nicolevg
Songster
I need your help, y'all, and your input on what I should do for one of my girls that was badly clawed at by a bear last night.
Last night, we had our first successful bear attack (well, successful for the bear). We thought we'd done enough to deter them (we live in the southern Sierras), as they've never gotten in our coop, unlike our neighbors who lose chickens to at least one attack a quarter. But this time, since all our neighbor's chickens have been eaten and they haven't had a chance to get more chickens, the bear was determined to get his Thanksgiving dinner one way or another and was very persistent at getting into our flock.
Thankfully, with the way my husband designed the coop, a bear's body cannot easily fit in the coop or run, and we used hardware cloth and good thick solid wood in the coop's construction. But still, the bear managed to open/lift the nesting box lid (because I didn't lock the dead bolts like I should've) and paw at our birds. Our good little rooster gave his life defending his girls, and the bear was able to claw out and eat 2 of the older non-laying hens. None of the other 7 hens were harmed except for one of our year-old RIR. She has a DEEP gash on her back that, 20 hours later, was still bleeding a little and oozing. (I didn't even notice anything had gone down at the coop until probably 18 hours after it happened, so she was wounded and clotting on her own for hours before I got to her). Per other threads I read here, I cleaned the wound with hydrogen peroxide (3%) and paper towels, which didn't seem to phase her at all. Then I used some silver sulfadiazine cream (1%) that I had from when one of my kids burned his arm. Then I put a gauze pad on to cover the side-by-side puncture wounds and bandaged her up with gauze. She is now sleeping in her own kennel in our garage right next to the rest of the flock that's in another kennel.
I wish I'd taken a picture to attach here. I'll attach some when I dress her wound again. Basically, the bear's claws took off the entire dermis right in the middle of her back, probably the size of a silver dollar, like where a hen saddle would go to protect her skin and feather when being mounted by a rooster. There was also a smaller puncture wound right next to the large wound that looked like it went fairly deep but not as deep as the large wound. I'm not a vet, so forgive my terminology. But the large wound went all the way down to that fascia-looking layer that separated the skin from the muscle. It looked in-tact and like the claws didn't puncture that layer. But I'm worried because such a large patch of her skin was removed. It looked like it was clotting and healing well (no rot or gross looking flesh, no bad odor, etc), and her comb and wattle never got discolored, just a little floppy before I gave her some water. But it started to perk back up once she was better hydrated. Also, her personality and attitude seemed to be totally fine and normal, just a little traumatized obviously from what happened. But she was very docile and sweet when I tried to help her.
So what do you think I should do? I planned on calling a vet, but they don't open till Monday. Should I take a look at her wound tomorrow and then dress it again? Or should I give it a little more time to heal before taking another peek?
Last night, we had our first successful bear attack (well, successful for the bear). We thought we'd done enough to deter them (we live in the southern Sierras), as they've never gotten in our coop, unlike our neighbors who lose chickens to at least one attack a quarter. But this time, since all our neighbor's chickens have been eaten and they haven't had a chance to get more chickens, the bear was determined to get his Thanksgiving dinner one way or another and was very persistent at getting into our flock.
Thankfully, with the way my husband designed the coop, a bear's body cannot easily fit in the coop or run, and we used hardware cloth and good thick solid wood in the coop's construction. But still, the bear managed to open/lift the nesting box lid (because I didn't lock the dead bolts like I should've) and paw at our birds. Our good little rooster gave his life defending his girls, and the bear was able to claw out and eat 2 of the older non-laying hens. None of the other 7 hens were harmed except for one of our year-old RIR. She has a DEEP gash on her back that, 20 hours later, was still bleeding a little and oozing. (I didn't even notice anything had gone down at the coop until probably 18 hours after it happened, so she was wounded and clotting on her own for hours before I got to her). Per other threads I read here, I cleaned the wound with hydrogen peroxide (3%) and paper towels, which didn't seem to phase her at all. Then I used some silver sulfadiazine cream (1%) that I had from when one of my kids burned his arm. Then I put a gauze pad on to cover the side-by-side puncture wounds and bandaged her up with gauze. She is now sleeping in her own kennel in our garage right next to the rest of the flock that's in another kennel.
I wish I'd taken a picture to attach here. I'll attach some when I dress her wound again. Basically, the bear's claws took off the entire dermis right in the middle of her back, probably the size of a silver dollar, like where a hen saddle would go to protect her skin and feather when being mounted by a rooster. There was also a smaller puncture wound right next to the large wound that looked like it went fairly deep but not as deep as the large wound. I'm not a vet, so forgive my terminology. But the large wound went all the way down to that fascia-looking layer that separated the skin from the muscle. It looked in-tact and like the claws didn't puncture that layer. But I'm worried because such a large patch of her skin was removed. It looked like it was clotting and healing well (no rot or gross looking flesh, no bad odor, etc), and her comb and wattle never got discolored, just a little floppy before I gave her some water. But it started to perk back up once she was better hydrated. Also, her personality and attitude seemed to be totally fine and normal, just a little traumatized obviously from what happened. But she was very docile and sweet when I tried to help her.
So what do you think I should do? I planned on calling a vet, but they don't open till Monday. Should I take a look at her wound tomorrow and then dress it again? Or should I give it a little more time to heal before taking another peek?
