This is Pinch, she got attacked by a hawk.
I saw the hawk leaving as I arrived having heard the general panic alarm one morning.
When I examined her I couldn’t find any broken bones but it looked as if one of the hawks talons had pierced her eye. Apart from this obvious injury she seemed relatively unscathed. When I picked her up she was obviously in shock. I’ve had other chickens here die from shock who have had relatively minor injuries.
The vet that deals with fowl here isn’t available until mid afternoon, so I made Pinch as comfortable as I could,carefully cleaned around the eye with ph neutral water and waited to see if Pinch would show any signs of recovery. By mid day she would drink water with a vitamin supplement mixed in and could stand unaided. It seemed to me that Pinch still had the will to live so I took her to the vet that evening. There wasn’t much the vet thought she could do for Pinch that I wasn’t already doing. Pinch got prescribed Metacam, some eye drops I already had and a short course of antibiotics.
Pinch lived with me for nine days. I fed her a liquid diet through and adapted syringe which allows the hen to drink rather than injecting the liquid down their throats and Pinch drank her liquid diet eagerly. She would drink yogurt with honey, puréed sardines, Gazpacho, pureed cat food, water with vitamin supplements
At night she slept in a plastic pet carrier balanced on top of the nest box I have in the house and during the day she rested on my bed or in the chair next to the nest box. I took Pinch out every day for exercise and while she was happy standing and walking short distances she walked in circles unless she was ‘steered’. On day 3 she laid a shell less egg. By day 4 Pinch showed interest in grooming. Day 5 she attempted to wipe her beak on the ground but had trouble locating the ground. Day 6 and 7 Pinch tried flapping her wings and could unsteadily hop of the chair to the floor and I could see she was trying to focus when she heard familiar sounds such as other chickens who came by. Day 8 her previously circular walk started to straighten up a little and Day 9 she spent a couple of hours outside and looked as if she was on the road to recovery. On the morning of Day 10 she looked unwell and a couple of hours later she died on my bed as I sat beside her.
This Hannah, she got attacked by a hawk
I heard the chickens give the general panic call but when I checked they were all alive. It wasn’t until an hour or so later that I noticed Hannah was missing.
I eventually found her at the bottom of a bank. She was still breathing and her eyes still focused.
Hannah had a wound on her back and while it was a serious wound ,I’ve had chickens recover from worse.
I carried Hannah up the bank towards the other Muscovy ducks where I could sit and examine her better. Hannah died on my lap.
I wont reproduce the list of the chickens and Muscovy ducks that have died here over the last 7 years; it’s long. I have to accept that free range fowl get attacked by predators and there are lots of predators here It’s a National Park so killing predators isn’t an option and I probably wouldn’t if I could.
Most people here know the sadness and feelings of helplessness when a predator gets one of their chickens.
I hear a general panic alarm almost every day and go as quickly as possible to the normal strike sites to look for the injured. Every time my heart is in my mouth and I dread what I’ll probably find.
I know for all but the very lucky, or the very tough, that when it’s a hawk strike the chances of them surviving are slim, but I still go just hoping that this one will be a survivor.
My intellect tells me that I’m putting myself through a great deal of stress and sadness and it might be better all round to let nature take its course and just bury the dead when I find them.
My empathy and concern makes me check every alarm I hear knowing I’m probably too late.
What do others do and how do they cope?
I saw the hawk leaving as I arrived having heard the general panic alarm one morning.
When I examined her I couldn’t find any broken bones but it looked as if one of the hawks talons had pierced her eye. Apart from this obvious injury she seemed relatively unscathed. When I picked her up she was obviously in shock. I’ve had other chickens here die from shock who have had relatively minor injuries.
The vet that deals with fowl here isn’t available until mid afternoon, so I made Pinch as comfortable as I could,carefully cleaned around the eye with ph neutral water and waited to see if Pinch would show any signs of recovery. By mid day she would drink water with a vitamin supplement mixed in and could stand unaided. It seemed to me that Pinch still had the will to live so I took her to the vet that evening. There wasn’t much the vet thought she could do for Pinch that I wasn’t already doing. Pinch got prescribed Metacam, some eye drops I already had and a short course of antibiotics.
Pinch lived with me for nine days. I fed her a liquid diet through and adapted syringe which allows the hen to drink rather than injecting the liquid down their throats and Pinch drank her liquid diet eagerly. She would drink yogurt with honey, puréed sardines, Gazpacho, pureed cat food, water with vitamin supplements
At night she slept in a plastic pet carrier balanced on top of the nest box I have in the house and during the day she rested on my bed or in the chair next to the nest box. I took Pinch out every day for exercise and while she was happy standing and walking short distances she walked in circles unless she was ‘steered’. On day 3 she laid a shell less egg. By day 4 Pinch showed interest in grooming. Day 5 she attempted to wipe her beak on the ground but had trouble locating the ground. Day 6 and 7 Pinch tried flapping her wings and could unsteadily hop of the chair to the floor and I could see she was trying to focus when she heard familiar sounds such as other chickens who came by. Day 8 her previously circular walk started to straighten up a little and Day 9 she spent a couple of hours outside and looked as if she was on the road to recovery. On the morning of Day 10 she looked unwell and a couple of hours later she died on my bed as I sat beside her.
This Hannah, she got attacked by a hawk
I heard the chickens give the general panic call but when I checked they were all alive. It wasn’t until an hour or so later that I noticed Hannah was missing.
I eventually found her at the bottom of a bank. She was still breathing and her eyes still focused.
Hannah had a wound on her back and while it was a serious wound ,I’ve had chickens recover from worse.
I carried Hannah up the bank towards the other Muscovy ducks where I could sit and examine her better. Hannah died on my lap.
I wont reproduce the list of the chickens and Muscovy ducks that have died here over the last 7 years; it’s long. I have to accept that free range fowl get attacked by predators and there are lots of predators here It’s a National Park so killing predators isn’t an option and I probably wouldn’t if I could.
Most people here know the sadness and feelings of helplessness when a predator gets one of their chickens.
I hear a general panic alarm almost every day and go as quickly as possible to the normal strike sites to look for the injured. Every time my heart is in my mouth and I dread what I’ll probably find.
I know for all but the very lucky, or the very tough, that when it’s a hawk strike the chances of them surviving are slim, but I still go just hoping that this one will be a survivor.
My intellect tells me that I’m putting myself through a great deal of stress and sadness and it might be better all round to let nature take its course and just bury the dead when I find them.
My empathy and concern makes me check every alarm I hear knowing I’m probably too late.
What do others do and how do they cope?
