Dog mauled my chicken, please help

[cntrywmnkw]

Thanks for the update. Glad she's doing better & that she's eating & drinking, that's important. That wound should eventually heal, I'm no vet, but, my best guess is that if you continue to keep the wound clean & keep giving her the antibiotics, she should heal up. Now as to her little tail, has it been completely severed, I mean, has the bone & muscles & tendons been completely severed? Can she move it at all, if so, then it's not completely severed, just keep an eye on her. Keep us posted.

 

[mark2eye]

Her tail hasn't been completely severed it's just cut up pretty bad I guess. Today when I was cleaning her I noticed a little bit of swelling and redness (infection?) near her vent.

I called all the local feed stores to see if I can get a shot of antibiotics for her but they all just recommended blue kot. I don't know if it will help with infection, so I'm kind of in the dark right now about what to do if it is infected. Should I try using Blue kot or is neosporin fine? Thanks again

 

[pheasant101]

Sorry to hear about your chicken. I had a puppy catch one and eat part of its wing. I thought it was a racoon untill I saw the puppy puke some feathers. The pup ate a huge amount of meat off of her wing/shoulder. I thought for sure she was going to lose the wing if not die, meat was GONE,tendons and all kinds of stuff. Yes I washed her up and applied neosporin and bangaged her wing with gause. Kept her in for a day or two and then at night for a while. We have a small fenced in area around our porch and let her run free in there during the day for a few weeks untill she was well enough to be put back into the yard with the others. I wonder if you could wrap the Tail to her body somehow? I have another friend that had a patch of skin ripped up by a dog and she wrapped it down with gause and was the one who told me how to do it. After the first 2 or 3 days I left it on for 3 or 4 days between wraps. The wing section that is closest to the body was the one that was chewed on so I wrapped her wing with both sections together. Is their anyone who ever used liquid bandaid (or crazy glue) I wonder if you can use that and also try to wrap it where its supposed to be? I would hate to say just cut it off because I can't see it in person and tell if there is a joint still connected or not. Good luck, you would be surprized how tuff some chickens can be when healing. Ours healed fine she is our best laying Americuna and she layed an egg every day in the dogs basket on the porch.

 

[cntrywmnkw]

It really IS surprising how resilient chickens are. I would continue irrigating her wounds a couple of times a day with the Epsom salt solution & apply some neosporin to the wounds. To aid some in her recovery, try to put her outside for a little while everyday, plus they seem to like it & plus they can eat some greens, bugs & whatever. Make sure she is protected though. My DBF built my "Dotte" a recoup pen so I could put her outside & the other girls couldn't pick on her, or anything else for that matter.

 

[mark2eye]

February 12 update

I am continuing to irrigate the wound with a mixture of sterilized water and iodine. Additionally I'm also applying neosporin to the wound and administering cephlaxin three times daily.

So far she's showing lots of visible improvement. Starting to stand after two days of listlessness and even had it in her to go outside and say hello to her pen mates, though, one (the weakest of the bunch) tried to peck at her.

I do have some concerns however in that she's persistently contracting her vent and I'm not sure of the reason. She does have a puncture wound in the area but I'm not sure if thats what's causing it. Additionally, I believe she has some swelling underneath her vent and everytime i clean the area it grows a bit red.

I am getting worried because I read some other threads on BYC of individuals reporting swelling in the vent area and subsequent death. Though I am unsure of what the area under the vent looks like normally I am concerned. I will post a picture of my concern (a bit graphic) below and I'd appreciate any advice on what I might do about the possible swelling and contractions.
Once again thank you all for your help and concern.

 

[cntrywmnkw]

If it were me, I'd find a vet that is familiar with chickens. I did that with my SLW that was attacked by dogs, if nothing else, it'll put your mind at ease that she's ok.