DOG ATTACK - how to help injured Hen

[5Leepy!]

Hi all,

This morning a dog attacked two of our Hens. One has died. The other is now inside our bathtub and is not doing well. No outside/visible injuries but she can not use one leg or wing. Her breathing is very labored. When we hold her, she can hold up her neck but she is very weak. We have been trying to coax her into drinking water with vitamins and electrolytes but have only gotten a few drops into her. Mostly we are letting her rest and be calm with lights off or low lights when we go in. We have been avoiding any additional stress on her by limiting visits and only cursoury exams so far.

We have applesauce, vitamin E, and will make a mash of her pellets once she shows signs of wanting to drink or eat.

In the last few minutes, we've noticed that her breathing is now making a "crackling" sound. It sort of has faint popping sounds when she breathes and I notice some clear or slightly yellow discharge on the blanket where her head is resting. Wondering if anyone knows what this symptom is. Punctured lung? She is laying on one side sort of propped up so her head is higher than her feet. It seems to be the only position she can tolerate.

She did poop on me about an hour ago, I took that as a good sign. It was a watery poop.

We can only treat her ourselves and are willing to go to great lengths but do not want to prolong any suffering on her part if an injury is terminal.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

5Leepy!

 

[maybejoey]

Hope she gets better. Your best choice is to take her to a vet so they can cast her leg and wing and also give her an antibacterial shot.

 

[Davian]

You could try loosely wrapping the leg with vet wrap to stabilize it. You could also give her a antibiotic shot yourself too...its pretty easy to do actually. You can get everything you need at a good farm supply store...I know for a fact that Tractor Supply carries it all as I had to buy it last night.

 

[5Leepy!]

Thank you for the input. All the feed stores around here are closed on Sunday. Anyway, she passed away about a half an hour ago.

I've discovered a 3rd hen with a limp so I think maybe she's the only one that got away from the dog. Tough day around here.

 

[Miss Lydia]

5Leepy! :

Thank you for the input. All the feed stores around here are closed on Sunday. Anyway, she passed away about a half an hour ago.

I've discovered a 3rd hen with a limp so I think maybe she's the only one that got away from the dog. Tough day around here.

I am so sorry to hear about your loss, I hope you know whose dog did this and you can get recompense for the deaths, I know it doesn't help but people who let their dogs run loose should have to pay for loss. I hope your hen that made it is going to be okay.

 

[5Leepy!]

well, it's not as simple as that. We had 4 hens (out of a total of 10) that would routinely jump OUR fence into our neighbor's yard to look for bugs. Our neighbor doesn't mind but we've been trying to deter it for a couple of months now. We had actually started raising the height of our fence to stop them from doing this but hadn't gotten it completed. So, these hens were in our neighbor's yard and the dog in question is a puppy (but old enough to be almost full grown) who lives behind us. The dog jumped the fence into our neighbor's yard to get to our chickens.

We figure it's really no one's fault here. Our chickens shouldn't have been out of our yard and the dog shouldn't have been out of theirs. We do plan on letting the dog's owners know, though so they can secure the dog better. We don't want that dog to be killing our neighbor's cats, etc...

Thanks again,
5Leepy!

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

Very sorry for your loss. Sounds like you were right on the money about a punctured lung.

 

[Davian]

Sorry to hear about your loss. There's no much you can do for a punctured lung regardless unfortunately.

Unfortunately chickens are basically giant squeak toys for dogs.