A few days ago, 12 of our 23 wonderful little chicks were killed by a weasel or raccoon, including the lovely Barred Rock and the darling runty one. The experience has taught me that when something goes after your animals, the only way to put a stop to it is to kill it, and I'm not sure I'd hesitate if I had the opportunity to do just that. Although this is sad, it really is the truth. The traps are not working. And here I was complaining about the farmers shooting wolves that get into their livestock....I suppose if you are the hunting animal, and you're really hungry, it's just easy pickings. Wouldn't we all do the same as hungry animals?
Anyway, no more doom and gloom. The whole thing has made us even more attached and diligent to the remaining 11 chicks and 13 hens, locking them in whenever we go out and obsessively checking them every 45 minutes. The pen apparently has to be safe from: weasels, eagles, foxes, raccoons, and whatever else happens to be around. My female cat is a really good weasel hunter, but she hasn't brought anything back, so it's most likely a raccoon.
Right, now, the purpose of this post:
When we found all the chickens massacred, there was one under a tote, really eaten and exhausted and bloody. We almost put her out of her misery because of the state she was in. However, after the first night and day of just lying in her box and not moving an inch, she started to recover, and now, five days later, she is standing, preening, stretching, eating tons of food, and trying to escape the box. I'm putting this up here not only as a little hopeful story, but also as an important notice: Chickens can recover remarkably well from the most intense, awful injuries. They are very, very resilient, so if you are considering putting one out of it's misery, DON'T! It's worth a try to nurse them back to health. The chick is almost 4 months old, so she has the advantage of youth, with pliable bones still developing and her body still growing, but older chickens can recover well too.
We did some food research, and have been giving her all she can eat of the following:
watermelon, crushed garlic scapes in olive oil (her favorite-it really, really smells), organic romaine lettuce, dandelion shoots, and the normal dry chick food, first mixed with water and then gradually tapering off back to just dry pellets. At first, everything had to be made into little tiny cubes or crushed a lot because she didn't have the energy to break things apart with her beak. A drop each of molasses and vinegar stirred by chopstick into 5 tbps. warm water is also good. Apparently it's stimulating for their appetite to show them a stirring motion. We were never gone from home more than 3 or 4 hours, and when we were, put out extra of everything (and made sure the towel draped over the box was not touching the lightbulb!)
I really recommend this website: http://www.brittonclouse.com/chickenrunrescue/CARING%20FOR%20A%20SICK%20OR%20INJ%20%209_08.pdf
This is about parrots, but it's still applicable: http://parrothouse.com/hlthcare.html#Emergency%20Sick%20Bird%20Care
We have not put anything on her wounds, and are looking for input. They seem to be very gradually healing on their own.
Anyway, our chick is looking much better, and will hopefully be fine in a couple more weeks. She particularly likes singing along to the second movement of Beethoven's Sonata No.19, as well as the Northern Exposure theme.
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