Dog attack!!

[mkearsley]

Here's what her wound looks like now after almost 2 weeks:

I trimmed all the feathers that were covering the wound to make it easier to clean & keep clean.

Here's a close-up look:

I think she's getting annoyed with me now that she's feeling better, she keeps chirrupping & wanting more space than what I've given her. This weekend is supposed to be really nice (sunny & above freezing) so I'm going to let her go outside for a bit.

 

[Miss Lydia]

She looks so much better, good nursing on your part. Keep up the good work. Sunshine will be good for her.

 

[NellaBean]

Go here and get her a saddle. May want to PM her to see about making it longer than usual as that may help.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=426119

 

[mkearsley]

Well, I recently reintroduced her to the flock. She's lost the "top dog" status

Once she accepted her lower status, the other girls have stopped attacking her. She had a drop of blood on the tip of a new feather, but that's been taken care of. No other injuries from the other girls

Her tail feathers are growing in quite nicely, but I don't know if she'll ever grow feathers where the dog "hamburgared" her back

Three days ago, I started noticing new eggs in the coop. I was of course curious as to who laid them. Come to find out, its Sexy - the one that was attacked!!

Found an egg right where I knew she roosted that night - nobody else ever uses that particular box. This is her first egg-laying, she's about 7-8 months old. Obviously she's going to survive & thrive if she's laying eggs, right?

 

[Miss Lydia]

That is very good news,yippie!

 

[mkearsley]

I was just reading another post about another wounded behind that got me thinking. In that post, a vet assistant suggested that the "black stuff" on the wound was dead tissue & needed to be removed. While Sexy seems to be acting perfectly normal, is this something I should be concerned with? The day after I reintroduced her to the flock & the back yard, she gave herself a dirt bath & the wounded area was packed with dirt! I didn't clean it out because I knew the very next day it would be full of dirt again. Do I need to bring her back in & do some more care for her, particularly making sure she's got no dead tissue? She did have a few deep wounds, but they (along with everything else) were scabbed over before I put her out. I really don't want to stress her unnecessarily, but I also don't want to lose her. Any suggestions? Should I just let her be a bird & keep an eye to make sure she doesn't get worse? Now that she's feeling better, she's near impossible to catch. I don't think that she'll ever grow feather back on that particular spot because of the severe damage to her skin (it was pretty much gone!) But all around she's got feathers. I'm a new chicken owner, and kinda easily concerned. Maybe I should stop reading other's post so I don't get ideas