I'm so sad and so mad...

[addicted2chicks]

I have been working with our dogs to know that the chickens are off limits. They have been doing pretty good and leaving the chicks alone. I started to let the chicks free range a bit during the day and they have been staying by the coop.
Today I let the dogs outside which we have 3 and then we were leaving for dinner so I let the dogs in. We went to walk out to the car and right by the drivers door was a "dead" chicken. I of course screamed, the kids thought I must of seen a spider. I said no, it is a chicken. They came over to me and I started to walk towards the coop to check on the other chickens. My 8 year old yelled out to me that she wasn't dead. I ran back and her eyes were blinking. DH picked her up and said she might make it because she grabbed his finger with his foot. So he set her back on the ground and she fell over. I picked her up and she grabbed my finger but only with one foot. Her neck was missing a nice chunk and I assume she was paralyzed. Didn't know what else to make of it. I looked her in the eyes as she was still blinking and told her I am sorry. I looked at DH and said please put her out of her misery. He did.
I think we know which dog it was but we are not 100% positive. We think it is the smallest of our dogs, our cockapoo. He is a little devil, a cute one but still a devil. Plus in the winter we had a deer die somewhere on our property and he would bring me deer parts and leave it by my car door. So I think he did the same with the chicken.
All I keep thinking about is that poor girl and her laying there unable to move helpless. Then her looking and blinking at me. I keep reminding myself she was a chicken but she was MY chicken and shouldn't of had to suffer like that.

My poor son, our 8 yr old. The suspected dog is his dog and he feels so bad and he has been so worried about the chickens while they free range and have been trying to get him to understand that is what chickens do. So for all his worrying and now his dog did this.
Argg... bad night.

 

[MysticScorpio82]

I am so sorry to hear about your loss

Is there a way to keep your dog seprate from the chickens, like a pen or a collar and chain?

 

[addicted2chicks]

We bought a dog kennel yesterday so they will have to be in there when they go out now if the chickens are out of their pen. We just hadn't put it together yet and honestly when I let the dogs out tonight it didn't even cross my mind that they would bother the chickens. Dog kennel will be up tomorrow.

 

[columbiacritter]

Even the most trustworthy dogs should not be trusted. They are dogs and they are hunting animals even the highly bred Lhasas and nonsense. I trust my greyhounds to be good with the birds, but I know the wrong move at the wrong time could set off a dog to snap at a bird. One snap is all it takes.

Honestly the birds have dang near deserved a snap a couple times when they've pecked a hound peacefully sleeping in the sun or tried to steal a bite of a dogs snack.

 

[wanda047]

Oh.. I am so sorry.

My boxer follows me into the chicken run occasionally and never bothers the chickens, but I wouldn't trust him for two seconds alone with one.

I'm glad you got a dog kennel. You'll feel better knowing your chickens are safe from the dogs. Try to comfort your son. How horrid he must feel.

 

[waibel zoo]

It happens.(I know) Now you know who to watch around the birds. I am so sorry. It is more difficult when the predator is a pet. You feel conflicted. And it's not just a chicken (though my husband would say it is), it's your pet, your time, your money, and your emotions. Don't belittle your feelings.

 

[cochinbantam-lover]

That is so terrible, I'm so sorry!

Poor little hen!

 

[crtrlovr]

Quote:
SO true.

 

[LilDucky85]

Thats so sad. I had this type of dog too growing up and it ate my turtle. It ate the entire shell of its back and the turtle actually lived through it. Inside the shell you could see the heart, intestines, and other organs. As it would walk it would sway back and forth in side the shell. You could see the heart beating and everything. I can still see it as if it was yesterday even 19 years later. The turtle lived a few days like this then ended up dying.

Im sorry to hear about your loss.

 

[AkTomboy]

I am sorry for your loss and if you want to kennel that is one great way to do it. And I do that with the dogs I work with for other people. But I prefer to have my dogs I have Pyrs, G.R. and a B.H. and my G.R. is a working one know that they are not to touch them at all. The Pyrs are with mine full time and one even slept in the coop till she got to big. You can only correct when you know who did it though. Again sorry for your loss its never a fun day to deal with such a sad thing.