Lurking for many years. First time chicken owner.
So we we're dog sitting a friends dog. She's never been exposed to chickens. Not sure how it happened but apparently someone let the dogs out to play not knowing the chickens were catching some shade in a nearby bush.
Anyways, this dog got a hold of one of our RI Reds and bit the tail clean off. This occurred yesterday.
I did a quick look to assess the damage and it looked pretty bad. There was exposed tail joint (bone or cartilage?) an very open wound seemed to be open into the chickens cavity. Skin around the wound is torn, not a clean cut, also it looked like the colon was missing too. Lots of blood.
I intended to put her out of her misery but my wife couldn't bear it. So we put her in a box with fresh bedding and expected her to pass peacefully in the night. Well the night came and went, as well as the entire day and she's still alive. I'm sure she's in a lot of pain but she's eating drinking and pooping normally.
I reassessed the damage and the wound is scabbed over with black thick scabs. Her colon is actually intact and functional. Some of her poops are solid and some are runny and getting stuck to her feathers. The tailbone thing is still exposed, but there is scabbed tissue all around it. There's zero bleeding.
A chicken friend came over to assess the damage, she thinks is will actually pull through. I'm thinking there's a %15 survival rate. She's going to give us some meds for it, this stuff called Blu Kote. I'm not sure a topical spray is going to help this poor bird out. My thoughts are; if she's going to survive this, she's WILL need antibiotics.
Any suggestions on how to tackle this? Try healing her? Put her down? Antibiotics types for deep tissue wounds? If I'm not going put her down I certainly want to make her comfortable during the process. Pain reliever???
I'm not too attached to the chickens. It's just unfortunate it had to happen to our friendliest bird! If it were one of the barred rocks... well I wouldn't be posting here tonight.
Edit: I don't have any pictures of the fresh wound. I haven't taken pictures tonight and I don't want to disturb the chicken because she's resting peacefully in our bedroom.
She is a young bird. We got her as a chick this past April so she's about 2 months old... I think.
So we we're dog sitting a friends dog. She's never been exposed to chickens. Not sure how it happened but apparently someone let the dogs out to play not knowing the chickens were catching some shade in a nearby bush.
Anyways, this dog got a hold of one of our RI Reds and bit the tail clean off. This occurred yesterday.
I did a quick look to assess the damage and it looked pretty bad. There was exposed tail joint (bone or cartilage?) an very open wound seemed to be open into the chickens cavity. Skin around the wound is torn, not a clean cut, also it looked like the colon was missing too. Lots of blood.
I intended to put her out of her misery but my wife couldn't bear it. So we put her in a box with fresh bedding and expected her to pass peacefully in the night. Well the night came and went, as well as the entire day and she's still alive. I'm sure she's in a lot of pain but she's eating drinking and pooping normally.
I reassessed the damage and the wound is scabbed over with black thick scabs. Her colon is actually intact and functional. Some of her poops are solid and some are runny and getting stuck to her feathers. The tailbone thing is still exposed, but there is scabbed tissue all around it. There's zero bleeding.
A chicken friend came over to assess the damage, she thinks is will actually pull through. I'm thinking there's a %15 survival rate. She's going to give us some meds for it, this stuff called Blu Kote. I'm not sure a topical spray is going to help this poor bird out. My thoughts are; if she's going to survive this, she's WILL need antibiotics.
Any suggestions on how to tackle this? Try healing her? Put her down? Antibiotics types for deep tissue wounds? If I'm not going put her down I certainly want to make her comfortable during the process. Pain reliever???
I'm not too attached to the chickens. It's just unfortunate it had to happen to our friendliest bird! If it were one of the barred rocks... well I wouldn't be posting here tonight.
Edit: I don't have any pictures of the fresh wound. I haven't taken pictures tonight and I don't want to disturb the chicken because she's resting peacefully in our bedroom.
She is a young bird. We got her as a chick this past April so she's about 2 months old... I think.
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