope. Sounds as if she is a real fighter though. My first thought is to get the proper antibiotics into her system as soon as possible.

Aussie Chick · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 8:33 am Post subject:

I'm sorry to hear about the fox attack and glad that two birds made it. I would agree with the others and take her to a vet.
Good luck I hope she continues to get better.

CP · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 10:10 am Post subject:

Your poor girls, Lady P! I hope the badly injured one makes it.
Please let us know how you get on.

summayah · Joined: 14 Apr 2005 Posts: 4289 Location: luton

so sorry to hear about your poor girl. Do you know your vet well enough to just phone and speak to them. My first thought was that if she seems like she is interested in life again then I would try to cojole some antibiotics out of the vet without visiting them. Maybe he/she could come to you? That way you can allleviate some of the stress for her.
Goodluck, pleasele us know how you get on, and we all hope it's good news you bring.

NannyP · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 6:49 pm Post subject:

Sounds like you've done really well with your hens. And, as others have said, it would be a good idea to get a vets opinion and maybe some anti biotics.