Help!! Neighbors dog attacked my chickens!

[FunClucks]

View attachment 3492815View attachment 3492816This is the setup I have for her for the moment…I am going to lay a blanket over it for her so she feels more secure. I did the best I could with the splinting without having another set of hands to help. I thoroughly cleaned the wound with some numbing wound cleansing spray and some cotton pads and then rubbed some prescription strength lidocaine cream on her entire leg. I wrapped a cotton pad around her leg to help with comfort with the splints…which I also wrapped in electrical tape so there were no sharp edges to poke her and then wrapped the whole thing in breathable medical tape.

I've heard that lidocaine is toxic to chickens. Any "caine" drugs. But you can look it up for yourself to verify. The MERCK veterinary manual is a good resource on everything chicken, but can be hard to understand unless you have a vet or medical background.

https://www.merckvetmanual.com/SearchResults?query=lidocaine

If your chicken is fine now, I wouldn't worry about the lidocaine, but I've never used it on chickens myself. On here folks will recommend Original Neosporin (2x day) or Vetericyn to help clean wounds. Also you can use Hibiclens with chickens.

Looks like she has some good food and water, and beautiful grass. A blanket over top sounds like a good idea.

Consider putting some pieces of firewood or 2x4 on top of that enclosure to keep it in place a bit longer if/when the dog comes back. He would eventually get under it, but that would give you more time to respond. Would that enclosure support a dog's weight? (Long enough for you to come outside and deter it?)

 

[nina1993]

Clip their wings, it doesn't hurt them. Best of luck.
Huskys have a high prey drive, instincts and all that

Lol the real kicker is I have two pit bulls and a husky of my own and have managed to very quickly and without any traumatic experiences or injuries trained them to give the chickens their space. I will say my husky definitely was a bit more difficult than my pits and from time to time I catch her staring a little too hard for my liking lol I just stay consistent with their discipline and each day has been better than the last, but I also am very attentive whenever the dogs are out. Unfortunately I am not in control of when the neighbors dog comes out and therefore am not always aware of its presence prior to the frantic squawks!

 

[nina1993]

I've heard that lidocaine is toxic to chickens. Any "caine" drugs. But you can look it up for yourself to verify. The MERCK veterinary manual is a good resource on everything chicken, but can be hard to understand unless you have a vet or medical background.

https://www.merckvetmanual.com/SearchResults?query=lidocaine

If your chicken is fine now, I wouldn't worry about the lidocaine, but I've never used it on chickens myself. On here folks will recommend Original Neosporin (2x day) or Vetericyn to help clean wounds. Also you can use Hibiclens with chickens.

Looks like she has some good food and water, and beautiful grass. A blanket over top sounds like a good idea.

Consider putting some pieces of firewood or 2x4 on top of that enclosure to keep it in place a bit longer if/when the dog comes back. He would eventually get under it, but that would give you more time to respond. Would that enclosure support a dog's weight? (Long enough for you to come outside and deter it?)

Oh man I hope I didn’t do more harm than good! I didn’t even think about whether or not it could be harmful with it being a topical ointment it didn’t even cross my mind! I will look into it immediately and won’t apply it again! I just felt so bad for her and I could see that aside from the broken bone her skin was torn almost all the way around her little leg and I just wanted to ease her pain as best I could before I proceeded to clean and set her leg. Luckily I only let the lidocaine cream sit in there for a few minutes to numb the area and then wiped it off as I was cleaning all of the blood and dirt off of her. But the cleansing spray I used I see does have lidocaine in it also. I will definitely get some more suitable supplies for her, I was just trying to manage the situation as best as I could as quickly as I could before she further injured herself or started to get any type of infection. Thank you for the information! I already put some pieces of wood on top just to stop the wind from blowing the blanket off…it would support the weight of a dog, but she is actually in a completely different part of the yard, back behind my garage in an area you have to go through my garage to get to so there is no access for the dog or anything else to bother her.

 

[nina1993]

Sounds like you got thrown into the deep end and are trying desperately to swim. It's okay if you doggie paddle for a while.

Address the most urgent issues first, and keep at it until you get to all of them. When chickens free range, losses are expected, whether to dogs or other predators. Try not to beat yourself up over it. Sounds like you're doing the best you can in a very difficult situation without having time to adequately prepare. I hate situations like that - they can really suck!

You can put bird netting on top of runs to deter flying predators, but it won't do anything against dogs. If the dogs are jumping the fence without touching it or trying to dig under it first, electric fence wire won't be able to do much since they aren't contacting it.

ETA: electric netting might be a good choice - I haven't used it but others have had good things to say about it.

My answer to the fear of dog attacks was to put 1/2" hardware cloth over a 6 ft tall chain link dog kennel, including the top of it, and I build rafters of a sort to angle the roof. For jumping dogs, you'd need the roof to be able to support weight and the hardware cloth to be taut so they can't get their teeth or claws into it. You can cover with a tarp, or not, as desired. There are green house frames and hoop coops in the Coop and Run Building Forum on here that can show how to provide adequate protection. Hoop coops will probably be least expensive - Get a couple cattle panels, bend to a rectangular frame, cover hoops with hardware cloth. Add a 2-3 ft apron. Frame a door or 2, put a tarp on some of it, and you have a pretty predator resistant coop/run.

Their current coop is a big dog kennel like you are describing and I recently put a tin roof on it because the top was not covered at all previously… but I had decided it would be temporary until I could get their improved coop built. The current run is far too large to be able to cover the top with anything, which is another reason for the new coop construction. The new coop will have a fully enclosed and attached run. But of course all of these things take time and I also have other animals and am a full time single mom to my son! So house chores, farm chores, building and remodeling projects, yard work, shopping, cooking, emergency aid…all falls on me lol

 

[nina1993]

UPDATE : So the rest of the flock has returned from hiding…I’m still curious where they were because I seriously looked absolutely everywhere for nearly the entire day!! Anyways, it appears that one of my australorps is missing a few back feathers but otherwise seems to be alright, my rooser is a freaking tank because although he looks pretty ragged with all of his missing feathers, he seems to also be alright…and he was actually completely in the dogs mouth!! Every one else seems unharmed but I have one red hen that looks to have vent gleet. I had not noticed even slight signs of any vent issues prior to this, and am curious if this is an infected vent that just coincidentally started to show itself after the attack or if her pasty butt could be the results of an injury. I have not gotten a chance to pick her up and fully asses to see if she has a prolapsed vent or anything else going on. They literally just strolled back into the yard within the last 5 minutes. I gave them all some food and meal worms and came to grab my phone… I did notice that she is very standoffish and skiddish right now. As I said previously they don’t know me very well so they always run away to a degree but not like this. She was hesitant to even come up to the food I had put down for them. I imagine it is because she is scared after everything that happened but I’m really concerned with her vent issue and not sure where to start with that. With them not being very familiar with me it of course makes even catching them difficult, let alone giving any kind of examination or treatment and I don’t want to stress them out any more than they already are. I would also like to add that my two australorp hens have always had very small amounts of white on the tips of their butt feathers but I always just assumed their butts were so fluffy that they were a little bit of messy poppers lol should this be something to be concerned with also? Their feathers are definitely not weighed down or anything, just slightly white and they have still been laying just fine. They have been like this since I have had them so I really didn’t think much of it but this whole thing is a huge learning experience for me. I try to do as much research as I can to stay proactive and knowledgeable on all things poultry related but as I’m sure you all know, there is A LOT of information to learn and know!!

 

[Krugerrand]

I’m really concerned with her vent issue and not sure where to start with that.

It may be worth posting a new thread on that. A new subject line with more specific information may get more notice from helpful people who may overlook the continuation of the original thread.

 

[JubileeFarmer]

Oh, I’m sure the dog is hurting a bit…it actually came over once about a month ago and twice today. The first time it happened today I shot at it with a co2 pistol BB gun and I know I hit it at least twice…which I had fully believed would have been enough to deter it from coming back. Well when I saw it here again I lit it up with a fully automatic co2 rifle at 3 bbs a second and haven’t seen it since. Hopefully it has more brains than its owners and keeps its ass home from now on! Thankfully the second time it came today I was ready for it and it didn’t get ahold of any of them.

You should probably check your state and/or local ordinances to see what you are and are not allowed to do regarding nuisance dogs. There are some places where it is completely legal to shoot and kill a dog that is attacking your livestock but shooting to injure is considered animal cruelty and could get you into trouble.

 

[Tired old Rooster]

Time to send animal control over to the neighbors.

 

[MrIgmo]

Your chickens will do their best to hide any injuries they have. Especially the rooster. The main thing is to watch if they are eating or not. They are really good at pretending to eat too. The will peck around and scratch the ground but won't actually eat anything and then you'll notice them start to get lethargic and fall asleep standing up. If that's happening or they stop eating and drinking all together it's a really bad sign. My dog wanted to eat the chickens at first but now I think he would protect them if only just because any other animal in the yard would be fair game for him. He's killed a few possums but I don't think he could handle a racoon, coyote or a bobcat. Last year the skunk sprayed him and I've only seen it in the yard a couple times since then. I've never seen him as terrified as he was over that skunk encounter.
Everything wants to eat chickens and some animals will go crazy trying to get to them. Even when there's something way easier to eat like a bowl full of dog food on the neighbors back porch. I had a feral cat try one day and three of my chickens got beat up pretty good, they all had marks on their necks where it looked like it tried to kill them just like a lion or a tiger would kill a zebra or buffalo or something. But I imagine it got kicked a whole bunch and they probably all attacked it and ran it off.
I don't know if it's normal but my chickens mob anything they find and kill it if they can. They love finding snakes. They'll eat rats and mice and kill anything that gets into their food or nesting boxes. Some breeds are better than others, I hear Astrolorps are fairly good at sticking up for themselves.
If any of your chickens die you can take your neighbors to court and sue them for damages. I don't exactly what a laying hen is worth but I think somewhere around $200-300. I know that sucks to have to do but every little bit helps when you are single parent. They are literally taking food out of your kids mouth and I'm sure the judge would agree. Some people would just pay you the money and avoid the whole thing. Like I said, it's them attacking your chickens and you don't have to tolerate that.
Lidocaine is actually tolerated better by chickens than it is humans. It gets them kinda high but it won't kill them unless you inject them with a lot of it. Sprays and creams won't kill them and would have the same numbing effect as it would on you. So I hope you don't feel bad, you didn't hurt your chicken. You did good.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

Mrigmo, I think you've made some really great points! I do wonder what all predators I'd have if I didn't have dogs keeping them away. So while you do have to keep the dogs away from the chickens, there is a big benefit to them. In fact when I apolgize for my dogs randomly barking at night to my neighbors who don't have dogs, they tell me they appreciate it! They appreciate that the dog's keep bear, coyote, cougar, racoon, opossum and who knows what else from screwing around on our properties. Another good point is how much money = small claims court. Shoot one of my dog's and you'd better have $5k. Just something to think about before you pull that trigger in case I win. That said I get that all situations are different and dealing with scum neighbors just flat our sucks, you gotta do what you gotta do. I'd for sure file a complaint with my county based on leash law.