We woke up on Thursday (May 26th) morning to very sad news and a very sad scene. I got a text from our backyard neighbor Katie telling me she woke up to one of her chickens dead and the other one was found hiding. She was letting me know since she knew we had chickens as well and wanted to warn us in case the animal returned that night. At this point I was waking Addie up for school and I texted her back not knowing ours were also viciously attacked and mostly gone. As soon as I opened our back door to check on our chickens I just knew. I knew by the silence that something was wrong. Usually they are so loud and happily chirping away but I didn't hear anything. I started heading towards the coop and stopped right in my tracks because I could see Scarlette and she wasn't alive. Whatever animal had gotten to her had been vicious and ruthless with her poor little body. I then head to the coop and I see Agnes on the ground outside of the cage. Also dead. At this point I'm fully expecting to open the coop and find Lucy and Margo inside and alive. I'm hoping that they are sleeping and safe. I'm thinking that only the other two are hurt because they were found outside the cage. I'm not sure why this was my train of thought but when I opened the coop I was very very surprised to find Lucy inside and dead. Margo is missing and I'm not sure where she could be. I swear I thought I heard a faint bawk but now days later I'm not sure if I heard it correctly. I send a text back to Katie telling her that three of ours are dead and I can't find the fourth. I start searching everywhere in the backyard and I'm seeing evidence of her body everywhere. In every corner of our yard you can see Margo's feathers but you can't see her. I checked the front yard to see if the animal had dragged her out there and can't see her. Eventually I walk into the garden and that's where I find her. Alive and breathing but very very hurt. That's when I started crying. Up to that point and seeing the other chickens in the state they were in I felt numb and in shock. Seeing Margo brought me back to reality that this was actually happening. Margo was panicking when she heard me near her. I noticed she couldn't see me and was bleeding a lot. I run inside to my kids who are still waking up and go straight to Danny to tell him everything that happened and that I found Margo. It was a very sad morning as we realized how hurt Margo was and that she was the only survivor out of our little flock. The kids were so sad. Hudson cried and Addie refused to come outside. We gathered the other chickens and made them a little burial in our garden. At that point Addie came out to say her goodbyes. I had been on the phone calling all the pet hospitals I could find and not one looks after chickens. I couldn't believe it. We let Addie choose whether or not she would go to school and she chose to go. It was her last full day of school and she didn't want to miss it. I drove her there about an hour after school started while Danny took care of Margo at home. Katie messaged us saying that her next door neighbor who also lives directly behind us had seen a bobcat in the area recently and we thought that could have very well been the cause.
Addie made little post it notes for whoever lives here in the future.
The crazy thing is that we might have been awake while it was all happening. Grant had woken up around 2:45am because he had wet his bed so Danny and I were both downstairs helping him out. I helped with his clothes and Danny was changing the bedding. That's when he noticed the backyard sensor light was turning on and off. With this being in the middle of the night we both weren't thinking very clearly and we were just going through the motions of getting Grant situated and back in his bed. Now though Danny can't help but wonder if that's when the animal was attacking our chickens and if he could've stopped it. We didn't hear any kind of commotion during that time and this is just speculation but he clearly remembers seeing the back light turning on and finding that odd. He also mentioned to me how he had an impression to lock up the chickens last night and feels bad for not acting on it. We had the gate to their cage opened yesterday and forgot to lock them up. It was an unusual night because we spontaneously took the kids to the park on a school night even though it was getting late. My mind has been on the Robb Elementary shooting all week that I just needed to get our family out of the house doing something fun. Because of it I think we weren't doing our normal routine end of day things so we completely forgot to lock them up for the night. I'm not sure if it would have made a difference but it could have.
I found Margo hiding between this post and fence. Some of her feathers are still there.
We brought Margo in and tried to clean her up. Her beak is damaged and she makes funny noises just trying to breathe so we imagine there's some damage with her chest or lungs. We can't tell if she has any eyes left or if they're just swollen shut. We brought her inside and suspected she would die shortly after. That night we put our ring doorbell camera in our backyard to see if the animal would come back. We woke up to the camera catching an animal on footage and to what we now believe to be the cause. Raccoon. We also woke up to Margo still alive.
It's been almost a week since it happened and to our surprise Margo is still alive. It's been five days and she hasn't been able to eat anything at all. Yesterday was the first day she even drank water. We feel so bad for her. At one point we thought both of her eyes were gone but then yesterday as Danny was cleaning her face up he noticed she still had an eye. It just had been sealed shut. We don't know that she can see out of that eye though. It's very cloudy looking and she's still running into the sides of the bin she's been sleeping in since it happened. The eye also has some weird white foam coming out of it that seals it back shut if not cleaned. We still can't tell if she has a second eye or if that one is for sure gone. The whole situation is very sad. We took her outside for the first time since it happened and I think Margo was looking for her friends. Chickens are such social animals that it's not good for them to be alone which adds to our sadness for her even more. She hasn't made a peep in five days which is why I'm not sure if the noise I first heard when searching for her last week was really her last noise, my imagination, or Katie's last surviving chicken. We feel so bad for her and several times have wondered if it would be best to find someone to respectfully end her misery but Danny and I both can't get ourselves to do it. Seeing her outside yesterday with the kids felt good and we were relieved she finally drank some water after we've tried for four days. I'm not sure how she's still alive as she still hasn't been able to eat. She probably still has some internal injuries but with no pet hospitals willing to see her I'm not sure what to do but pray for a peaceful departure from this world during the night. We seriously had the best chickens and will miss the other three very much. They were honestly great pets who loved to be around the kids and could be carried around everywhere. The kids are very sad. Danny and I are very sad. And I'm sure Margo is very sad. I never thought I'd be so sad over chickens but we all are.
Lucy, Agnes, and Scarlette I'm so sorry you guys had to go through that pain and Margo I'm so sorry you don't have your lady pals here with us while you go through your own unimaginable pain. I hope animals go to heaven because the kids and us would love to see them again.
 |
| Margo currently sleeping with her head tucked in her wing. |
* I purposely did not include any closeup pictures of her face showing her eyes and beak. It's pretty gruesome.
