Am I Crazy?

[plebayo]

Howdy ya'll! I used to post under the handle LadyKyro I don't know if anyone would remember me because I haven't been here in forever but the basics are that I have 14 chickens, all pets ranging from French Marans, Aracaunas, Red Stars, A cochin, a frizzle/silkie, barred rocks and buff orphingtons.

Last year my dog killed my Champion Barred Rock Hen [and the first chicken I had ever owned]. My mom left her outside unattended for a half hour, so it's really not her fault she had nothing better to do. It was horrible and LiLo[my dog] and I had a discussion about the chickens and how she wasn't supposed to even look at them or she would die, and we wouldn't leave her outside unattended.. We had a pretty good understanding in the beginning and things have been fine for a year and a half.


We then aquired a Pekin Drake and one night I went to put the chickens away and Egypt the only barred rock hen I had left [and 2nd chicken ever owned] was coming in and her comb was half hanging off of her head. I had to take her to the clinic I work at and cut it off [which was horrible in itself] she wouldn't stand still enough for me to give her some lidocaine.. I felt horrible. Anyway I packed it with tons of quik stop and she's been great, she got a big scab on her head and healed up fine. She's been seperated from the rest of the chickens free roaming the whole yard so she won't get beat up.

Two weeks ago I went to put her away [she stays out all day and does go in with everyone at night] her back looked weird and I was thinking that it was a weird place to be molting, just there, and I lifted her feathers and basically LiLo had grabbed her and ripped a chunk of her feathers and skin out! I was freaking out because when I think of chicken skin, it's so thin you really don't think it's repairable.

I brought her into work the next day and the doctor put her under, sewed her skin together and put a drain in. She had to stay at the clinic for 2 weeks, 1 week to have the drain flushed, another week to keep things clean and continue antibiotics. I had to flush the drain twice a day, give her Baytril twice a day. You can do injections but I didn't think she'd let me do it so I did oral baytril 22.7mgs disolved in water with watermelon flavoring and for the most part she took it, I just dribbled it on her beack. Towards the last few days I crushed it up and put it on pieces of watermelon.

So firstly, if ya'll ever wonder about antibiotics and chickens, they can have baytril!

Anyway, am I nuts?!?! If I didn't work in a vet clinic I doubt I would pay to have her go into surgery... I would have euthanized her, but she's been through so much and she's SUCH a great, friendly hen. She was great for me to treat her, but then again I've handled her since she was teeny weeny... I mean she used to ride on my bike handle bars...

Anywho I just thought I'd share her story. I wish I had pictures but I didn't think to grab any... she's healing up well and might get her stitches on Friday!

Here's a picture of Egypt [hen with flopped over comb] with her comb.

Here's a blurry picture the day after I removed her comb. She was running for food lol.

 

[Newchickenmom&kids]

Hope you don't get offended...I just can't help but ask why you allow this hen to be in a position of life-threatening danger if she means so much to you? It would seem to me you got lucky the first time...why take a chance again?? You can have all the "talks" with your dog that you want...but your chickens will always be in danger around it. Maybe you could find a good safe home for the chickens??

 

[plebayo]

Hope you don't get offended...I just can't help but ask why you allow this hen to be in a position of life-threatening danger if she means so much to you? It would seem to me you got lucky the first time...why take a chance again?? You can have all the "talks" with your dog that you want...but your chickens will always be in danger around it. Maybe you could find a good safe home for the chickens??

They aren't in danger from her, they're locked in an area she can't get to. The coop and chicken yard are sealed off from her. She got the first hen due to my mom's neglegence when the hens had free range of the yard. This time with Egypt it was the same scenario, I was gone for an hour, my mother let the dog out, and she had been really ramped up earlier, and I think she got carried away.

This dog isn't out to eat the chickens, she doesn't go after them just to eat them. She doesn't try to eat them through the fence of their yard/coop. I have seen her previously initiate play with the duck [bowing and running around and the duck chasing her] when I've had them out under supervision and I think that's what may have happened. As it is I bring her to work with me everyday so that my mom doesn't forget and let her out unattended, but when I'm not home I can't control them letting her out. I've gone over it with my mom before if she gets annoyed to just put her in her kennel.

The chickens aren't in danger, LiLo won't go near the coop because I used a training collar on her and she knows it's off limits, but anything in the yard is fair game, which she can't really be blamed for. Leave a dog unattended for 30 minutes with nothing to do and they'll find their own fun.

Also just FYI the hen lost her comb because of the duck and not the dog. We no longer have the duck.​

 

[ella]

If you're crazy, so am I! I've had two hens in for emergency surgery a RIR with a 6 inch gash on her side from the rooster, and a Black Giant with an impacted crop. I've spent a total of $275. on those surgeries and probably another hundred or so on med.'s and supplies.

For the most part I've learned how to treat problems by myself, though. Saves money and I've had better results. I know more about antibiotics, painkillers and supportive therapy than I ever imagined!

It's not crazy to care for an injured pet.

 

[wendy]

wow! your chicken is pretty lucky to have you and all the help you can get her. glad she is healing up, poor thing, she has been through alot!

 

[plebayo]

If you're crazy, so am I! I've had two hens in for emergency surgery a RIR with a 6 inch gash on her side from the rooster, and a Black Giant with an impacted crop. I've spent a total of $275. on those surgeries and probably another hundred or so on med.'s and supplies.

I'm really glad I'm not the only one who would go all the way for her chicken! Everyone around me keeps saying "Why didn't you just eat her?" and I'm like "Would you eat your dog if he got injured? yeah I didn't think so." I love my chickens [especially this henny, she's a favorite of mine since she's the 2nd one I ever had].

An impacted crop how does that happen?! Did you have to go to a special vet or do you have a local vet who does chickens? How did they fix the 6inch gash in the hen?

I'm really interested I had never really thought of surgery and stitches on a chicken... I mean when i think of chicken skin there's not a lot to it! I'm amazed this has healed as well as it has.

wow! your chicken is pretty lucky to have you and all the help you can get her. glad she is healing up, poor thing, she has been through alot!

She really has, but she's been SUCH a trooper!​

 

[ella]

Yeah, I got the "why don't you just eat her" thing too. Whatever!

People eat dogs, cats, pigs and horses too, just because an animal is edible doesn't mean they don't make great pets.

I think most people are just ignorant really, they don't know that each chicken is an individual and is capable of forming attachments to people, not to mention how much fun they are to watch!

I was lucky enough to find a large animal vet that would do the crop surgery for me- for only $75 too! It was in my first year of chicken keeping, she got stopped up with grass hay. With what I know now, I'm sure she had other issues i.e. cancer, infection, or heavy metal poisoning. We did eventually put her down, but she had many months of good health after her surgery.

For the other hen... besides the 6 inch gash, the skin had pulled away from her body all the way from under her wing down to her legg and over to near her tail. I knew I couldn't treat it and it was Saturday night so I took her to an emergency vet in downtown St. Paul.

They never treated a chicken before, but had experience with other birds and didn't hesitate to take care of her. They put her under, flushed it out, stitched in a tube for drainage then stitched up the gash. Unfortunatly she died from the anestisia after all that! Birds are always risky to put under, I didn't blame the vet.

All the same I wouldn't hesitate to do another surgery if I needed to. I payed for both the surgeries with the money I got from selling their eggs, and I still have a reserve of egg money for whatever else may come up. I can't complain, they really do pay for themselves!

 

[plebayo]

They never treated a chicken before, but had experience with other birds and didn't hesitate to take care of her. They put her under, flushed it out, stitched in a tube for drainage then stitched up the gash. Unfortunatly she died from the anestisia after all that! Birds are always risky to put under, I didn't blame the vet.

Aww that's a bummer! Yeah we put Egypt under and she was hard to regulate, she popped up like 3 times before we got her regulated but I guess birds are a lot harder to put under, like they will fall asleep pretty quickly but it's hard to keep them there.

I definitley agree it's ignorance... but I can say I never thought much about chickens until I actually owned them. So I just kind of ignore the stupid people hehehe.

But that's really cool, chicken medicine definitley fascinates me!​

 

[eggchel]

Hey LadyKyro..... I remember your name, why didnt you use the same one?
Welcome baaaaawk. LOL.

But that's really cool, chicken medicine definitley fascinates me!

You should study avian sciences!

Chel​

 

[aran]

i applaud your commitment to healing your chicken. These horror stories is what made me decide to not free range my birds though or to ever allow them out of their run actually for any reason. I am lucky enough to have enough room at my place to build a 1200sqfoot enclosure for them because i have a boxer who would really enjoy chasing and "playing" with the chickens im sure.