Dog attack now possible crop issues

[STP12986]

Hi, yesterday my dog attacked my hens, killed one, and injured another. When i got home from work yesterday, the injured chicken was up, eating and acting normal. I cleaned her up a bit and put povidone iodine on her. Her crop did not empy last night, and still looked full when I got home today. She is drinking, and ate scrambled egg this morning, but not much of her feed if any. The crop looks completely exposed, I'm new to chickens and am unsure what I should be looking for at this point. The crop feels kinda like a firm bean bag, I know she was eating her feed all the way until dark last night. There is a smell, but I don't know if it's from her crop, or wounds. Can you help me figure out what to do? Thanks

 

[STP12986]

Here she is tonight.

 

[Lobzi]

She looks like she needs bandaging after some antibiotic ointment application. Keep her inside and warm. That is my suggestion. Good luck. I will never understand how anyone can have no issue with dogs as pets but plenty of issue with having chickens as pets. Case in point right here.

 

[STP12986]

Ok, I will clean her up a bit more and put the ointment and bandaging on. Thank you. What do you think about the crop? She is in a plastic tote in my garage, I will put a heater out there because it will still be very cold in there tonight.

 

[STP12986]

Ok....I rinsed the affected areas well with warm water and continued to remove more feathers that were stuck on the crop. The crop looks like there is/ was some internal bleeding. It almost looks like it is bleeding out in one spot but when you touch it, it's not blood, but a blister looking blood bubble. It did seem like the crop went down a bit but really not sure. I put antibiotic ointment and bandaged the area. The chicken was great the whole time, like she didn't feel pain, but not sure how she couldn't. She did not like the bandage and kept trying to back up. I got her situated and turned out the lights so she might calm down from the bandage. Anything I should watch for/do during a hopeful recovery? When can she go back out? I have three other hens at the moment. I had 6 but lost 2 recently, one to the dog, and one to an unknown illness. Hoping this one pulls through.

 

[STP12986]

Good news...her crop seemed to mostly empty last night, it was about 1/4 the size it was the night before. But the possible bad news is, the crop looks damaged, doesn't seem to be any punctures/tears, but it just looks bad/bloodied (on inside), bruised. Hopefully it can heal and still work fine. She doesn't seem to be eating any of her feed still, but I saw her drink last night, think she is drinking regularly, and she ate a scrambled egg this morning. I let her walk around the backyard for a little while while I was getting ready this morning and she walked down to see her sisters. I almost let her stay with them today, but the bandage I had put on last night was falling off and I didn't have time to do a good bandage job before I left this morning and didn't want her injuries exposed to the others for pecking. She hasn't laid an egg since the attack, which isn't surprising, but she had been laying 1 a day so I'm curious when I should start to worry about when she should lay again.

 

[STP12986]

Well, the hen had been doing great in my garage, eating and drinking normally. I thought it was time to integrate her back so I put blue kote on her and put her in the coop after dark. She was chased around a bit earlier this morning, but nothing serious. I let them free range in the yard and they seemed to be figuring things out ok. Then my injured hen felt like she didn't want to be at the bottom of the pecking order right away and tried to bow up to another who quickly put her in her place, but during the short fight, her crop got a small tear. It was my fault for trying too early, but I thought her injuries were ok. I closed it up with super glue, but ever since the dog attack, her crop skin has been hard and seemed like it could tear easy. I don't know if the skin is already dying or if her crop will have the ability to heal. I have been putting triple antibiotic ointment on it to try to keep it soft. Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

[Sue Gremlin]

Is her crop actually exposed!? So the injury is to her actual crop rather than the skin? I would not put a chicken with such a horrific injury back with other chickens, they tend to pick at each other's bloody wounds, and that is the last thing this girl needs.

Honestly, I'd think seriously about euthanizing her, I think it's pretty amazing that she's done this well.

 

[STP12986]

Yes her crop is exposed. She has honestly not even acted bad at all...she has been eating, drinking, pooping just fine. I was shocked as well at how well she has done. I have already considered putting her down, but being my first year keeping chickens, wanted to make sure to give her a chance. Really wish I hadn't put her back with the others (only 3 others) so soon.

 

[STP12986]

also, I did put blue kote on her to minimize pecking of the wound, and didn't really see any of that, more just pecking order type of fighting.