The Modern Victory Garden

You may recall that I previously posted about a coyote attack on our flock of hens that occurred Friday morning December 23rd while they were out free ranging.   I happened to be looking outside just when it happened and yelled so loud the coyote actually heard me and dropped the hen he had grabbed!     After chasing the coyote off the premises, we found the hen alive but she had all the feathers tore off of her back and a bad bite wound.    We immediately cleaned the wound, and began a regimen of irrigating it with a 10% Povidine – Iodine solution and giving her Amoxicillin twice daily.   We set up an isolation area in the coop for her, which gave her the company of the other hens while keeping her safe from them as well.    The particular hen that was attacked is one of two favorites we have in the flock.   We call her PG (short for Pretty Girl) because she has really beautiful plumage.   Or at least she did prior to the attack.    She also happens to be one tough little lady and despite the large gash in her back she quickly began eating and drinking well and managed to get around remarkably well right from the start.   After about six days in the isolation area of the coop and enduring patiently our twice daily wound care regime, she declared she was quite done with that nonsense and was ready to rejoin the other hens.    Back into the big group she went and carried on as if nothing had ever happened.   Truly an amazing lady!       

It’s been almost two weeks now since the attack and she continues to progress nicely.   We can even see some stubs of new feathers starting to grow in on her back where she was scalped.   Here she is last Monday while out with the group for a little supervised free ranging on the front lawn area.                               

Her wing feathers tend to cover most of her damaged back area, but you can see a glimpse of her damaged back in this picture and you can tell how many feathers were lost in the attack by comparing the plumage of one of her sisters’ at the top of the photo to hers.    She was not willing to sit still for a good close up photo opportunity so I don’t have a good image of her injury to share with you.    She is sick-to-death-tired of us messing with her back so her patience for any further fussing around with it is gone.   It’s probably just as well as it was a gruesome wound and not very nice to look at.   Thankfully it is healing up nicely and not nearly so awful to look at as it once was.      

We are delighted at her strong recovery and hope she will go on to yet enjoy a long life - in chicken terms at least.                                  

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener