dog attack - again!

[curly_kate]

this morning, my dog tore into my chickens' run & attacked one she had gotten 2 weeks ago. poor rocky healed pretty well from the last time; 2 days later we couldn't even tell she'd been injured. she just ended up with some bare patches that were covered well by her other feathers. this time, she's got some new bare patches, but what is most concerning is a hole that is now above her wing. it is essentially right at the point where the wing joins the body.

i found her pretty soon after spooky got her and cleaned her up with peroxide & antiseptic spray. but i realized that there was a lot of crud in the hole, so i got some saline wash and rinsed it out. there was a ton of nasty stuff in there, but i didn't stop flushing until there was no more gunk coming out. i coated everything with neosporin. there was very little blood, even from the time i picked her up initially.

she is behaving ok, under the circumstances. she ate a few strawberries, but not a whole lot of food. not sure how much water she's had, but i crushed a baby aspirin in it for the pain. she's pooed a lot, and it doesn't look bad. she's in the bathtub on some towels, and she's been walking around. actually, my husband just told me she got out of the tub!

this is our first attempt at raising chickens, so i don't have any experience with this. should i just keep putting neosporin on the hole & hope for the best? because it's located right above her wing, it doesn't seem like it will heal up very easily. where do you get antibiotics for chickens? my husband thinks we should put her down, but she's acting so normal, it seems unnecessary. please advise!

 

[DuckLady]

Put neosporin on it after you wash it well with soap and water.
Get an old leg of panty hose and cut off a piece that will fit snugly aound the hen's body. Slip her into it and cut a hole for her good wing.
Keep her separated and put some vitamin and electolyte powder or sugar in her water.

You may want to reinforce your run. What kind of fencing do you have?

 

[curly_kate]

Thanks for the advice! My husband went out and ran chicken wire all around the old stuff. It was deer netting; we learned the hard way that it was not dog-proof. Where can I get vitamin powder?

We've made her a little space to convalesce out of half of the dog house. I figure it serves the dog right! She clearly would rather be out, tho.

 

[arlee453]

Be aware that traditional hex chicken wire is pretty good for keeping chickens IN but pretty bad at keeping a determined dog OUT....

Deer netting is (as you found out) pretty much the same - except even easier to tear through by a determined dog or other preds.

Hope your chicken heals up nicely! They have an amazing ability to recover.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

I use 1 inch chicken wire, and I have another pen with a dog kennel attatched to it.

 

[curly_kate]

I just tried the pantyhose trick, and they're too small to fit her. I'll run out in the a.m. & pick up a larger size. And there's more stuff that looks like poop coming out of the hole. I flushed it with some more saline until it ran clear again, but I don't know where that's coming from, or really what it is. Her injuries are only in the head & neck area, and she seems awfully active to have internal injuries. She's pacing around her cell right now; I don't think she's at all happy to be in there.

 

[curly_kate]

I went to clean out Rocky's deep wound this morning, and I noticed more of the poop looking stuff in it. Unfortunately, I think that it might be food, and that there is some kind of puncture in her stomach or esophagus. She is still acting pretty normally, tho, and there is no bleeding of any sort. Do you guys think this is a possibility? If so, what is the humanest way to put a chicken down?