A little help with a dog bite injury

[ChandaH]

OK, I am really new to chickens and I know that keeping dogs and chickens is risky. I let my hounds out to take them for a run and a chicken had jumped the fence. My greyhound chomped her and let her go quickly when I yelled.

I caught her and tried to inspect her for wounds. Being a newbie to chickens I had a really hard time getting through the feathers to get a good look at the wound. I found a bloody wound of an unidentifiable size on her 'back' just above and behind her wing tip. I 'think' that is the only wound but I am not sure.

There are so many feathers in the way that I really can't see how bad it is. I don't know what to do about it at all. I feel helpless and clueless. Being a late Saturday afternoon there won't be any vets open. She doesn't seem to want to walk on her right leg and I am just clueless about what to do with the wound. I am actually really really upset about the whole thing and how stupid I was to not check before I let the dogs out.

I have her in a crate on top of a soft towel in my kitchen. Can anyone give me some basic suggestions on what I should do next? Should I really get in there an inspect her? How on earth do I see everything with all these feathers? Help...

Chanda

 

[Imp]

Here's some info about wound care. Hope it helps. Make sure to read post #16.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=203024

Good luck

Imp

 

[dawg53]

Welcome to BYC. Tough lesson to learn Chanda. You're going to need someone to help hold her while you visually do a close inspection on every part of her body. Any wounds you find under the feathers most likely will be punctures. You'll need betadine to cleanse and disinfect the punctures/wounds. Then put neosporin without painkiller on the punctures or wounds. If they are bleeding, you'll need to put a gauze on them and gently press to stop the bleeding. If there's no bleeding, leave the neosporin on it without gauze or bandage. As far as the right leg, it may or may not heal...be patient and give it time to try and heal. Keep her in the crate for now, til she heals. Give her plain yogurt as a probiotic and some boiled egg as protein all mixed in her feed to make a mash and give it to her to eat...provide her freshwater too. Just monitor her and time will heal, again, be patient. I recommend putting old newspapers in the crate for her to poop on. Papers are easy to replace and absorb their liquid also. You want to keep the crate as clean as possible.

 

[Terri O]

Good advice above...chickens are pretty resilient too. Pamper her and hopefully she will pull through without a problem! T