Dog Attack

[juliag103]

Thank everyone so much. I have her clutch mate in with her, and they are doing well. Ava is eating and drinking normally, she just looks rather pathetic with no secondary flight feathers and bloody wings. She is laying down a lot, which I can imagine is normal. I'll take the dressings off, and send my husband in for some betadine and blukote. I've used blukote quite a bit on horses, and had good luck with it. She's very docile and is doing well with the stress of being crated and in pain. When the wound is being irrigated, should I just take her inside to the bathtub? I have a sprayer that detaches from the shower head. I think I will trim off the hanging skin, then I can better see the wounds and how they are healing.

As for what attacked her, I'm a little confused. There was a huge feather bomb in the coop, too. So, whatever got Ava was also in the coop. Fox, maybe? Coyote or bobcat (unless the cat climbed a tree, but I imagine it would have taken the chicken with it, and I'm not missing any chickens) would be too large to get in. The run is 25'x25' with an 8' fence, but as they've been scratching it up, we've been going around and blocking holes as we find them. Today I'm going to run an 18" outer perimeter wire, bury it and put field stone the base of the fence. We do have one chicken that is always out every morning, and we have no idea how she's getting out. I'm sure the 18" buried wire will fix that problem. I doubt she is flying the fence.

Thanks again for everyone's help. I'll take a photo of her once I take her dressings off and wash her up.

 

[lindsay44]

Sorry to hear about your girl, juliag103, I hope she recovers quickly!

Update on Phoebe... she's still eating and drinking and her eyes are nice and bright. The puncture wound is healing well.

I made her a new sling as she didn't seem to be too comfortable in the other one. She seems to like this one better as she's better supported and can easily reach her food and water.



I still haven't been able to find a break or any visible damage to her leg. It's the same side as the puncture wound though, so I think it's a nerve issue.

She seems to enjoy having her legs soaked in the warm water with epsom salts. I've been massaging her legs while she soaks and here's the awesome part - last night I swear I felt her foot move for the first time since Wednesday!

I am taking that as a good sign and will continue to soak and massage her legs twice a day. Hopefully she will regain use of her leg!

 

[juliag103]

Thanks for your kind words, Lindsay44. And I hope that your girl continues to improve, also.

As for my girl, we're going on Day Three. They both laid eggs yesterday, which I think is a good sign. I irrigated her wounds last night, doused her wounds with Betadine, then painted her bluish purple with BluKote. I unfortunately found a puncture mark down to the bone right where the wing meets the body. I irrigated that extra well with a syringe. I intended to take photos before I treated her, but I started cleaning her up as soon as my husband got home with the supplies. All these photos were taken with a 14 megapixel camera so you can open them and get a closer look.



Here's my girl. She is a beautiful Blue Splash Wheaten EE, but that's not why she's my favorite chicken. See all the secondary flight feathers that are missing?



This is her right shoulder, where I found the deep puncture mark. This shoulder sustained the most damage. Also, this is where a 3"x3" flap of skin is hanging from the muscle. It looked like it was already starting to shrivel up, so I'll give it a few days before I trim it up.



Here's Ava a few months ago when I was taking photos of part of my flock.



Just to add a little cute factor to all our traumas, here she is with her clutch mates. From left to right: Aurora, who colored to a silver partridge; Amelia, who colored up to a Minimal Partridge Red; and Ava, with her cute little blue splotch on her head. This photo was taken on 20 March 2014.

 

[juliag103]

Sorry about the explosion of my second to last post. It told me it was unable to post, so I re-submitted it. Apparently it did post.

Should I be re-irrigating the wounds twice a day with the Betadine and BluKote?

 

[lindsay44]

An update on Phoebe... she seems to be feeling quite good so I am hopeful she can recover, however I think it will take quite a while.

She's in our bathroom in her comfy sling and seems to enjoy being waited on hand and foot. I'm soaking her legs every day and taking her outside for some fresh air. The other girls are curious and are coming up to her but I am concerned about pecking so I don't let them too close.

Her leg can move a little now but she cannot put any weight on it at all. I don't think it's dislocated, it doesn't feel any different than the other one, so I am pretty convinced that it is nerve damage from the dog bite.

My big problem now is that I am leaving for the UK on Sunday and I'll be gone for two weeks. It was no problem finding a neighbour to feed / water / let the rest of the girls out but taking on Phoebe is a much bigger ask. So far no luck finding anyone so I don't know what I'm going to do.

Here she is enjoying a little fresh air and grass yesterday.

 

[Outpost JWB]

Awww! I hope you find someone. Sounds like everything you have done has worked well. We had a dog (my DHs bird dog) attack our chickens last summer. She punctured one of my partridge cochins badly. It was around November here in Ohio, so it stayed cold out. I didn't have to worry about flies. I isolated her, treated her with peroxide & antibiotic ointment. At one point I was worried she had gangrene because of the bruising looked so bad. But she actually recovered fine, & is now laying eggs

. So hang in there.

 

[lindsay44]

Awww! I hope you find someone. Sounds like everything you have done has worked well. We had a dog (my DHs bird dog) attack our chickens last summer. She punctured one of my partridge cochins badly. It was around November here in Ohio, so it stayed cold out. I didn't have to worry about flies. I isolated her, treated her with peroxide & antibiotic ointment. At one point I was worried she had gangrene because of the bruising looked so bad. But she actually recovered fine, & is now laying eggs

. So hang in there.

So great to hear your story! I am hoping that Phoebe will recover as well!

Glad you mentioned that about the bruising... the puncture is healing well but some of her skin looks green around it so I was a little worried but I suppose it's just bruising.

If anyone knows of a chicken sitter in Eastern Ontario let me know!

 

[juliag103]

I have an update, also. Ava is doing well, she is alert and walking around. Underneath the BluKote it looks like the puncture is filling in, and her skin is starting to grow back... very slowly. I trimmed more feathers so I could get a better view. Poor thing looks like she lost a battle with the Blue Man Group.

I do have one concern. Well, two. The skin that was torn away from her muscle is drying up and looks ready to trim off, but I'm not sure what to cut it off with. Exacto knife? Cuticle nippers? Secondly, how long should she be in the Sicky Chicky pen? Since her secondary flight feathers were ripped out, will she regrow them, or wait till the next molt?

 

[jonalisa]

Love the sling over the plastic bin - very creative. I just want to say you have done an amazing job for your hen! You are a great chicken mama!

 

[Outpost JWB]

I have an update, also. Ava is doing well, she is alert and walking around. Underneath the BluKote it looks like the puncture is filling in, and her skin is starting to grow back... very slowly. I trimmed more feathers so I could get a better view. Poor thing looks like she lost a battle with the Blue Man Group.

I do have one concern. Well, two. The skin that was torn away from her muscle is drying up and looks ready to trim off, but I'm not sure what to cut it off with. Exacto knife? Cuticle nippers? Secondly, how long should she be in the Sicky Chicky pen? Since her secondary flight feathers were ripped out, will she regrow them, or wait till the next molt?

I didn't trim any skin off my cochin. The puncture wounds healed up & the hard spots fell off by themselves. So, I'm not sure. Does BluKote keep the flies away? Glad that Ava is doing well too.

As for Phoebe, Do you know any local chicken farmers? I'm sure someone would have the compassion to care for her while you are away. I would make sure I have her in a crate though.