Chicken Attacked by Dog - Need Advice *Warning Graphic Pictures*

[Pyxis]

My poor silkie hen was attacked by a neighbor's dog today. The dog also killed one of my silkie chicks and tried to take a duck - you can see the trail of feathers leading across my yard to theirs - but luckily the duck got loose and lost nothing but feathers. My silkie hen was not so lucky. The dog grabbed her around the neck and has torn her skin loose from her tissue underneath - I didn't post a picture because I know some people can't deal with that kind of stuff (edit - there's now a picture in post 4). The skin is all still there, but it has been torn loose and it's a very nasty wound. She's going to the vet on Monday but until then I need some help to get her through. I've cleaned the wound and applied Dermacleanse, something I had lying around from my drake's previous experience with a mink. It was prescribed by the vet for his awful head wound and I think it should work pretty well on her. I'm going to go get baby aspirin to give her to reduce the pain. Does anyone know the dosage?

Right now she's in a large dog carrier in my workshop. She's both eating and drinking (very luckily the dog did not damage her crop), and she had the spunk to try to run from me when I first picked her up, so she's holding on well. Any advice is very much appreciated.

 

[rockthecoop]

You are doing great for her. She sounds in better condition then I have had mine. Just make sure she is warm.

 

[Chido]

Warning: graphic pictures of an open wound









If the skin is there, maybe you could try and rinse the wound with saline solution. If you have surgical tape, then I'd suggest that, after you have cleaned the area, you try and pull the skin gently to make the opening smaller, and use pieces of surgical tape to keep the edges as close as possible. You might need to trim somee feathers if there isn't enough clear skin to stick the tape to. After that you should put neosporin (the regular one, DO NOT USE the one with pain killer, that one is toxic for birds), on the wound and around it.

This is a wound one of my hens got a while ago. The wound was almost 3 inches long. I put two small strips of tape in the middle to close it a bit, and I used neosporin on it.



The hen got her wound reopened a week later by accident, so I had to use the tape again since all the scabbing tissue was pulled off. I also got EMT gel and spray. they both work great in promoting healing, but the gel is very sticky, like honey, so once i had pulled the skin as close as possible with the tape, I covered the wound with the gel, then put a nonstick gauze on top, and wrapped it with self-adhesive athletic bandage so the hen wouldn't remove the gauze. Once the gel had dried it had sealed the wound, so I used the EMT spray on the wound. After a few days the wound looked like this:




About three weeks after she got hurt, what looks like flesh is actually a scab:




Chickens can heal pretty well, so if the wound is only on the skin, not muscle or any other tissue beneath, as long as you keep it clean and disinfected, and can make the wound as small as possible by trying to pull the skin close, it will help your chicken heal. The smaller the gap it is, the faster it will heal. You may not need (or be able to) bandage the wound, but try and keep it protected with neosporin, or if you manage to find EMT gel in a feed or pet store, then use that. the main thing is to keep it clean

 

[Pyxis]

Thanks for the advice! I have dosed her with aspirin, one and a quarter tablets to a quart of water. I decided to post a picture of her wound, too, since that might help. I cleaned it out with a saline solution tonight, and this is it after it was cleaned. Warning: gross picture ahead.

That's kind of a from the side shot. You can see what I mean about most of the skin still being there but being pushed up. I had to cut the feathers around the wound away, so that's why there's so few feathers there. After cleaning, I pulled the skin back in place as best as I could and put some gauze over the wound to help hold it in place:

She seems to be drooling out stuff from her crop. I'm not sure if it's just because she drank too much water (she attacked it when I gave it to her in her carrier at first) of if it's something related to the attack. As far as I can see her crop was not damaged. Does anyone have any ideas about that?

 

[Pyxis]

Update for those interested and for future readers with a sinilar problem. She's still with us. Drinking for sure and she's eaten some. Today I put Dermacleanse in her wound and hopefully that helps stimilate skin regrowth. I hope to get a vet appointment tomorrow to get her some pain meds, but the aspirin seems to be helping.

 

[CherishHolland]

Best of luck with her! What did your neighbor say about their dog being in your yard attacking your animals?

 

[Pyxis]

That is a fiasco. Let me just say that as of today I am missing eight birds. We talked to them this morning and their dog had feathers in its mouth from a bird it had grabbed and had gotten away, so there was no arguing against it. They promised to tie it up. I go to work. I come home. Dog is in my yard standing over a pile of feathers and eight birds are nowhere to be found. I have since found one, scared and hiding in the woods.

Needless to say, I will have another talk with them tomorrow, and I'll inform them that if Rover is found in my yard again, he's not coming home. I won't shoot him, but he will find his way to the humane society.

 

[RedStarLady1207]

It is better to leave it open to the air if not bleeding. Keep clean and Granulex is good stuff. It looks good in that last post. I would not cover it with anything. Air is your friend.

 

[Pyxis]

I left it open last night since all bleeding had stopped and she seemed to hate the wrap. I'm hoping to get her to the vet today but they still haven't called me back like they said they would this morning so I don't know.

 

[CherishHolland]

Reason I asked is because my neighbor's dog seems a little too interested in my flock when they are in the tractor. Yeah she stays in her yard for now but I am just overly wary of her because she has already nipped my son in our yard. I squirted her with the water hose to chase her away. The neighbor just says he will keep an eye on her, but then leaves and leaves her outside untied roaming free.I am sorry the dog got a hold of your flock again. Best of luck and hopefully your neighbors will do a better job at keeping their dog in the yard.