Dog bite

[kneecoaleye]

Hi everyone, I have a hen who is a little over a year old with a dog bite on her left leg in the way back. There doesn't appear to any deep damage (the dog was rather small), but she is hiding and not wanting to eat, etc. There is blood and some yellow around the puncture wound, but I just wanted to know if there was anything else I could do for her besides separate her from the rest of the coop to prevent further damage. Also our chickens have been free ranging for about a month with our dogs because the chickens themselves were pecking each other pretty badly. Now that the dogs are going after the chickens I'm wanting to put them back into the coop/run. We plan to expand the run to give them some more running room since they have gotten used to free ranging, but I'm not sure how else we can prevent in-flock injuries that are more than just pecking order problems. Any input would be a big help. Thanks so much!

-Nichole

 

[Romochickencrazy]

Is she still bleeding? If so I would cleane the area with warm water and antibacterial soap and dry area good. If it needs it apply a gauze pad and a bandage. Then keep her in a warm quite area.

I got into chickens with a hen I rescued from a trap. Her leg had been caught right near the joint I did my best to safe the leg by bandaging, but in the end she did loss part of her leg. However she went on two years with one leg and a stump before passing away from what I think was a heart attack.

Good luck with your girl!

 

[kneecoaleye]

She's been cleaned up already but we didn't bandage. It stopped bleeding pretty quickly thank goodness. So for now we are watching her. Thanks!

 

[Romochickencrazy]

She's been cleaned up already but we didn't bandage. It stopped bleeding pretty quickly thank goodness. So for now we are watching her. Thanks!

Great to hear. Wish you luck with your girl. Let me know how things turn out.

 

[kneecoaleye]

So far so good. She is healing up nicely and we are hoping to expand the chicken space this weekend so that they will still get the room to run but without the dogs being a hazard. The wound is fairly clean and pretty well healed up but it still looks pretty gnarly so we are keeping her away from the other girls for a while longer to prevent them from reopening the wound.

 

[Romochickencrazy]

[/quote]

So far so good. She is healing up nicely and we are hoping to expand the chicken space this weekend so that they will still get the room to run but without the dogs being a hazard. The wound is fairly clean and pretty well healed up but it still looks pretty gnarly so we are keeping her away from the other girls for a while longer to prevent them from reopening the wound.

That's so great to hear. Keep up the great work. Praying she's back to her old self again soon!
:yiipchick