chickens are resilient creatures... and bounce back from such attacks usually ok
they look pretty horrible... but with some care they can and will recover
You need to isolate the bird... the hens will peck at his wounds and make them worse... very important you do this
Get a cardboard box or something... or confine him to a room and put down newspaper or something, always allow enough light so the bird can eat and drink
Also shock is a big killer with these sorts of attacks, and you also have to think about the fact that the dog may have injured the bird internally, so keep him in a warm place if you have one..
Predator attack of a chicken
Isolate the bird so the other birds dont peck at the wound, they will if you leave the bird in with them
Put Tetracycline or Tylan soluble into its water
Both are good all-round antibiotic and will help guard against infection
And provided with high protein pellets. Protein helps with the healing process
Also if you have any Electrolytes put that into the drinking water also
You can make the pellets into a wet mash, not runny just wet, using butter milk as the wetting agent, add some grated apple it will help his digestion, as the stress of the attack may have caused his immune system to fall and when this happens their digestion also suffers
Don't worry about pulling the skin back over the wound as you often seal infection in that way, especially if there are maggots in or around the wound.
Iodine is great for initially cleansing most wounds because of its strong antibacterial benefits, but in the case of deeper wounds one has to be careful. A good habit is to cleanse the wound with hydrogen peroxide (which bubbles out bits that we can't see), then follow that with what I call "Iodine Tea". Iodine Tea, a solution used frequently at vet clinics to irrigate (wash out) wounds is just enough iodine mixed into warm water until it's a tea color. You then use that in a syringe without the needle to strongly squirt into the wound several times. That ensures that the iodine is getting deep into the wound to kill bacteria.
See if you can get a spray called KRS or blue cote, or citrogen spray, its used on horses, it is blue and repels blowflies, colors the skin and helps stop other birds from pecking the area
Only get the one that colors blue not pink or red.
There's an old adage "dry wound-wet dressing, wet wound-dry dressing" that applies. Especially with chickens in the winter, one normally has to be wary of using wet ointments because the birds can chill easily. Small spots of it are certainly acceptable, however. Because of the nasty nature of chickens, most wounds are wet (weepy) so we do dry dressings like Furox spray (yellow powder, otherwise known as furoxazone) or blue lotions like Anti-Pick lotion, or other livestock lotions which dry to a blue film.
Many times I put no dressing at all, just keep the bird in an area away from flies and other birds and in a clean environment, and the wounds heal much better if left to their own devices and healing power
If you find the bird has already be infested with maggots, then you will have to flush them out, its best to use warm water so you can use a fair bit of it- flush with a sterile syringe to get some pressure in there to flush those maggots out.
Remember maggots only eat dead flesh, so once they are removed the wound should be pretty clean.
After cleansing the wound thoroughly, it's best to dry it out so, only use gauze. Never use cotton wool, bits of the cotton wool come up and get into the wound and cause problems, if you intend to put a dressing, the wound needs to be dry to allow it to adhere to the wound area better.
I recommend keeping a wound open and dry (especially in the summer time) so that the air can get down into it. Most of your bad wound bacteria are anaerobic (in other words, they hate air - love the lack of air) and they thrive in closed conditions.
Some people prefer to pack the wound with an ointment such as furacin, polysporin or icthammol. An alternative to the mentioned ointments is honey- unpasturized, if possible (and no bread crumbs in it!) - pack the wound with honey- honey has excellent anti-bacterial properties and helps produce granulation (healing) tissue.
But to be honest
just flushing on a daily basis with tea strength betadine does a much better job even on badly injured birds, Im just giving you all the options here, seeing as this is your bird the end choices are totally up to you.
When using wet ointments, flies find the wound and leave their eggs deep in the ointment. When they hatched, I had a nasty surprise and an even nastier task.
When the wound was re-cleaned, I took the old standard vet advice and used a dry would dressing instead, aerosol Furox so that it would get deep into the wound, and from that point onwards the wound healed fantastically.
Some people are concerned with the openness of a wound and consider stitching as an option. The problem with SOME stitching, however, is that it creates a pocket and closes the wound up from air. Because of that, it is always best to let a veterinarian or someone experienced do that work. Often a vet will leave a drain tube in a deep wound so that the resulting pus has an outlet. In any case, stitched wounds require a very careful watch.
Often when skin dies, the resulting dead (necrotic) skin has to be abrided (cleaned off) because there's really no need for it and it begins to break down. It is also common for there to be infection inside the wound that isn't obvious from the outside. If that happens, you have a serious situation, which can result in blood infection and death of the bird. So, you can see, that if you were dealing with an injury of that magnitude it would be best to get a vet or experienced stockman involved
When a wound is open, you have the chance to be able to examine it more easily and less chance of anaerobic infection. Actually, you would be surprised just how large a wound can heal with feathers and all!
Chickens heal from wounds remarkably
It doesn't take a surgeon or a master-poultryman to take good care of a wound. It just takes a little understanding of how wounds work, a close watchful eye, and a willingness to take the bird to a vet if you intend to keep it and if the wound is more than you can handle easily.
Keep the bird quiet - disturb it as little as possible.
Any added stress (from even SEEING a human) will impede healing.
Hopefully with these tools, now, you'll be able to face a poultry wound with more confidence and more success. I wish you all the best
