[mandamom]

Please help me.  It's been a rough few weeks for our poor chickens.  2 weeks ago we came home to find one of our roosters had apparently been attacked by a bird.  He was missing a large chunk of flesh and feathers from just behind his left wing.  He wasn't limping or acting hurt and we've seen no sign of infection.   So a week later we head out in the morning and 2 of our chickens are dead.  No sign of injury, just lying there dead, right next to eachother. (Our best guess is lightning) And the rooster that had the wing injury was lying around not eating or drinking, looking really sick, and he can't walk on his left leg.  That spot on his shoulder is scabbed over and doesn't seem infected.  He keeps the leg lifted so the foot won't touch the ground and after alot of nursing, is finally hopping around on one foot and seems to be doing well.  After spending so much time nursing him back to health, he's turned into my little buddy, talking to me while I feed him and falling asleep as I pet him.  Does anybody have any ideas what happend to him ( or the other chickens)  Any recommendations on what I can do for him?

[Roughlee Handled]

Was there defo no feathers around the dead hens?
Could you photo the wound?
Please can you tell us where in the world you are?
It may give a clue to what it was.

[mandamom]

We live in norhtern Idaho.  There were no loose feathers around the dead chickens.  Absolutely no sign of anything.  As for my injured rooster (his name is Gimp) he seems to be doing well, I'll try to photo the wound this weekend, but it's healing fine.  Thanx for any help or advice.

[Roughlee Handled]

Now as I live in the UK and you in the US (you have bigger birds of prey) I think it was a larger bird at a guess, I can not be sure as i  do not know your local prey animals.

[archiesgems]

Hi there

if it was a bird of prey it would have finished the job, I hunt with one and it has never failed to kill, even a very small rapter can kill a very large chicken, are you sure that it wasn't a cat or something similar
jay

[mandamom]

I'm pretty sure it was a bird.  Crows around here are known to attack but not be able to carry the chickens away.  I'm more concerned about his lame leg and what I can do about it.

[ehs284]

Recently we lost a blackrock to a buzzard. She survived the attack but lost a lot of skin and flesh. She tried not to put down one leg. For three weeks she seemed to be getting better and the damage healing then suddenly - in a period of a couple of hours - she became quiet and was clearly dying. She was put out of any misery by our neighbour. By then I don't think she was aware of what was going on. The problem seemed to be that although we regularly cleaned the wounds and she had antibiotics, it wasn't possible to properly clean or remove all the damaged flesh below the feathers under her wing and this decayed probably causing septicaemia. If this type of attack happened again I think I'd put the victim to sleep straight away. Having said that, it's great that yours is still OK, but (and this is the real point of this reply) the danger hasn't gone away if it is only two weeks since the attack.  The lame leg may be due to a claw puncture and recovery depends on the damage. Daily cleaning with dilute Savlon and a detailed look and smell are needed until she is running. Best of luck with her.