Raccoon attacked my chickens, need advice.

[Brightbird]

I have just discovered a terrible attack a few minutes ago. A raccoon somehow got into the coop late at night and fought my youngest rooster, Teddy, to the death. Sadly he was killed, but he saved the lives of both of his hens. One seemed perfectly fine and healthy, if not understandably scared and upset. The other, though, was wounded by the raccoon. I’ve brought her inside in a dog cage so I can keep a close eye on her. I’ve tried to take photos of her injuries but I’m not sure how clear they are.




Apologies if they’re too hard to make out. I couldn’t get a good angle on her leg injury without picking her up again and she was already freaked out and I didn’t want to scare her more. She has wounds on her cheek/ear area and on her thigh. She seems able to stand and move fine, although she’s very lethargic and doesn’t want to walk. I put water out for her but she hasn’t touched it. We put some disinfectant spray on both wounds (I believe it’s called Banixx) but when I sprayed her face injury she seemed to recoil a bit so I’m not sure how much I got onto her. I can’t tell if she’s still bleeding or not, and I don’t think I have any bandages I could use on her.

Is there anything I could do to try to help her more? I am worried about how lethargic she seems, but she’s still making noise and lifts her head when she hears noises like a door opening/closing. Right now I think all I can do is keep an eye on her and hope she gets through the night.

 

[Dough Hill]

I had this happen to me but about 20 years ago but it was a weasel. I did what your doing I isolated the hen treated her wounds she was lethargic for a couple days probably from shock but she made it.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Clean her wounds well with the Banixx. You have the formula that can be used around the eyes? If not, then use saline to gently clean her eye.
Apply triple antibiotic ointment around the facial tissue and if her eye is a bit bloody or irritated, put a dot of it in her eye, it will melt and help sooth the eye. In the morning, the eye may be crusty or even bubbly looking, just reflush with your saline/banixx and repeat the ointment.

For the leg, I know it's hard to tell anything from the photos. Clean it really well. Trim feathers away from the wound so you can see it better (keeps feathers from sticking in ointment too). Apply triple antibiotic ointment to the leg wound.
When she's more stable and you are able, get photos (tomorrow or next day).

She's in shock, so it would be a good idea to see if you can get her to take sips of sugar water or electrolytes. Food can come later, but hydration can be key.

When you can, do look her over for any other wounds or punctures that may be hidden under her feathers.

I'm very sorry to hear about Teddy, just heartbreaking! You mentioned another hen. Is she and this lady that is injured the only 2 hens? If so, even though the other one is not physically harmed/wounded, you may want to consider bringing her in so she can be near her friend (understandable if it's not possible). Even if not injured, enduring an attack can be stressful, so would likely benefit from some electrolytes or vitamins to get her through the stress as well.

 

[Maddcatter]

@Wyorp Rock is correct. My favorite sugar water solution is raw honey (2tbsp) to 1 gallon of water.
She's is more than likely in shock, it can take a while to wear off. Leaving her in a darkened, quiet room is probably good, as it'll help her be calm when she's coming out of it.
If possible, I'd bring the other hen in as well, and give her honey water too. Hearing the other hen will help them both be calmer, and no visible injury does not mean no shock for birds. ... You should keep your girl's separated though, as the bleeding bird will get pecked by the other bird.
You might want to look into antibiotics, as raccoon mouths can be dirty and secondary infections can be a thing with ragged wounds.
If you happen to have any non-medicated chick feed laying around, I'd give the hens that while they're recovering. The higher amount of calories will help the healing.

 

[Brightbird]

I have bad news. We thought the raccoon was dead, but it must’ve come back in the night to pick off the other orpington. The injured hen is the only orpington left, and putting her in with the other flock isn’t an option because the Rhode Island reds attack any hen that isn’t one of them. My dad and I aren’t entirely sure what to do, we’ve talked about maybe raising some more orpington chicks to put in the coop with her eventually but that’s not concrete. I really should’ve brought the other orpington in last night but I decided not to go out with it being so dark.

I’ve attempted to spoon water the hen and while she did drink a few sips last night, she hasn’t drank any today yet although it is still early in the morning so there’s plenty of time. She also appears to be taking deep sucking breaths. I’m not sure if it’s shock that’s causing that or something else. I have noticed there’s dried blood on her beak near one of her nostrils and I have to wonder if that has something to do with it. She also recoils whenever I use the Banixx spray on her head, but has no reaction when it’s used on her thigh so I’m wondering whether it hurts when sprayed on her head or if it’s just that she’s scared of stuff being sprayed so close to her eye. The Banixx we have says it doesn’t irritate the eyes so I don’t think it would hurt if it got in her eyes.

 

[Brightbird]

Another update. I got her to drink some water. And a few minutes ago she had a yellow liquid poop that stunk really bad. Is that a sign of infection, and if so is there something I can do about it?


Here’s a picture of what it looked like if that’ll help.

 

[Brightbird]

I went up to the store to get honey and some antibacterial ointment. I got neosporin and an off brand. Neither say anything about pain relief so I think they might be safe but just in case, I took pictures of the ingredients. Does this all look safe or is there an ingredient in there that will harm her?

I also went up to the local feed store to see if they had an ointment specifically for chickens and I got this.
I don’t think it’d be useful for this situation since it’s made for small issues, and I’m a bit skeptical of the “blue formula” it’s talking about, but I got it anyway as a back up in case the other ointments I got were not safe for chickens.

 

[Maddcatter]

I'm sorry to hear about the other hen. That's terrible.
As best I know, your ointments look fine. I'm not an expert, but I know people use Neosporin on chickens and it's fine.
The "blue" in the blue formula is so that they don't peck at the bright red spot of blood/scab.
If you're worried about rather or not she's drinking, your animal supply place probably has syringes (with out the needles) that you can use to make her drink. It's up to you if you want to try that...
She's probably in a lot of pain and doesn't want to eat or drink because of it. Maybe giving her a quarter dose of children's Motrin, if you can get it in her might help.
The white that came out is because she hasn't eaten anything, but needed to pee. She does need to eat something. There are threads on this site for force-feeding and force watering your birds.
I don't know if you have the ability/want to have her checked out by a vet... But that might be a path to consider.

 

[Maddcatter]

Heh, I should have included that chickens flinch when there is sudden pressure on their head... It doesn't matter that it's just a spray. It's not hurting her (though it might sting) it's just that she's not expecting it.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She's just reacting to being sprayed in the eye and face. If you need to, apply a little of the Banixx on a gauze pad to wipe her face or you can even draw some up into a syringe to irrigate the eye.

Hold a shallow cup up to her beak and see if she will drink for you, if she's not drinking, then you may need to syringe fluids into her.

Taking deep sucking breaths - has that stopped? If not, feel around her body at her abdomen (both sides), under the wings, etc., for anything that feels like an air pocket under the skin.

The triple antibiotic ointments you got are fine to use. Save the Hen Healer for another time when you have minor scabbing or wounds to treat. It's a good product, but it's Lanolin based and is not an antibacterial type ointment, it's more to smooth skin than anything else - oh and it is BRIGHT Blue! I have some.