If you keep chickens as pets, it’s important to know what to do if your chicken is attacked by a cat. Cats are natural predators of chickens and can kill them very quickly. In this blog post, I will recommend what to do if one of your chickens is attacked by a cat and what to expect in the process of caring for your injured chicken.
Recently, a cat showed up and attacked the weakest of my flock of three bantam chickens. By the time I went outside to check on the commotion, it was too late. The cat was running away with my hen, Nugget, in its mouth. At the time I thought it was probably too late, I lost a young rooster to a feral cat years ago and it was a quick death as it got him by the neck. I gave chase and the cat dropped Nugget in the drain, before escaping. It was trying to get away fast and it wasn’t able to fit her through the hole.
Nugget was in shock and tilted her head up to breathe. I carried her to a quiet spot to catch her breath and saw that she had a couple of wounds on her back. After around 10 minutes, she stood up and wanted to join the rest of the flock but I put her in the coop for observation. I immediately left some food out for her and she still had a good appetite, which was a relief. However, she mainly stood around and was withdrawn, she also looked like she had some difficulty walking. The next day, my brother and I took her to the vet – AAVC in Yishun- (our regular vet, Gloria Lee of Mount Pleasant in Yishun, was on 3 weeks leave) and discovered that it was worse than we thought.
From my experience I recommend the following:
1. Get your chicken to a vet ASAP
First of all, it’s important to act quickly if your chicken is attacked by a cat. Cats have toxic saliva and bites can result in infections and kill your chicken. A cat attack requires emergency care and will need to see a vet. It is a good idea to inspect your chicken to try to get an accurate assessment of how serious the injury is.
Before you get your chicken to the vet, clean the wounds to reduce any chance of an infection. If you do not have F10 disinfectant (requires dilution) or saline solution on hand, you can try posting an SOS to Facebook or Telegram on channels like Backyard Chickens Singapore (BYCS) or Save the Chickenese Singapore to find out if there is someone in your neighbourhood whom you can get it from immediately.