After a year of chicken free range bliss, it finally happened. Our landlord's dog attacked one of our chickens. But, not just any chicken......my son's pet chicken, Spud. She is everyone's favorite.
Wednesday night, our landlord's dog came up the hill for the first time in many months. She is an old, deaf, fat German shepherd with a hankering for some chicken, as evidenced by the barking and trying to get through the fence around the chicken coop. The chickens were already in their yard so she had no success then. I know that if she comes up the hill, our landlord is out of town and she has been left outside to roam by the house sitter. Extra vigilance is required.
I got a phone call early yesterday morning about a minor family emergency. It required me to round up the boys, throw on some jeans, and head to town. Our flock had already been let loose for the day and in a moment of not thinking, I told my son to leave them out, something I would never normally do when Scout has been around. I didn't anticipate being gone long, and we had to get going.
We returned 4 hours later and pulled into the drive. Our flock usually runs like crazy to see you and to peck at anything you may have brought home. No one ran to meet us. I could see one of our Golden comets under the front bush and she wouldn't come out. My son finally coaxed her out and she resumed that hyper vigilant, super upright, got my eyes wide open stance chickens have when something has gone wrong and scared them. She hightailed it to the coop. 4 of our chickens were in the coop and would not come out. The search was on for the other four. I found one holed up under a tarp over the woodpile. She came out bagocking and stayed close. When we came around to the coop, she hightailed it inside. I resumed my search and found two other hens in a back shed behind a garbage can. They came out slowly and followed me back around to the coop. Next to our coop we have an old carport and there is a gap of about 6 inches between the coop and the carport. Both hens disappeared in there. I heard soft clucking and when I came around the other side out came Spud, our dark brahma banty hen that was torn up really bad. The other two hens were trying to get her to come out by clucking and softly pecking her tail feathers. She came out slowly, let me pick her up, and then the other two hens ran inside.
Her injuries are pretty bad. It looks like the dog got a hold of her once, got a mouthful of feathers and let her go. If the dog was young, she never would have got away and been able to run the twenty feet or so to the gap in the wall. She has a big tear on her tail, a superficial scratch around her vent, numerous puncture wounds in her neck, and a hole in her side the size of a silver dollar. She is missing over 50% of her feathers.
DH came home from work, and we cleaned her up the best we could. Her wounds were very clean. We flushed everything and packed them all with Neosporin. She was then put into a box in the dining room. She never showed signs of shock, and she was eating and drinking fine. Today, her wounds look good. Her neck wounds are all closed up, and her vent scratch looks good. The wound in her side is weeping, but looks ok. No signs of infection. She is so sore, she isn't moving much. She also cannot sit down. We'll see if she makes it.
Thanks for listening.
Wednesday night, our landlord's dog came up the hill for the first time in many months. She is an old, deaf, fat German shepherd with a hankering for some chicken, as evidenced by the barking and trying to get through the fence around the chicken coop. The chickens were already in their yard so she had no success then. I know that if she comes up the hill, our landlord is out of town and she has been left outside to roam by the house sitter. Extra vigilance is required.
I got a phone call early yesterday morning about a minor family emergency. It required me to round up the boys, throw on some jeans, and head to town. Our flock had already been let loose for the day and in a moment of not thinking, I told my son to leave them out, something I would never normally do when Scout has been around. I didn't anticipate being gone long, and we had to get going.
We returned 4 hours later and pulled into the drive. Our flock usually runs like crazy to see you and to peck at anything you may have brought home. No one ran to meet us. I could see one of our Golden comets under the front bush and she wouldn't come out. My son finally coaxed her out and she resumed that hyper vigilant, super upright, got my eyes wide open stance chickens have when something has gone wrong and scared them. She hightailed it to the coop. 4 of our chickens were in the coop and would not come out. The search was on for the other four. I found one holed up under a tarp over the woodpile. She came out bagocking and stayed close. When we came around to the coop, she hightailed it inside. I resumed my search and found two other hens in a back shed behind a garbage can. They came out slowly and followed me back around to the coop. Next to our coop we have an old carport and there is a gap of about 6 inches between the coop and the carport. Both hens disappeared in there. I heard soft clucking and when I came around the other side out came Spud, our dark brahma banty hen that was torn up really bad. The other two hens were trying to get her to come out by clucking and softly pecking her tail feathers. She came out slowly, let me pick her up, and then the other two hens ran inside.
Her injuries are pretty bad. It looks like the dog got a hold of her once, got a mouthful of feathers and let her go. If the dog was young, she never would have got away and been able to run the twenty feet or so to the gap in the wall. She has a big tear on her tail, a superficial scratch around her vent, numerous puncture wounds in her neck, and a hole in her side the size of a silver dollar. She is missing over 50% of her feathers.
DH came home from work, and we cleaned her up the best we could. Her wounds were very clean. We flushed everything and packed them all with Neosporin. She was then put into a box in the dining room. She never showed signs of shock, and she was eating and drinking fine. Today, her wounds look good. Her neck wounds are all closed up, and her vent scratch looks good. The wound in her side is weeping, but looks ok. No signs of infection. She is so sore, she isn't moving much. She also cannot sit down. We'll see if she makes it.
Thanks for listening.
