Caught a hawk flying away with one of my pullets

[Jtaranc]

I literally just posted about how my pullets go through the fence into my horse pasture the other day and today I was leaving the house to go get hay and my husband says "that hawk has something he's flying away with......it's one of your chickens!"

He had her by the road and was dragging her by her head, trying to get airborn. We jumped out and he flew off. She was unconscious but breathing and I brought her inside to make her comfortable and she woke up. I called my large animal vet and he told me to give her a dex injection and clean her wounds.

I have her inside in a playpen and she just started eating for me.

It took me 2 hours to find the other pullets, they were hiding.

I have a great pyrenees who protects the chickens but she doesn't have access to the horse pasture so now we are putting chicken wire up to keep the younger chickens inside the backyard with the dogs.

Hopefully she makes it. She has a bad wound to her head and it looks like the hawk pierced her cheek through her mouth.

The hawk wasn't that much bigger than the pullet so I was shocked.

 

[Debbie292d]

Poor thing!

I would try clean that with some saline solution or at least rinse it off a bit, then pat it dry. If you have triple antibiotic ointment (without the painkiller) you could put some of that on her open wounds. It's great she's eating for you!

Stupid hawks can't get any around here due to guy wires from a tower they're scared of, but they circle up there and one dog barks at them. Oh yeah, that helps a lot!

 

[Jener8or]

Geez, I'm glad you caught it and I hope she makes a full recovery!

 

[BDutch]

Hope she pulls through!

 

[Jtaranc]

She's made a full recovery and is back outside.