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katieD

chicken attack- whats happened? warning- upsetting

By katieD, in Chickens, Eggs and Hatching

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katieD Frequent Layer

katieD

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well today has been a horrible birthday :(

 

went out to check my girls and do the daily stuff and found one of my silkies huddled in the corner of the wir under the ladder to the cube with her head bleeding and pecked- went and picked her up and she had blood under her tummy/chest area.

 

i took her inside and got some warm water etc to bathe it to see what the damage was only to discover that one of her legs had completly been torn off clean- i really dont know how she was still alive :cry:

 

got her to the vets and had her put down asap but i have so many questions as to how this happened?

 

 

shes always broody and therefore away from the gang alot of the time which has caused her to be bottom of the pecking order- but i have never heard of anything like it? i know they can be evil cannibals but isn this a bit extreme?! but how else could it have happened???

 

:cry::cry::cry::cry:

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katieD Frequent Layer

katieD

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im going to have a big clean tomorrow in the run and look for any 'evidence' but ive looked round and cant find the leg etc or any blood? i think the head pecking is just from the hens taking advantage of her being poorly and huddled in the corner- but what happend before that is very odd?

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Mercedes55 Chatty Chicken

Mercedes55

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I am so sorry to hear about your little silkie, that is just awful. I do hope you find out what happened. I've heard a few stories on here about possible mink or stoat attacks but I don't know enough about chickens to know if they would do that to each other. You kind of like to hope they don't.

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frizz Chicken Eggspert

frizz

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OMG that is awful. Poor you in having to find her like that and poor little silkie (RIP little one). I would agree with everyone else, it does sound very much like a predator. The others will take advantage of an injured bird. A big hug to you. I hope you find out what it was. :)

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the bradley bunch Frequent Layer

the bradley bunch

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oh katie that's awful :cry: my heart goes out to you and your little silkie in heaven now x

 

i've heard that chickens can be cannibals but this is extreme and normally only happens if they're living quarters are poor and they aren't given enough food, water, space & love (which clearly isn't the case here).

it's most likely that the injury to her leg happened some other way and the girls (seeing her vulnerability) might have bullied her a bit (unfortunately that can be the nature of chickens); hence the signs of head pecking. but i honestly believe it's highly unlikely that they will have actually attacked her...i hope this if anything brings some comfort.

 

i think it's vital now that you find out what could have caused her initial injury, so that you keep it from happening to your other girls. i know this must be very difficult for you but i think you need to search the whole run & house for her missing leg to make sure it hadn't got caught in anything that could be a risk to your other girls. if you can't find it then it sounds like a predator has somehow got into the wir and attacked her, or even reached through the mesh and grabbed at her. you must look for signs of blood anywhere on the mesh and for any gaps in the wir to try and find out how the predator got to her in the first place, so that you can keep your other girls safe if it was to return.

i would also advise locking them up in the house as soon as it starts to get to dark tonight, until you've figured out what's caused this you need to keep them extra safe & secure.

 

i'm so sorry to go into so much detail, i know this must be such a distressing time for you but the welfare of your other girls is priority now so it's important you figure out how this happened, and also to get some closure for yourself.

 

*sending big hugs to you* stay strong for your other girls and i will say a prayer tonight for you & your darling silkie :pray:

 

lots of love x

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katieD Frequent Layer

katieD

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thanks for all your kind words x

 

ive done a mass clearout/investgation today and honestly not a spot of blood anywhere apart from where i found her huddled up? no leg etc either- where ive cut the WIR to get the cube ladder through theres gaps about 2inch square either side of the ladder so something could have easily got in through that- funny but when we built it all my main concerns were can the chickens get out and could a fox get in- never did it cross my mind that something else might be a predator to them in my garden!

 

my husband has just got back from work and is on to the case of blocking up the holes near the ladder. the only other thing i thought is if she got her leg stuck through the gap in the nesting area? as she was a grumpy broody that loved the nest box and then somethings attacked her through that? but then you could think the cube would have been a right mess? dont think im gonna know for sure but just block up the gaps and lock them in at night

 

x

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pipistrelle Chicken Eggspert

pipistrelle

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I'm so sorry. It does sound like a small predator may have tried to pull her out through a gap, that could explain the missing leg :(

 

Bit worried about a gap between one side and the rear door of my cube, but I wonder if a stoat could get through the run bars anyway?

 

Hopefully this wont happen to your girls again. x

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WitchHazel Effusive Egg Layer

WitchHazel

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I've only just caught up with this...I'm so sorry to hear about your silkie, what a horrible thing for her, and what an awful thing for you to find.

 

It does sound like something grabbed her from outside the run, and that's when she lost her leg. The head trauma might be related to that, or it is possible that the other girls attacked her atter she lost her leg. They will not be the cause of the leg loss.

 

What a truy dreadful thing to have happened.

 

I;m so sorry.

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