Chickens attacked by dog

[tbanneck]

My dog got into the hen house somehow and killed three of my chickens and injured two. The two that are injured are Golden Sex-Links. One has a couple puncture wounds to neck and was a bit shocky last night but doing better today.

The other on is the one I am writing to question about. She has a gapping wound almost the length of the back of her neck (maybe an inch or inch and half long). My intial thought was to kill her, but she did not seem to be in terrible pain or suffering and was actually quite alert. So I made the decission to break out the sewing kit and with the help of my daughter put in about 12 stitches to close the wound. Despite what you'd think, this did not seem to bother the hen at all. She only reacted to one poke about half way through. So the wound closed up very nicely and we put both hens in a cage indoors (getting colder here in Idaho) and the one I stitched up immediatly showed interest in food and water (that sounnds like a good sign to me).

Since the first bird with the puncture wounds was shocky, I chose to not put her through being stitched up (even though she could use one or two). I figured the tramua of that would only worsen her shock.

So...did I do the right thing? Is there an antibiotic I can administer to help prevent infection in both birds? How long do you think the stitches should remain in? 10 to 14 days like a human?

 

[PeeperKeeper]

HI, I used to work ERs. We almost never stitched up animal bite re: possible infection.
We would: wash out wound area with antimicrobial soap and water. If a deep wound we would take saline solution and do a "forceful spray" of the solution into the wound.
Saline solution: Boil water 10 min. 1/2 tsp salt to 1 qt.(cooled) sterile water = .9% normal saline.
Check for any debris and persistant bleeding.
Apply neosprin to the area and cover with clen dry dressing.
Remove dressing twice a day and rewash with the antimicrobial soap and water and redress as before until site healed.
Dial liguid soap is an example of antimicrobial soap used.
Okay. so you already stitched her up. Just wash and clean the area daily, apply some neoporin to the stitched area,watch for puffiness, puss, reddening of skin around the stitched area.
If you see puss draining from site you will have to open, drain, and clean wound. There is a possibility you may not have to.
If this was a human we would put them on an antibiotic just for precaution sake. You can do the same for your hen.
A long acting penicillin would be nice in that you'd only have to shoot her once. There are oral water soluble antibiotics also available, choose wisely and read precautions. Terramycin is a good broad spectram Abx.

Anybody else out there with some helpful hints?

 

[PeeperKeeper]

And as Speckled Hen is always having to remind me: Chickens are allergic to anything with "caine" in it. So don't use Penicillin G, or any wound preps containing any of the lidocaine - caine families of drugs.