Our Dogs attacked one of our hens. Can we save her? Pictures

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deborah

deborah

Songster
13 Years
Oct 22, 2007
120
1
204
Chelsea, MI
We just got home and found our dogs had attacked one of our hens while we were gone. We found a lot of feathers on the ground and she was trying to hide under a wagon. I think we probably interupted them or they would have finished her off. She has flesh missing from her back just above her tail. There are some other minor bites. We brought her inside and put some antibiotic cream on the wound. She is very alert.

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She is a 4-year old barred rock. Is there anything else we can do? Do you think she can recover? If anyone can share any similar experiences I would greatly appreciate it.
 
I have no chicken experience like this to share, but if she were mine I would bring her in, keep her warm, make a betadine (iodine) dilution and rinse the area with the betadine. An antibiotic would be a good idea too. Make sure she eats and drinks good until recovered. Good luck , hope she does good for you!
 
I bet she will do fine, Flush out the wound with a warm water and peroxide mixture about 1/2 and 1/2. Apply antibiotic cream without any pain relievers in it and keep her separated from the others until she heals, at least a week to two weeks. You can put her in the coop in a pen/crate so she can be around the others. looks like her vent was not involved with the injury, so she will heal up fine with a little extra attention. Give her some electrolytes solution from the feed store in her water for added strenght. your dog should not be trusted around your hens without further training, he is either a hunter or looking for a play toy. hope she does well. I had a hen get attacked by a family dog, she did fine, same area, they go for the tail feathers.
 
Quote:
Good advice. Chickens are AMAZING healers. As for the betadine solution, just put enough betadine (or generic povidone iodine) in lukewarm water until it looks like weak tea. Rinse the area well, and keep putting the antibiotic ointment on it. (don't use the kind of antibiotic cream that has the pain reliever in it -- sometimes it can cause an immediate, fatal reaction). Best of luck with your girl.
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When one of my chickens was attacked by a dog, I put her in a sink full of warm water and betadine. That way all her wounds were cleaned and disinfected, even ones that might be hidden under her feathers. I kept her in the house and kept her quiet for a few days. She healed just fine. BTW, we rehomed the dog - you don't mess with my chickens!
 
We had a hen with a couple large open wounds very similar looking to the one on your hen and she recovered quite nicely and I would expect yours to do the same. Best wishes on her recovery.
 
Here's a picture of one of my chicken that got attacked a month ago. She's healed up nicely since. I poured peroxide on her wound, sprayed a liquid bandaid on it (without CAINE) and kept her isolated in a crate for 9 L-O-N-G days....I would let her out everyday supervised for a few minutes. Fed her all her favorite foods, including yogurt, flax seed, baby cereal, and blueberries. I'll include the link to my posting about her and what everyone suggested too. She should be fine!!
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https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=464496

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Thank you for all your replies and encouragement. I am so pleasantly surprised at how she healed.

My husband got some blue-kote from Tractor Supply and sprayed it on all her wounds. (She had a bad wounds on her neck and wing also, but the feathers hid them pretty well). We kept her confined for 2 days, but then we put a Hen Apron with the shoulder pad safety pinned to the bottom to lightly cover her wound and we put her back with the flock. She did fine! We took the Hen Apron off last week and look at this:

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I cannot believe how well she healed. Both skin and a large chunk of flesh were gone. The skin pulled up and covered the open area. And she even grew some new feathers. I thought she would probably be bare until she molted. She's lost that hump in front of her tail, so we will always be able to tell her apart from the other barred rocks. :) She is one of our original hens; 4 years old now.

The dog is gone. The hen is still here.
 
That is soooooo good to hear. We had a bad dog attack our 11 hens and roo and he killed half the flock. Only 3 escaped any injury. Very hard weekend. We have many injuries similar to your hen's and we have pretty much done the same minus the Blue stuff. When should that be sprayed on them? All of ours are together except the two most injured who are in our laundry room. The other hens that are not injured don't seem to be pecking at the others. They are all behaving themselves and our roo has started to crow again. He was very traumatized, as he lost his tail. I am so grateful for all the info we have found on this site. I never thought I would be so attached to them!
 
Someplumbcoop, I'm so sorry to hear you had such a bad attack. When our hen was attacked, we had just gotten home and interupted it. I don't know how much longer she could have survived. The dog was actually eatting her flesh. She had her head hidden under the low axle of a Little Tykes wagon we still have. (Our son is 17 now.)

The first night we cleaned the wound and applied an anti-biotic cream with pain reliever. They I read all these posts saying not to use one with pain reliever. So we wiped it off as best as we could. The following morning my husband got the blue coat and we sprayed it on her. (Try to get as little on you as possible; it stains.) It has alchohol in it and you could tell she felt the sting. Beside providing a protection while it healed, it hid the redness of the wound so the other chickens wouldn't pick on her.

This had been my first experience with a serious predator wound. I am so surprised and happy how well she healed. I think there is a lot of hope for your wounded chickens.

Deb
 

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