Chicken attacked by "Coyotes" Injured Bottom

[jenni]

My chickens were attacked by "coyotes". At least that's what the neighbors whose dogs are always jumping our fence and attacking our chickens said. I don't happen to believe that they magically heard coyotes at 8:00 in the morning. Me and my husband were both at work. When we came home, our chickens were hiding under one of our barns in our dog run. We lost 3 chickens and one is injured pretty badly.

She is bleeding from her picky area, but seems fine otherwise. Today her wound is covered in a frothy white substance. I don't know if it's a really unhealthy feces or what, but I am afraid we are going to lose Cocoa, too. If anyone knows how I should care for this poor chicken, please let me know. We have only been raising our chickens for about 10 months and haven't had to deal with a catastrophic injury yet.

Also, none of my chickens will leave their hen house now. It has been 3 days. Is this normal?

 

[dfchaser]

Welcome! and i'm sorry to hear about your chickens. If you have not separated her already, please do so (our basement turns into a chicken ward when needed). I am not sure what the frothy stuff would be, a picture would help that. You need to clean up the wound really well, we like to use eyewash solution to really squirt into the wound and flush it out. After that you can put some neosproin on it (not the ones with pain relief in it, it will kill your bird) and then try to figure out a way to wrap it up. These are some basic guidelines for cleaning, it would be helpful to see a picture to better help you.

Good luck!

 

[Chickiemama1010]

First off, while I have not lost chickens to coyotes or foxes, my friend lost her entire flock to them. Foxes have a tendency to kill several if not all of a flock and only eat a few, depending on how many predators were in the pack. Sometimes there are no bodies left, just fluff and feathers b/c they take their meal with them. There is a very good section of the BYC page about predators, including those mentioned. Also if you google "chicken predator" the 1st hit you get is an excellent site in helping to identify the culprit, and says coyotes will take a chicken away with them, and if the dont, they will eat it on site. Coyotes hunt to EAT. Dogs hunt for fun. The aforementioned site says also, domestic dogs tend to grab chickens by the butt, while coyotes and foxes go for the head/throat.

Your hens are hiding because they are afraid. i had some raccoon?? issue, and lost a couple birds over the summer. I had 5 total at the time, and found 3 "bodies" and no sign of the roo and the others. I thought they were dead too, and got dragged off. 2 days went by, and suddenly I thought I heard a crow. I believed my roo was dead, and dismissed it (one of the bodies was of a white roo, Turned out it wasnt mine but my neighbors, and the predator dragged it across the field to my yard to eat it. Then discovered MY flock and realized it wasnt a 1-course meal apparently) Then I heard the crow again, and looked out the window to see my roo and 2 hens in tow. They took off and laid low for a few days till the coast was clear. yours are prob. hiding because they feel safe there, and are unsure about the "outside" I believe they will come back out when they are comfortable doing so, just like my roo and his ladies came back when they felt safe to do so.

I think your best hope to save cocoa is to clean her wound and apply some Blu-Kote. You should be able to get it at a farm supply store like TSC, or if you have a local hatchery or vet that deals in livestock (not just dogs and cats) If you dont know, Blu-Kote is an antibacterial/anti fungal wound treatment. You need to separate Cocoa from the flock till she heals, or the others may peck her boo-boo and wind up killing her. Chickens love to peck boo-boos of others in the flock. They also love to peck anything thats a different color than its background, such as raw flesh or blood on a white feathery butt. Clean cocoa's wound, Blu-Kote, and keep her indoors for a few days if possible. You can use a pet carrier to house her. Make sure to keep her watered and add some poultry electrolites to her h2o to help with hydration, and give her some cooked scrambled eggs in her food for extra protien and nutrients until she can get on her feet. You may need to slowly re-intro her to the flock after her recovery if they try to attack her after her absence. Hope this helps

PS they also make something called hot-pick or no-peck that will keep the other birds from pecking her. You can get it at TSC/FarmEx/etc. it may take a bit of time to get her feathers to come back in. that will encourage the others to pick her. Some hot-pick should help with that.

hope this helps.

Also, I know neighbor-disputes can be problematic. But if the neighbor's dog(s) are killing your flock, action needs to be taken. Maybe you can catch the dogs in the act. I know you work, but maybe on the weekend. Or you could put out a live cage trap. If you had to call the neighbor to retrieve their dog that was trapped in a cage in your yard, then they could not dispute their dogs were problematic for you. I would try to work it out with them yourself, and if not, a call to animal control might be the last resort. I believe if the dogs have already found a way to get to your birds, they will be back until you have no birds left.

 

[jenni]

Thank you for the help. All of my birds have some boo boos here and there. Lots of missing feathers and such, so I'll get the no peck for them. I'll also try the other techniques and clean her up. I'm not at home right now, but I'll try to post a pic of her wound. Thanks for all of your help.

We caught the neighbors dogs in our yard before when we were home. My husband told him we'd shoot the dogs next time, and he said ok, but how do you shoot someone's dog? These dogs are crazy good at climbing fences (their fence is at least ten feet tall!) We are going to get some better fencing on our end before we replace the girls this spring.

 

[saladin]

How do you shoot a neighbor's dog? Easy: pull out a shotgun, load it, aim and pull the trigger! I've killed more dogs and cats in the past 3 years than you can imagine. I'm responsible for the protection of my chickens and I take that very seriously.

I've also trapped and eliminated 11 coyotes in the past 2 years. If a coyote gets your hen then she's gone: no if's ands or buts about it.

Your neighbor's lying to you straight out. And you are wondering how you are going to kill their dog? saladin

 

[saladin]

I would suggest you spray their wounds with Blue Lotion. That is the simplest and best way to take care of them. saladin

 

[Chickiemama1010]

It is hard to shoot someones beloved pet. I understand that. I would be absolutely devastated if my dog was shot. However, I am a RESPONSIBLE dog owner. If my dog jumped the fence, she would be on a chain when outdoors. No question. Your neighbor needs to chain their dogs or face the consequences.

I know these are your chickens.....what if it were your children? Would you hesitate then?

A friend of mine shot his neighbors dog. The neighbor recieved 3 warnings from my friend, and a visit and letter from anim. control before the trigger was pulled. She was a fairly nice dog, but she had suspectedly killed no less than 4 hens, a whole brood of chicks, a brood of ducklings, and a litter of barn cats kittens. She was only caught in the act once. She pooped feathers though, and her paw prints were found leading to and from her yard to the kill sites. Blood on her face etc. so you tell me what happened there...The last straw came when this dog attacked his daughter's 4H rabbit hutch and knocked it down. The rabbits were fine, but had no one been home, they would not have made it. The dog was shot out the kitchen window, and killed instantly.

Neighbor tried to press charges of animal cruelty etc. No dice. The dog had recieved a warning, and animal control was informed PRIOR to the shooting that this dog was a nuisance and killer. My friend's neighbor has since become a pest himself. he constantly called the police on my friend because of noise. My friend had to get rid of his chickens because they were "too loud" and "disturbing the peace." He also had to get rid of the goats. And the ducks.

Now the neighbor calls the police on his children for making noise. He had the police drop by at his daughters 5th b-day because the children at the party were "outside and laughing so loudly that he could hear them from his living room over the TV."
No criminal charges have ever been pressed. No citations have ever been issued. But the daily visit from the deputy is getting annoying. Its passive-aggressive revenge on the neighbors part.

While my friend does not regret eliminating the dog, the consequences HE faced with having to find homes for his animals were equally bad. So shooting the neighbors dog should be the absolute last resort...period. Thats my opinion.

Maybe an electric fence? but it should not be your responsibility to fork out $ b/c of someone elses negligence...I think a live-trap, and a call to animal control to pick up the dog(s) may do the trick. IDK how things work in your neck of the woods, but here if your dog gets picked up by anim. controll and you have to pick him up, its $50, and you have to prove ownership by dog license, If not licensed you have to "adopt" the dog as if it were a stray. Thats more like $100, plus the purchase of a license. Having to fork out my own $$ because I was too careless to chain my dogs might be enuf to change my mind about letting them climb fences and destroy other ppls property and animals.

 

[Dora'smom]

Sounds like that nasty neighbor should be formally charged with harassment.

 

[jenni]

I tried the blue lotion amd she seems to be doing pretty good. Chickens are amazingly resilient at times! Thank everyone for the great advice. I hope it doesn't come down to anything drastic with the neighbors, but we will protect our girls. The live trap sounds good and my husband is planning on making an electric fence (he loves an excuse to build stuff outside anyways!) Its been 5 days since the attack, so hopefully she's almost out of the woods. I'm so glad I found you guys! This is an awesome forum!!!