Silkies eye swollen shut

[MikaylaLeslie]

So it’s a long story but we had some weird things happen last night. I have 2 coops side by side. 1 was for full size chickens the other for bantam chickens. Each of them have nesting boxes side by side and they’re separated by chicken wire. The big chickens nesting box has a lid with no lock on it. (After last night we put a latch on) The bantam side has a small door with a latch. They all roost right above this area.

Around 1:30 this morning I went outside because my older ducklings were going off. Went outside and everything was fine. Went back to bed and heard a creaking sound. I now think it was the nesting box lid for the chickens. It was follow by chickens flipping out. Went outside and saw black feathers everywhere. Found my silkie rooster Bernie and I thought he was dead. He was stretched out right by the chicken wire that separates the coops. When I touched him he freaked out and went running right outside the coops. One eye was shut completely and there was a little blood around his neck area. Feathers everywhere but it only looks like he’s missing a few feathers around his neck. I woke my parents up and my dad looked everywhere for predators. Didn’t see anything. We were very perplexed and figured he just got his head caught in the chicken wire and got scraped up. I put him in a kennel on our patio and we were talking in the living room when I heard my adult ducks slightly freaking out. Went outside again and saw a big huge raccoon on on our fence. I started banging on our metal gate and he eventually took off after staring at me for a while. So we spent the day trying to predator proof our coops. Where we live we don’t have too many predators so we’ve been very laxed with how we’ve done things. Now we’re trying to be way more careful.

Now on to why I’m posting this! Bernie is not eating or drinking. One eye is completely shut and the other isn’t much better. We went and bought Vetericyn. I sprayed it around his neck. I tried to find something to clean his eyes but was overwhelmed by the amount of eye products out there. We tried to clean his eyes with cotton balls soaked in warm water. It looks like he has feathers stuck in his eyes.

Anyone have any tips or tricks for this kind of thing? Specific brands that you’ve had success with? Also any theory’s for what happened to him?

 

[Jenessa_09]

Wow, I’m not good with predators and stuff like this, but dip his beak in water keep him HYDRATED!! Put electrolytes in his water, or give him an egg yolk. I didn’t understand the damage to the coop, did you see any holes were there any places you saw the raccoon could’ve gone through??

 

[MikaylaLeslie]

Wow, I’m not good with predators and stuff like this, but dip his beak in water keep him HYDRATED!! Put electrolytes in his water, or give him an egg yolk. I didn’t understand the damage to the coop, did you see any holes were there any places you saw the raccoon could’ve gone through??

I’ve tried a couple of times to dip his beak and he wants nothing to do with it. Sorry my post was probably pretty confusing! No damage to the coop. There was an old dog crate right underneath the nesting box that I had for the ducks to lay eggs. So I’m thinking maybe the raccoon climbed on top of the crate and opened up the lid to the box? But the thing that doesn’t make sense is if that is what happened then why would the raccoon go inside the box and not grab one of the chickens directly above and instead go for the silkie on the other side of the chicken wire?? Our other theory is maybe Bernie got spooked and got his head stuck in the chicken wire. It’s possible the raccoon didn’t even show up until I saw him. It’s just so weird!!

 

[Swbertrand1]

How did this go? What was the resolution?

 

[Rock Bottom Farm]

Clean the eye with non medicated saline solution and put neosporin around it. Do not get anything that has pain relief in it because it is bad for chickens. Lemon balm has helped calm my birds down and I just hold it close to them so they can smell it. It is actually an anti depressant that was researched in Russia pretty extensively. Really check a bird that won't eat or drink for injuries. I have had luck feeding liquids to birds that won't drink with an oral syringe, drop the water/ electrolytes mix at the base of the beak where the top and bottom come together with the bird laying down and it's head sideways. Raccoons can open latches and are very clever. I kill any I see no exceptions, they will come back and study your coop for weak points. Chicken wire is no deterrent for them. I live in the middle of nowhere and have had problems with external nesting boxes attracting raccoons. You will see egg mess with no eggs. Of course you can use that as bait too to catch those jerks.