Hello everyone,
Our sweet chickens (4 of them) were seemingly attacked by something last night. We assume it was a raccoon, but could have possibly been a neighborhood cat. This happened around 1am - we were asleep, but woke up to a text from our neighbor saying he heard chaos outside. This morning, I went to check on them and there were feathers everywhere: in the run, in the coop. The top of their feeder was also taken off (so a pest could access the bulk of the food). One chicken in particular seems to have gotten the worst of it. She has lots of missing feathers, mostly around her bottom half, and her demeanor is very somber. I held her and checked out the exposed skin and didn't see any open wounds, though there could be some underneath her remaining feathers that I couldn't see.
Any tips on healing her up, should I take her to a vet? Keep her away from the other chickens? We are new chicken owners (got them in May of 2023) and haven't experienced anything like this with them.
Also, any tips on raccoon protection? How to verify what kind of pest was in there?
Any and all insight would be so much appreciated. Thank you.
Our sweet chickens (4 of them) were seemingly attacked by something last night. We assume it was a raccoon, but could have possibly been a neighborhood cat. This happened around 1am - we were asleep, but woke up to a text from our neighbor saying he heard chaos outside. This morning, I went to check on them and there were feathers everywhere: in the run, in the coop. The top of their feeder was also taken off (so a pest could access the bulk of the food). One chicken in particular seems to have gotten the worst of it. She has lots of missing feathers, mostly around her bottom half, and her demeanor is very somber. I held her and checked out the exposed skin and didn't see any open wounds, though there could be some underneath her remaining feathers that I couldn't see.
Any tips on healing her up, should I take her to a vet? Keep her away from the other chickens? We are new chicken owners (got them in May of 2023) and haven't experienced anything like this with them.
Also, any tips on raccoon protection? How to verify what kind of pest was in there?
Any and all insight would be so much appreciated. Thank you.