Dog Attack!!!

[ninabeast]

Here's a Buffy update at the 1.5 week mark:

New pin feathers where she was plucked bald:



Her wound after the scab came off. It's looking raw, but clean, and much smaller:



A couple more days on oral antibiotics, and more time with her girls until she's ready to go back to the coop at night. Phew! I think we're going to make it!

 

[Mattemma]

Yay,she is looking great! I was disappointed though thinking you were going to post another pic of her in a dress!

Wow, what a difference in the 2 pics.Really gives hope for others out there who wonder if a chicken can recover from a nasty wound. You did a wonderful job helping her to heal. I am sure she forgives the dress part.

 

[ninabeast]

Yay,she is looking great! I was disappointed though thinking you were going to post another pic of her in a dress!

Wow, what a difference in the 2 pics.Really gives hope for others out there who wonder if a chicken can recover from a nasty wound. You did a wonderful job helping her to heal. I am sure she forgives the dress part.

There will be one last dress! The cape is okay for her isolation, but doesn't hide the wound from her sisters. My MiL brought over (I swear this is true) an old Victorian doll dress last night for me to use when Buffy's ready to go back outside. The dress itself is too big, but I think the matching slip is just the very thing!

AND, she laid an egg this morning. We have a Facebook page now called Heedley's Hens, if you're interested in following...

 

[Kiki A]

I'm glad to here that she's doing better. The poor baby...

 

[ninabeast]

We had a terrible scare on Saturday. After two weeks of steady progress, Buffy had some sort of a neurological episode. She was just standing outside (she was having pasture time with her flock), not grazing or scratching, just standing with her head oddly to the side.

I hurried her inside, ripped off the dress she was wearing to protect her from the other hens, and watched her. Her head was all curled around to the right, she couldn't stand, and when she tried to bill an egg under her, she missed. It looked as though she was having problems seeing.

To have come all that way only to have this happen...we were pretty scared. Two hours later, she was completely fine and continues to be fine.

I can only guess that she threw a blood clot that caused her temporary problems. She had more than her usual amount of exercise that day, as I'm trying to integrate her back into the flock. Also, she laid her first egg in 12 days that morning. Either could have been the cause of a clot.

So, it just goes to show you...you're not out of the woods until you're out of the woods...

 

[ninabeast]

An update on Buffy:

She's back with her flock, and somehow even getting up onto the 4' roost without tail feathers. She's not fully integrated yet, but she's doing great. Her wound is down to a 2.5-3" scab, the new skin is pink and healthy, and she has lots of new feathers coming in. Yes, there's dirt in the scab. The first thing she did when let outside was take a dust bath. Of course.




Thanks for all of your support.

 

[TonySorrento]

Yeay, Buffy!!¡!!!!!

 

[dacdeihl]

Last time I had two big box mix dogs in my duck pen at night. Woke up to the dicks going crazy! My husband grabbed the gun and ran out the back door in his undies. Shot the dog one dog on the spot. The other ran away. That was a year and a half ago. The one who was injured healed up but walks slower than all the rest of the flock. We call her Daisy. The only one with a name.

Dogs who attack ducks or birds should be shot on sight! I don't care if its someone elses pet. These are my pets. If the owner is there I might just wound the dog, but if their not around. Oh well. Lease your dog or cage them. Control attack dogs.

Sorry for the rant.

 

[Chicken Keith]

Dogs who attack ducks or birds should be shot on sight! I don't care if its someone elses pet. These are my pets. If the owner is there I might just wound the dog, but if their not around. Oh well.

I'll drink to that.

 

[ninabeast]

Four weeks after the dog attack:

Buffy is laying again and, as of Friday, her eggs are being eaten again. Yay! I can't get over how quickly she's refeathering her tail (her butt was BALD), but it seems her wound site will be bare until her next full molt. So sayeth my expert. The scab is down to just over an inch in size, and it's very superficial.

She had a bath yesterday, her first, and mine. She looks GREAT.