Hen/Chicken severely injured by Dog: full recovery

Hello, I just wanted to post a message about my experience with healing a very injured chicken. One day our dog got a hold of one of our Pullets and by the time we got to her she had a 2" X 3" piece of skin missing from her side. That's pretty big for a small pullet! The injury was only to the skin except for a few small puncture wounds that were in the muscle underneath. At this point she had a couple organs exposed including her crop but nothing was ruptured. I cleaned her wounds with saline solution, dried the area, dabbed triple antibiotic ointment over the whole area (mostly around the skin edge) and covered it with a dry sterile bandage. I wrapped her in a towel and held her whenever I could over the next two days. For the first two nights I actually put her in bed next to me wrapped in the towel. For the next week I kept her in the house so she did not feel alone. Chickens need a lot of comfort and support directly after serious trauma. For the first few days she mostly lay on her side and had her eyes closed. Luckily she was still able to eat during her entire recovery. I fed her eggs and yogurt for the first few days, then back to her normal diet of soaked & sprouted organic corn, oats & peas. I also added a little powdered antibiotic to her water. Once she could stand I released her from the towel and put her in a tall cardboard box lined with hay and a window screen on top so no flies could lay eggs on her open wound. I changed her bandage and hay once a day for the first 4 days and then removed the bandage completely to let it air heal. After a few more days she was doing very well and could not wait to get out of the box. I made her a little t-shirt out of an old sleeve from long sleeved cotton shirt to keep the flies off which she wore for the next couple weeks and put her out in one of the chicken tractors with a buddy to keep her company. Once she was all dried up and healing well, i removed her little shirt and put her back in the main chicken house. I still cant believe what she survived. She now is probably the strongest, most vibrant bird that we have. She is first out of the chicken house in the morning and last in at night, always energetically foraging and easily able to jump her height for a treat. She has earned her name, Wonder Woman. Hope this little story helps anyone in the same situation that is wondering what to do.


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That is awesome! So happy for you

What a happy story! Great job healing the chicken, that must have been very stressful! Thanks for sharing.

That is the sweetest mommy story I've ever heard. I'm going to have to try the sleeve idea sometime!

She's very pretty. Well done!

It's amazing that they can heal like this. Anyone who has chickens with serious injuries like this would be relieved to see these before and afters. Wow.

I am dealing with this now. I have two injured birds, one is much worse than the other. Neither of the hens are laying eggs, should I worry? How long did it take her to lay again? It has been 2 weeks, I have followed a strict rotine of antibiotics, blukote and new bedding each day. I worry about putting the girls back in their coup, but I think they would be much happier with their family.

Any advice would be helpful.