Chicken wounded by dog! Should I give amoxicillin? How much?

[CathyB59]

Yesterday one of my hens was attacked by a dog. She has several puncture wounds on her rear end and a long gash on one of her breasts. The breast wound was just the skin, so we sewed it up with thread and sprayed all the wounds with Blue-Kote. The only antibiotic I have is amoxicillin in 250 mg capsules. Should I give her some? If so, how much and how often? Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Amastacia]

i would wait on the antibiotics. giving them to her if she doesn't need them can cause more problems that it will solve. the BluKote is an antibiotic (among other things). keep an eye on the wounds and clean them as needed. other than that, keep her calm and isolated. none of these wounds sound deep, so she will probably be ok.

 

[Chickie Mama]

This happened to one of my chickens. I was advised to clean the wound, put triple antibiotic on the wound and keep her separated from the others while she healed. I put her in a animal crate with food and I gave her antibiotic water. Just as a precaution. I happened to have some powder mix from my vet left over from my injured duck. For the first few days she did not eat or drink much. It took 2 weeks for her heal enough to rejoin the flock. It was amazing. She was an awful sight. I would never have believed she could recover! Chickens are resilient creatures. Good luck!

 

[coffeychicks]

I have had chickens attacked keep the wound clean keep flies far away. Plenty of good food water and seperate until healed. Chickens are resilient mine is permanently blind in one eye. Feathers look scruffy but she lays great is friendly (probably from all the extra attention we gave her)and spoiled rotten. Good luck

 

[CathyB59]

Thank you for all your help. She is in the "chicken hospital" in a large dog crate and seems to be doing well. Yesterday morning she was huddled in a corner, but by evening was alert and eating a little scratch and drinking. As long as no infection develops, she should make it.

Not sure what to do about the dog. I learned last night that the owners had left for the weekend, leaving the dog unattended and free to roam. And I am going to be gone for 12 days, so unfortunately, the girls will have to be locked in their coop while I'm gone because they free-range and I don't have a dog-proof chicken run. Thought about picking the dog up and taking it to a humane society about 200 miles away as a stray, but I don't want anyone else to have to deal with a chicken killing dog. Plus she's a very nice dog (other than killing animals smaller than she is, including cats) so I don't think I have the guts to kill her. I may just have to build a dog-proof run when I get back.

 

[coffeychicks]

I don't like irresponsible pet owners. Grrr my chicken was attacked because the dogs owner just turned it lose to run. I lost 3 hens 1 was injured and I was attacked by the dog all in 3 days. Definitely build dog.proof run. Call animal controll. Look up what laws in your area say about a dog running at large. I love animals but ended up shooting the dog in my yard because it wouldn't stop attacking me. Was a nightmare of an incident. Good luck

 

[Chickie Mama]

Some dogs cannot help themselves. Instinct takes over. My old dog could never be trusted with the chickens... she was not permitted near them. My new dog is very sweet and can be trusted (with supervision) around the chickens but even he gets overstimulated and that crazed look creeps into his eyes from time to time.

My husband raises turkeys for Thanksgiving and we had two (ordinarily very nice) neighborhood dogs raid their coop. It was awful. They killed 16 and injured many more before we could stop them. The owner was very apologetic and paid us for our losses, but still it was awful. We work very hard to give the turkeys a comfortable life for the short time they are on this earth- that is not the way we like to see them "go." Our chicken coop now is practically impenetrable.

 

[GranmaEm]

My chicken "patient" was injured by a dog too. Dog bites are very dirty and my vet advised me to start Amoxicillin 125 mg three times a day. She has fully recovered from extensive injuries.

 

[casportpony]

i would wait on the antibiotics.  giving them to her if she doesn't need them can cause more problems that it will solve.  the BluKote is an antibiotic (among other things).  keep an eye on the wounds and clean them as needed.  other than that, keep her calm and isolated.  none of these wounds sound deep, so she will probably be ok.

What antibiotic is in BluKote?

-Kathy

 

[MelissaMallard]

I just had 2 little dogs chew a hole through the fence and into our run. We were away at the time and I came home to 10 missing birds and feathers EVERYWHERE! No bodies could be found. So we searched the yard and slowly uncovered 10 living birds. I couldn't believe it! Some had literally buried themselves under piles of stuff in our shed. I was so relieved. One of my girls had a chunk of skin torn with the feathers from her back. Others lost a lot of blood feathers, do you think I should treat them? I bought fish mox (because in CA you can't buy any medications, chewy.com was kind enough to ship this to me) The tablets are in 250 mg doses, not sure how to calculate for 10 birds to drink it from water. Should I bother? The one girl looks a little sore, but otherwise everyone seems ok. (still can't believe it)