Dog attack - Chicken not eating

[NZchicken]

2 weeks ago I had 2 dogs come and tear down my chicken run and kill one of my chickens - the other 2 survived but are not coping well. One more so than the other.

They are Red shavers and they are two years old. I have had them happily living in peace and harmony for this time - and was getting 3 eggs a day most days - they have a decent size run and are let out to free range when we are home - until 2 weeks ago - I woke up and 2 dogs were in the coupe - with one dead chicken - the other 2 had taken refuge in the nesting box so were safe.

It took some time to convince the other two to come out and that things were ok.

Over the past 2 weeks I have noticed that they are not really eating and no eggs. I had changed their food a few days before the attack - and decided after a couple of days to revert back to their old food - to no avail (now i give them a mix) - i even fed them a bunch silverbeet which lasted nearly a day - i took this as a bad sign as this is their favorite and used to not last half an hour!! They are let out to free range as well but only a couple of hours in the evening. I even got them some wheat to see if they would eat it - it is still their at the end of the day also.

I noticed today that one of their combs is turning purple? What does this mean?

I am getting another chicken tomorrow - will this stress them too much?

Can I give them anything to help them? Does anyone have any tips for me? They were really friendly happy chickens - now they just look sad!!

Also we are going into Autumn here (New Zealand) will this also have anything to do with some of it?

The dogs owners got a $600 fine!! So hopefully they will now keep their dogs fenced in!!

Help me please!!

 

[Josie]

I have had some success getting a chicken back from dog attack shock.

When I was younger, I came home from school to find our family dog shewing on what I thought was a log. But then there was a gust of wind and it blew a feather up from the "log". I ran out to see one of our young pullets. The dog had it pinned down and was pulling out all its feathers, leaving only the wings and head covered.
The chicken was in shock and didn't move, completely limp, but alive. It wouldn't eat or drink. I took it inside and forced its beak into water, and it reacted by drinking. To get it to eat, I had to sprinkle chicken scratch from one hand to the other. It was the craziest thing, the girl went from lifeless to normal hen pecking back to limp in seconds. It took a few days and she was isolated in a quiet place and kept warm, but she fully recovered.

Chickens have wonderful instincts, and if you can use that to your advantage, I think you can compel them to eat. It is probably a good idea to keep the new hen separate for awhile. Besides the shock, a new hen can introduce new diseases, and a stressed out bird would be even more susceptible.

Let us know how your hens are doing.

 

[Wisher1000]

I had a roo that we found laying lifeless on the ground after a dog attack. He seemed dead except for barely breathing. I brought him in and put him in a warm, quiet box and left him alone for a couple of hours. Then I dribbled a little water on his beak and tried to get him to eat some scrambled eggs (which he didn't eat.) Once I examined him for injuries, I noticed that his crop was full and worried less about him eating. It took just over 24 hours for his crop to start emptying and for him to start pooping again. All I did was keep him warm and quiet and make sure that he drank a little every hour or so. He began eating on day two late in the day and only a little but eventually made a full recovery. He rejoined the flock as the top roo in the pecking order. He still is, I guess they figured if he could survive that, he must be bad!

 

[MSDeb]

Like the previous posters the key is initially to treat for shock and then to get the birds eating. So far I've nursed a bird back from a dog attack and another from a raccoon mauling. Both times we first isolated the victims and kept them warm in a dark quiet area.

After the first day we started introducing treats we thought they might eat. First bird responded to watermelon. After she re-hydrated she perked right up and has fully recovered. The most recent one that was attacked by the coon was more touch and go as she had open wounds along with feather loss. She needed a longer isolation period and at first would only take food from dh's hand. We got her to eat scrambled eggs with scratch mixed in. After a day or two I added laying mix and a healthy dose of water to make a mash with some vitamin powder sprinkled in.

In both cases I added powdered vitamins to all the waterers for all the birds.

Introducing a new bird to a stressed flock sounds like trouble to me. Besides you should always quarantine new birds to make sure they are not sick anyway, so just keep it separate for a couple of weeks.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.