Chickens attacked by pack of dogs.

[jamesketcham]

Good evening , I need some advice. I came home from work tonight and found a pack of wild dogs had broken into my chicken yard.

The dogs had broken the electric fence and the chicken wire I had around my chicken yard. The dogs got in the chicken yard and the hen house. The dogs killed 14 of 25 of my chickens. I was able to find five of my chickens in the woods near the coop, and are still missing six chickens into the woods.

My two kids were devastated. (6 & 7 year old) My seven year old daughter while crying told me I needed to get more chickens. Four of the five recovered chickens are missing some feathers and have some minor injuries including puncture wounds from the dogs.

I'm am concerned about the wild dogs transmitting disease to my chickens which I recovered. Should I put the chickens down and replace them, or should I order more chickens and try to introduce them to the current chickens.

I was having trouble with the current chickens breaking the eggs in the nesting boxes and eating the eggs and the yokes. I was working on that problem which I'm not sure which chickens were breaking them but do know several of them were eating the eggs.

One other problem I was having was the chickens are ten months old and I went from getting 25 eggs a day down to between 4 to 10 eggs a day. These are the first chickens I've ever had and not sure what yo do.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[quinaldey]

Infection will be your enemy. Rabies cannot be transmitted to birds fortunately. That's the only thing I can think of. Antibiotics! Good luck, im so sorry! It is devastating to find that!

 

[jamesketcham]

Quinaldey, thank you for your advice. I have some hard decisions to make over the next few days.

 

[katbriar]

So sorry this has happened to you. You must feel terrible, but this is not your fault. Hang in there.

First keep your birds warm, quiet, and hydrated. Don't be surprised if they act dazed for a while because they may be in shock for a bit.

Flush wounds and clean regularly. You can pack punctures or large torn holes with neosporin, spray with vetricyn or bluekote. Whatever you use, don't used products that have numbing agents that end in "caine" (like lydocaine- hope I've spelled that right). It's ok for humans but toxic to chickens.

Chickens heal very well from some horrible injuries. There are many such stories posted around here, so don't be too afraid of their injuries.

If your bird stop eating and drip king on their own, you may need to tube feed them to keep them hydrated and give them energy. I've never had to, but folks say its not that hard.

And your girls probably just slowed down for the season (winter). I am back up to 7-9 eggs a day from my 9 girls, but was only getting 3-4 a day just a few weeks ago.

Hang in there. We're cheering for you and your girls.

 

[WhiteLeghorn2]

Good evening , I need some advice. I came home from work tonight and found a pack of wild dogs had broken into my chicken yard.

The dogs had broken the electric fence and the chicken wire I had around my chicken yard. The dogs got in the chicken yard and the hen house. The dogs killed 14 of 25 of my chickens.

That's terrible.

I'm very sorry for your loss. My only recommendation is to not use chicken wire. Dogs, coons, coyotes, foxes, and even minks can break through chicken wire. Just a recommendation.

I really hope you find the rest of the chickens! That is terrible, and a heartbreaking story. Good luck to you though!

 

[pound4pound]

i'm sorry to hear about what happened to your birds. i could relate to that because it happened to me as well but the thing is my 3 pet dogs chased the hen and hunted it down for their dinner :'( like a pack of wolves. i got the pack leader chained since he started the eating behavior. the other 2 dogs can't do nothing without the pack leader.


about the laying eggs, have them electrolytes in the water for 3 weeks. After that have the electrolytes in water every other day alternating with fresh water. eating eggs are indicative of vitamin loss. you must replenish this loss.

if the chickens got injured, they're already stressed.

isolate those who are injured and have them loaded with electrolytes in their water.

depending on the injury, if the bird is seriously injured, put it down. any indications that the bird is sick and not eating well must be put down.

picky eaters must be put down. you dont want any leftovers for the mice to chow down dont you? and the leftovers will cause botulism if left uneaten by birds.

the good ones must be treated with electrolytes to help them with stress bec. it will affect their egg output.

if you have access to electric fencing, do it.

 

[jamesketcham]

Thank you everyone for your input. I lost another hen to the injuries and now I am down to four hens.

When the incident occurred I already had five strands of electric fence on the exterior of the chicken yard. My chicken yard is 20 feet by 30feet by 8 foot high, and is fully in closed with wire. The dogs broke the electric fence in four different location before getting in the pen.

I went out and got four foot hight 2"x4" cattle fence the the guy at tractor supply said a dog can't pull apart or brake. I will be spending this Saturday installing the fence to better protect the chicks from predators.

I believe the four should survive. My only concern now is they will not come out of the hen house at all. They have not been out since the incident . I will just keep feeding them and watering them in the hen house for now until they feel safe going in the yard.

Again thank you all for your support it is great to have a site like this to post on with great people willing to give advice , and share their experience.

 

[WhiteLeghorn2]

Thank you everyone for your input. I lost another hen to the injuries and now I am down to four hens.

When the incident occurred I already had five strands of electric fence on the exterior of the chicken yard. My chicken yard is 20 feet by 30feet by 8 foot high, and is fully in closed with wire. The dogs broke the electric fence in four different location before getting in the pen.

I went out and got four foot hight 2"x4" cattle fence the the guy at tractor supply said a dog can't pull apart or brake. I will be spending this Saturday installing the fence to better protect the chicks from predators.

I believe the four should survive. My only concern now is they will not come out of the hen house at all. They have not been out since the incident . I will just keep feeding them and watering them in the hen house for now until they feel safe going in the yard.

Again thank you all for your support it is great to have a site like this to post on with great people willing to give advice , and share their experience.

Anytime, James. Hopefully the dogs will be forever gone and your chickens can get back to free-ranging. Good luck, God Bless.

 

[katbriar]

Hang in there. Your girls will eventually get back to sorts.