Hen attacked by dog, open wound help

[sunflour]

With cleansing of the wound and later the saddle, I honestly doubt maggots will be an issue.

 

[Tenrec]

Agreed. Once that wound closes up and gets some thick dry scab or skin on it, she's pretty much in the clear. Maggots like soft stuff that's hard for the bird to get at to clean herself.

Just make sure it's staying clean and not irritated. You've done very well by her!

 

[sunetc]

Just wanted to update our Easter Egger Sunshine.. she's become our beloved hen after all the TLC and checks and attention.. we are five weeks post dog attack and she's healed up great. Feathers are growing in nicely and she's moving as though the attack never happened. She's wearing a shirt because the other girls pick on her and opened the wound once when I took it off too early took a look at it today (pics) but she's not quite ready to have the shirt off. Hopefully in a couple weeks.

Thanks for all the help and support while helping Sunshine recover. Don't know what I would have done without the BYC forums!

 

[sunflour]

So glad Sunshine is healing up. You are a great chicken mom

 

[Tenrec]

Haha yeah, fixing them up does that for you and them.

That wound is looking GREAT. You've both done an excellent job, congratulations. Also, now that she's all dressed up, I can see that you have a really pretty little hen there.

 

[chickendreams24]

She's beautiful! How's she doing?

We had one EE that looked like that, we lost to a rat attack- yes I said that, this summer. Her name was Belle amazingly of 5 more EE we bought this last March 4 of them are various little Belle look alikes.
Has Sunshine begun laying yet? I'd love to know what color she lays. If not don't fret. Idk if anyone told you this but due to her severe injuries she may take longer to lay. She had a lot of recovering to do after all.

 

[sunetc]

She's beautiful! How's she doing?

We had one EE that looked like that, we lost to a rat attack- yes I said that, this summer. Her name was Belle amazingly of 5 more EE we bought this last March 4 of them are various little Belle look alikes.
Has Sunshine begun laying yet? I'd love to know what color she lays. If not don't fret. Idk if anyone told you this but due to her severe injuries she may take longer to lay. She had a lot of recovering to do after all.

She has only started to lay last week or the week before. Her first egg was a tiny blue, the second even smaller, the third slightly misshapen, and from there normal and gradually getting larger. Allher feathers have grown back in though may not be fully in yet. She holds her tail down and has more of a waddle than the others so I suspect there's some scarring or damage I'm not able to see but other than that she's in great condition. Her face has turned a lovely bright red and her comb just barely puffed up she's our quietest hen, never testing the others. We all are fond of little Sunshine.

Sorry to hear that Belle was lost to a rat snake! It's not easy losing such sweet birds.

Attached a couple egg pictures... Hers are the two blue with the brown RIR for comparison. Then our other EEs larger egg with her smallest

 

[chickendreams24]

Thank you. Yes it was extremely hard bc the rat didn't kill her we had to end her suffering. It was terrible.

Oddly enough our Belle layed almost the same color egg. I've heard of a couple of other EE with this color and patterning they seem to be a little rarer I think. I wonder if they're more likely to lay blue.

Did Sunshine come from Cackle hatchery by any chance?

 

[chickenmommymim]

Just wanted to update our Easter Egger Sunshine.. she's become our beloved hen after all the TLC and checks and attention.. we are five weeks post dog attack and she's healed up great. Feathers are growing in nicely and she's moving as though the attack never happened. She's wearing a shirt because the other girls pick on her and opened the wound once when I took it off too early took a look at it today (pics) but she's not quite ready to have the shirt off. Hopefully in a couple weeks.

Thanks for all the help and support while helping Sunshine recover. Don't know what I would have done without the BYC forums!

I'm so relieved to be reading your posts here. It's making me feel like we might have a chance to save our sweet girl. Our brahma was attacked by our dog (which makes the whole situation that much worse ) yesterday and she has two smaller open cavity wounds on her back and side. We're very concerned about infection and trying to figure out how to avoid it. Here's what I've done so far:

- Moved her to a clean tub where she's staying on fresh towels
- Fed her (chicken crumble, watermelon, tomato) and she's eating great actually
- Gave her water and some pedialyte. She's drank some of both
- Dabbed the wound area with some hydrogen peroxide

I haven't done a complete "clean" or "flush" of the wound because I'm nervous about it being such an open cavity. I can see you received a good bit of guidance on how to take care of Sunshine -- would you be able to tell me what you did to clean the wound out initially and then how you handled keeping it clean and cared for thereafter? I would be SO appreciative. Thank you so much!

 

[crumpton]

Hello there, sorry to drag up an old thread, 1st time poster though been lurking since we were left with a bunch of fertile eggs in incubator last Feb. All of our birds are named, so there you go. At any rate our favorite hen Lucy was attacked this AM by a neighbors dog and the wound is nearly identical to those Sunshine suffered. I initially flushed it with sterile water and have flooded it with Vetericyn and will do so several times a day. She is quarantined in the shop in a nice 3'x6' space with food, water and fresh pine bedding.

She is moving around and lets me hold her close when dealing with the wound.

She is not eating or drinking yet that I have seen. We are still less than 7hr since the attack.

My question is, she is picking at it nearly constantly. Is it likely she is cleaning and doing her own maintenance? Its not like I can stop her but just wondering if we should be trying to prevent this?

Thanks in advance!