Help! My dog got to one of our chicks!

AmCasi

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5 Years
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Mar 19, 2014
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Port Hueneme, CA
Our dog got ahold of a chick we just got yesterday. I'm not sure the age or breed of her. When I found the chick, she couldn't lift her head and there was a swollen purple colored spot near where her breast and wing meet. Then she chick tried to drink water and immediately seemed like she was choking on it. Within minutes her entire body is swollen with clear liquid. Like I can see thru her chest. She pooed and it was yellow mucusy. We cannot find a vet that knows anything about chickens or that's open. My husband read online to get a syringe and draw the fluid out. What do we do??!
 
I would euthanize if she hasn't died already. Internal injuries are hard to treat, and in a new chicks they are just about untreatable. I am sorry.
 
So my husband took a needle and popped several of the swollen spots. There was no fluid, it was just air. Everytime he popped one, it seemed to give her some relief but the bubble would fill right back up. We just prayed for her to be healed and this morning she still has these air bubbles all over but she's eating and drinking and chirping. She acts like she feels a ton better. I'm not sure how to address the air bubbles.
 
She has punctured air sacs. They take a long time to heal, if they heal at all. You can keep draining off the air as needed to ease her suffering, but I have not had good luck treating this kind of injury. I have had 2 birds with it- a duck and a chick. Neither one survived. The duck took a week to die after the initial injury, when her lung eventually collapsed. I thought she was improving and was going to be fine. Nope. The chick died after a few months. I did not actually see her pass, so I am not sure if it was the same death, but considering her air sac injuries, I assumed it was the same thing. She had the same signs leading up to her death as the duck.
 
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