12 Week old Chicken "attacked" by kelpie! Recovery tips / help appreciated!

[robbieg]

Hey Guys,

Long time follower but first time poster...because i need help.

I have 5 beautiful chickens who have just started laying (australorp x 1, australorp x silkie x 2, white sussex x 2).
Yesterday my partner and I picked up a 16 week old Barred Rock and a 12 week old Gold Laced Wyandotte (we named her Lacey).

Lacey sneezed a couple of times on the way home from the breeder so we decided to quarantine both new chicks for several weeks to make sure her sniffles were sorted before we introduced them to the older chicks.

Today whilst I was out Lacey managed to squeeze through a gap in the wire (a horrible mistake on my end) and my 2 x kelpies saw Lacey wandering around and went down to see her. Both our dogs are great with our chickens however our chickens are calm and placid and are fine with the dogs. I'm presuming Lacey ran from them and they grabbed her numerous times.

I got home about an hour after the incident and found Lacey curled up in some bushes.

She has a bad wound on her back, she appears to have two medium puncture wounds and is missing a lot of feathers.

I placed her inside a container with a heat light and a towel inside our house. She does walk on both legs and they are not broken. She basically just sits there with her eyes closed quietly.

When I first brought her in i could hear a gurgling sound coming when she breaths which I thought could have been a internal injury (punctured lung possibly).

It has been about 6 hours since I have brought her inside.
She still lays there with her eyes closed but will open them and appear alert for about 10 seconds when I come in to check on her before going back to sleep.

Her gurgling has stopped after she sneezed a couple more times which made me feel like it was just her little cold she had and was too tired and sore to get rid of the mucus or build up in her nose. She is breathing fine now.

Just then I went in and gave her a 5 ml syringe with some water and a tiny bit of ACV in it which I paced on her beak - she did drink a fair bit and even turned her beak on the side as if to say I want more!
She did peck at 1 grain seed that I left in her bowl but has not tried to eat apart from the 1 attempt.

I have tried as best I can to get some Betadine (Iodine) onto the open would and used some Betadine mixed with warm water to rub across her featherless area. (photo is Betadine not blood)

The wound is still a bit dirty but there is not much I can do as she pulls her wings back in when I try to open them up.

Just need some advice as what to do next and what to expect....

How often do i give her water?
Should I add anything to her water?
Should I offer food?
Can I keep the light on at night because we don't have a heat pad or anything like that.

Thanks for reading this essay - just feel so guilty this happened in the first place to such a beautiful bird.

Fingers crossed she makes in through the night!

FYI - Located in Dandenong Ranges, Victoria Australia

 

[cottagecheese]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...of-my-old-girls-help⁉️.1289013/#post-20895115

This link should be helpful. Welcome and I hope she recovers completely.

 

[robbieg]

Alright she’s had a bit more water now.
I cleaned her back with some salt water and put a bit more betadine on her back and wounds.
Unfortunately my medicine cabinet is limited at that.

I have read that I can put tumeric powder on her wounds and this will really help as an antibiotic and prevent swelling and infection?

I put her down for 30 seconds to clean her and she walked around no worries but when I put her back in the box under the light she shut her eyes straight away and went back to sleep... any ideas?

 

[21hens-incharge]

The wound needs to be kept moist. Antibiotic ointment can be used to keep it moist.
Make sure that any you use on chickens does NOT have pain killer in it.

Were you able to get it thoroughly cleaned?

The thread linked by cottagecheese has good information from some of our best people.

That she makes a good recovery.

As to the gurgling/sneezing.....chickens don't get "colds" they get upper respiratory infections.

She may need antibiotics for that.
@Wyorp Rock @Texas Kiki @staceyj @azygous

The OP may need antibiotics recommended and I am NOT the best at that. Can you guys help with that?

 

[robbieg]

She is under a lamp at the moment and seems to like just sitting under the heat - as I’ve said only betadine is on it at the moment or I’ve also got sudocrem or dermaid (hydrocortisone 1%).. would this help?
I’m not close to any vets or anything so Im having to make do with what I have around the place.

She is breathing completely fine now with no sneezing or wounds coming at all.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

When I first brought her in i could hear a gurgling sound coming when she breaths which I thought could have been a internal injury (punctured lung possibly).

Her gurgling has stopped after she sneezed a couple more times which made me feel like it was just her little cold she had and was too tired and sore to get rid of the mucus or build up in her nose. She is breathing fine now.

I have tried as best I can to get some Betadine (Iodine) onto the open would and used some Betadine mixed with warm water to rub across her featherless area. (photo is Betadine not blood)

The wound is still a bit dirty but there is not much I can do as she pulls her wings back in when I try to open them up.

How often do i give her water?
Should I add anything to her water?
Should I offer food?
Can I keep the light on at night because we don't have a heat pad or anything like that.

The salt water and betadine are good to use for flushing out the wound.
Trim those feathers away from the wound so they don't stick to the wound during the healing process, makes it easier for you to tend to her as well.

Do you have any triple antibiotic ointment or Germolene? You can use those on the wounds. You want to look underneath her as well to make sure you haven't missed any puncture wounds.

Try to get her hydrated, sugar water or electrolytes would be good. She may not be interested in food, but getting fluids into her are important.

As for the cold, I'm sorry about that. Chickens have respiratory diseases. It would be a good idea to keep the chicks quarantined from your flock so you can see if that develops into something further. You don't want to add chickens to your flock ever if they have respiratory illness.

If you don't have any triple antibiotic ointment on hand, you can also use honey or add other ingredients to it, but honey is healing (it will be a bit sticky though)
The following thread you may find helpful - she outlines what she used in the first post, a mixture honey, coconut oil and other ingredients. With diligence her rooster is recovering nicely. Edited to add, keep on reading, she refined that honey to add tumeric as well.

Keep us posted. https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ncludes-graphic-images.1290926/#post-20952406

 

[staceyj]

The salt water and betadine are good to use for flushing out the wound.
Trim those feathers away from the wound so they don't stick to the wound during the healing process, makes it easier for you to tend to her as well.

Do you have any triple antibiotic ointment or Germolene? You can use those on the wounds. You want to look underneath her as well to make sure you haven't missed any puncture wounds.

Try to get her hydrated, sugar water or electrolytes would be good. She may not be interested in food, but getting fluids into her are important.

As for the cold, I'm sorry about that. Chickens have respiratory diseases. It would be a good idea to keep the chicks quarantined from your flock so you can see if that develops into something further. You don't want to add chickens to your flock ever if they have respiratory illness.

If you don't have any triple antibiotic ointment on hand, you can also use honey or add other ingredients to it, but honey is healing (it will be a bit sticky though)
The following thread you may find helpful - she outlines what she used in the first post, a mixture honey, coconut oil and other ingredients. With diligence her rooster is recovering nicely. Edited to add, keep on reading, she refined that honey to add tumeric as well.

Keep us posted. https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ncludes-graphic-images.1290926/#post-20952406

Following along.

 

[robbieg]

After reading will cook up some natural honey with some tumeric and lavernder oil and apply... I don’t have shea butter so fingers crossed
Will update with her progress in the morning

 

[Wyorp Rock]

After reading will cook up some natural honey with some tumeric and lavernder oil and apply... I don’t have shea butter so fingers crossed
Will update with her progress in the morning

Do you have coconut oil? I bet you could use that in place of the shea butter, I don't know a lot about using herbals/oils but I do wonder if the shea butter is acting as a type of carrier oil to cut the lavender. So coconut or sweet almond oil would probably work.

 

[robbieg]

I do have coconut oil.
I’ve never done anything like this before so do you have a “recipe” for chicken dog bite alixar potion haha.
Not sure of quantities of the honey vs tumeric vs coconut oil.