Help! My dog just attacked my chicken through the fence and the top part of her beak came off!

[5crazies]

Just wanted to bump this for opinions on if a special diet would be good for her. I gave them scrambled eggs, oatmeal and raspberries and she gobbled it down again, no problem. Once it got down to the smaller pieces she has some trouble picking it up but she kept on trying.
Also, a morning update. She was out squawking and eating like normal this morning! Here is a pic showing yesterday vs today.

 

[chicknmania]

Maybe some vitamins for a couple of days. She seems pretty bright from the pics you are showing. Soft food that she likes, until she can eat well...and how about water? Can she drink??

 

[5crazies]

Maybe some vitamins for a couple of days.  She seems pretty bright from the pics you are showing.  Soft food that she likes, until she can eat well...and how about water?  Can she drink??

Thank you! It looks like she is able to drink water. She is really enjoying scrambled eggs. Any other suggestions on soft, nutritious food to give her? I have a can of pumpkin and I'm trying to think of something I can do with that.
Forgive me for sounding clueless, but what do you mean when you say she looks bright? Is that good or bad?

 

[5crazies]

Yesterday my husband dug up some worms and grubs and she was able to pick them up out of the grass. She loved them! She is having a (understandably) hard time picking small things up off of hard surfaces.

 

[JurassicBawk]

My conure parrot tried to attack my house dog through his cage about 6 years ago and snapped off half of his top beak. I had to give him soft foods for a bit, but it eventually grew back (a little, still not fully) but he learned to adapt. If your chicken is already doing this week, I'd say she's going to adapt fine also. I'd give her some soft foods like you are doing, but as long as she can get food into the beak/mouth she'll be fine since they don't really have to chew anything up. Good luck with her.

 

[dekel18042]

It happened so fast! Has anyone every had this happen before? She is bleeding but not too badly. She seems okay other than the beak. I am worried that she won't be able to eat. Will it grow back?

The beak may not grow back but she should be able to eat. It might be easier for her to eat from a trough or dish as opposed to the chicken feeders with the peck holes.
Years ago we got several point of lay pullets froom a nearby hatchery and all were debeaked. We didn't realized this until after we got them and when asked they said they sell all their older chicks like this.
About training the dog. If it is a dog who wants to please you, perhaps you can although I would never find such a dog trustworthy, ever. Unfortunately some dogs are just hard wired for something and no amount of training will be effective and you need to keep them separated forever.

 

[Alice EG]

I have a hen who lost the top of her beak to an owl attack. It's entirely gone, and never grew back. She learned to 'scoop' the feed with her bottom beak, it helps to make sure the food dish is a bit higher up off the ground/floor so less of it falls out before she is able to lift her head to gulp. I do sometimes soak the feed a bit or mix it with rice or oatmeal to make it easier to pick up if I feel like she's not getting enough, but most of the time she doesn't need it.

 

[chicknmania]

If you have canned pumpkin you could mix it with crumble poultry feed and I bet she could pick that up easily, plus she'd get some necessary nutrients that way too.
I don't know about the beak growing back...but I do know that we had a rooster who had a piece of his top beak broken off..probably a half inch. It did grow back,
but obviously sometimes the beak doesn't. Nice to read about other people's success stories with that though.

With the dogs, obviously it depends on the individual if you ever trust it enough, or not. Lots of dogs do learn. You just have to play with that idea and see how it goes.
I would wait a long time with a dog that kills chickens before I would trust it, though..as we did with ours.

 

[chicknmania]

Also, our chickens love chopped grapes, banana, bread crumbs soaked in buttermilk, crumbled hard boiled egg, applesauce mixed with crumbles.
Just some other ideas, in case you need them. Take it easy on too much fruit though, as they can get diarrhea from it. Oh, and chopped tomato!

By "bright" I just mean her eyes look clear and bright, she looks happy and healthy. Doesn't look like she's suffering at all. She has good color in her comb and wattles. All good signs.

 

[blackandtan]

I also had some poorly debeaked ones and would never get POLs again because of that. Please dont use a shock collar on the dog though! Too many folks misuse those and they're so cruel (did you ever try one on you!?!) I trained both my dogs - and our bird/mouse killing cat not to touch chickens and it was easy. Use a good collar, a flat collar is fine, and gather a few calm hens together with food (I used strawberries). Hold the dog/cat tight and flip him over, talk calmly to him-and the chickens. Get the chicks as close a possible, it works best if you can get them to eat near the animals head, or even walk on them. The dog/cat will struggle and may make noise but don't pay attention - you are not hurting him but you are telling him in animal language that the chickens are empowered over him and after a few minutes you'll feel him relax...the chickens have won! I guarantee you'll never have a problem...my dogs are great with all the birds and the cat wants NOTHING to do with them, even having little chicks running around him is no problem.