breathing slow and feathers around her but no blood

[team guava pastry]

i got home and there was the dog, overly excited to see me, which is weird. i knew there was something wrong with one of my girls. i go out back and there was JOAN lying on the floor with some feathers around. a quick inspection led to thinking something almost attacked her and she was in shock. it was dark so maybe she didn't want to move for the sake of not having something else happen. after bringing her in the house and further inspecting she seems to not have any piercing in her skin. there are red marks but no blood. maybe from the feathers being detached from her skin? should i put anything in that area? should i remove her from the coop? will she be OK? i'm freaking out. perhaps the dog got to her but didn't do the damage she's capable of doing? what should i do?????
thanks!

 

[innof8happinesses]

Hello,

From our experience from dogs, they like to "play" with chickens. By this they pick them up and shake the heck out of them. If a chicken is lucky enough to not have a broken neck or spinal injury, they can survive and you may not see any wounds.

We had one with a less severe spinal injury survive, but it took many weeks. We kept her quiet and warm (it was winter) with easy access to food and water... she recovered but has a limp. We had another that lived for one day after a dog attack but would not eat or drink and had an obvious spinal/neck injury (she just didn't die right away like the others of that unfortunate flock). Just make sure she can rest and keep an eye on her. Someone else may have better advice? And keep an eye on your doggie! Ours have surprised us more than once... We keep a switch (which is a horse crop) around when we are training our dogs to "leave them be". Sadly our old chihuahua got one this week unexpectedly when I child left the gate to a pen of small chicks open... this can happen anytime. All the others we lost were from big dogs that were not our own.

Sorry - hope she recovers!

 

[team guava pastry]

o boy! well i hope you lose no more of them.

she seems to be better today. she is eating and drinking but not as active as the other girls. she seems to be wanting to rest more than play. i figure maybe she's trying to rest so she can recover. i hope she's ok. good thing the week-end is here so we can watch her a bit more closely. and yeah we're going back to PLAN "A"... never leave the girls unattended while the dog is outside. i think we may have been spared this time.
thanks for your help.

 

[team guava pastry]

Little joan is back and running around with the flock again. Lesson learned, don't leave out with the dog.

Could have been a lot worse and we were lucky All she got out if it was a slight limp when she runs.

Be careful out there.

TGP