HELP!!! Two of my chickens were attacked by dogs!! PICS ADDED!!

[BarkerChickens]

Rimshoes, I completely understand where you are coming from and my DH-to-be said he wants to consider getting a 22. Our local shelter will put down "vicious" animals, which saves the agony of doing it ourselves. However, I agree that having something on hand for "in-action" moments is helpful. Luckily, we don't weasels, raccoons, possum, etc here! We have a mice problem, but they stay out of the coop and keep the dogs busy.

 

[Mom 2em All]

I am following your post closely- today while I was at work, my turken flew out of the chicken yard and into the dogs' yard. My Golden and my Pit were out.
They didnt kill her-though they easily could have.
My daughter found her missing her tail feathers, with deep gashes similar to the ones you described, and two bruises on her neck.Her rump is hard for me to look at- I feel so sorry for her. It truly looks like raw hamburger with punctures. I cleaned it with a spray wound cleaner- but I wish i knew what to use for pain medicine.
She is in my daughters bedroom, roosting on the ladder to the bunk bed. She is making little peeper sounds- and I know she is confused on why she is not in the coop.
She was my alpha-bird, and she is my favorite. She can walk, and she was pecking on the floor and eating. She waited til she was on the ladder to poop...normal.
I have bio-dressing and I could use that, but I am scared to cover the raw hamburger- perhaps I should let it drain. It is dripping, bloody fluid.
I will keep her in, keep it clean- but I am unsure how to proceed medically. My vet who could help me is out of town until the 22nd.

 

[mrs.67]

Make sure you don't use any medication with cain in it such as
lidocaine found in Solarcaine products, its very harmful to chickens.

If the birds seem to be in pain you can put a asprin in the water.

keep us updated!!

 

[BarkerChickens]

Mom 2em All,
I am so sorry!! I know how you must feel! I am FAR from a chicken expert (obviously since I posted my own questions), but given that my chickens are improving and it has a been a few days, I can only offer what we have done at home. We cleaned the wounds initially with hydrogen peroxide (you may not want to use it on deep wounds) and have since been cleaning them 1-2 times a day (depending on the wound) with betadine (iodine) and then their antibiotic water solution (aureomycin) using an irrigation syringe. On wounds that seem appropriate, we then covered with neosporin. Dogs carry a lot of bacteria in their mouth, so I would recommend going to your feed store and getting either Aureomycin or Terramycin, which are broad-spectrum antibiotics in powder form that can be added to water. In my opinion (limited knowledge in this particular area), I think it is best to give the antibiotic as a precaution in this sorta injury. Since she is isolated, give her the antibiotic water instead of regular water. Also, if she lays, don't eat the eggs until she is off the meds (four days after stopping for Aureomycin). If it is still bleeding you can try to cover it with a sterile bandage and try to keep it on with an ace bandage or something (I'd think), but I am sure someone else on this forum could help with that better. Good luck! Hopefully our chickens make it through strong!

 

[BarkerChickens]

How do I post pictures? We took some pictures of the girls (now 3-1/2 days since the incident). (Not so pretty

But they seem to be recovering well).

 

[BarkerChickens]

I finally figured it out! Here are pics of my girls. Bandit is the fuller hen with the injured tail. The feathers missing on her back are from the dogs pulling them out! Frenchie is the smaller molting one. They are both doing well (surprising given how bad they're torn up). Oh! The wounds are not wet...we remembered to take the pictures after we put neosporin on the girls. Also, pardon the reddish-yellow staining...we use Betadine (iodine), which isn't the prettiest. The pictures of me holding them were taken this evening (3.5 days since the attack). I'm not sure what to do with Bandit's tail, but stitching wasn't an option...it's thin skin and subcutaneous fat...and feather gluing...well, clearly that wasn't an option. It seems to be trying to heal on its own ok though. She just may have a thick scar. While feathers may not grow there, her back feathers will cover it fine, I'd imagine. We don't see any bone, so I am not sure if her tail is broke. I wanna say that I have seen her move it, but I can't gurarantee it. She laid an egg without screaming and poops with no problems, so hopefully that means the bone is ok.

Both the girls...

Frenchie's big wound

Bandit's battle wounds

 

[Cetawin]

Oh thanks goodness they are doing so well. Just keep em clean and keep the neosporin on it. You were giving them anibiotics also correct? If not, get them on a good one and they should be fine.

Did you find the owners of the two tiny terrors? If you did I missed that post.


Edit: you mentioned one had a flap type wound...you could try a butterfly bandage or two to pull the skin together. Just clean it and flush it really well then butterfly bandage it... Just an afterthought.

The humane society could rehome the little snots...there are three that our local one has that are tagged "has killed cats and chickens" so they do not always put those animals down.

 

[BarkerChickens]

Oh thanks goodness they are doing so well. Just keep em clean and keep the neosporin on it. You were giving them anibiotics also correct? If not, get them on a good one and they should be fine.

Did you find the owners of the two tiny terrors? If you did I missed that post.

They have been on Aureomycin sine the very first day. I started out with the higher end of the recommended dose (since dog bites are nasty) and am now starting to dilute it a little bit. I don't want to cause a fungal problem. Frenchie is having normal poops with the occasional greenish one (I'm guessing form not eating enough), but I attribute that to the molting since it started before the attack. She sure loves her eggs and rice though! Other than that...I figure if they have made it this far (nearly 4 days), then they will be ok. (at least I am telling myself that). How long should I keep them on the antibiotic? We intend to keep doing the cleaning/neosporin routine until they looked healed.

We never did find the owners. I think they are strays. One ran off before we could catch it, the other went to a neighbor who was still looking for the owner last we heard.​

 

[mrs.67]

It looks like she is healing really good.

Maybe you could give some poly-visol vitamins ( no iron) 3 drops in the beak.

Your a great chickie mom , I am sure she will be fine .

 

[purr]

they look like their getting all the tlc they need.
About the dogs you could call a Min Pin Rescue.That would probably put them far away from your property.