Injured chick

[Orcaj2]

Hello all. You probably have read my last posts, two of my chicks were killed today, still needing a safe home for the sole survivor, but in the mean time can I treat her injury with neosporin?

 

[drumstick diva]

Yes, you can if it is the kind without any pain relief. YOu may want to post on the "emergencies, diseases, injuries, cures." thread to see if any other treatment is necessary. Is she eating, drinking and pooping okay? What kind of wound is it? Punctures would probably require different care.

Chickens usually have great recuperative powers and survive some horrendous wounds. Keep her warm enough and in a quiet location, somewhat darkened so she won't be stressed and Definitely away from dogs.

 

[Orcaj2]

Her injury appears to be an injury of pulled feathers? It doesn't look like a puncture, but she's pecking at it herself. We have not observed her eating but I think she's drinking a little, she's just sitting and making a different noise than usual , it's not the purring they were all doing earlier this morning, it's just a very sad sound actually.

 

[TwoCrows]

Welcome to BYC!

How is the little chick this morning? If this is a puncture wound, you might want to start her on some antibiotics in the water to help prevent internal infection. But yes, you can use neosporin (without the pain killer) on any wounds. If she just lost feathers, then she is probably just stressed. Keep her quiet and warm.

I hope you can get her back to health soon.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC! Sorry the little girl is having problems, hope she is better this morning, you've gotten some good advice above about helping her. Chicks do have a wide range of sounds, and she is probably stressed and not happy and insecure that she is alone... if she doesn't want to eat, often if you wet the chick feed with warm water into a kind of mash they like that a whole lot better.

 

[gander007]

Yes she sound a little depressed pore thing ....

 

[Orcaj2]

To all who responded, our little girl is doing better, she's eating and drinking and we have decided to keep her and get her a couple of friends and try this again, we are not into bringing mayhem or worse onto any animal ad if not for one oversight of a door latching or not latching is heartbreakingly sad that was al it took, but in thier memory we thought it best that we keep going and try to be successful at raising chickens. And not give up and be Fort Knox about their safety. I don't know how we will keep the dogs from being so OCD on the babies but we were thinking about putiing up solid wood fencing and tarp the chain king fencing and gate so that they can not see into the fenced area around the coop? Will this make much difference? Has anyone had this same issue with thier dogs and did they ever just lose interest?

 

[TwoCrows]

So glad to hear the little chick is doing better! There are threads here on BYC about how to train dogs to behave around chickens. Not all dogs respond to these techniques, but some of them do....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/829562/training-teaching-a-dog-about-chickens

How ever, most of the members here that do have dogs that do not get along with their chickens, keep their birds in runs at all times or the dog on a leash or penned. Many times with dogs, you can't have both loose dogs and loose chickens. Unfortunately most dogs see chickens as dinner. Even my little tiny Maltese sees my larger than him chickens as something he would like to eat!

Good luck and I hope you can make something work. Both dogs and chickens are enjoyable to keep, but sometimes you have to make some changes to keep the peace.

I hope the little chick continues to heal.

 

[Orcaj2]

Thank you, I believe she will be ok. We picked her up some friends . She's not real fond of them yet but we shall see if she warms up to them. Our plan for the chicks is once they go outside into their coop they will be on lock down and not allowed out of their coop unless the dogs are locked up. However that's not it, there will be a large area that will be fenced with 6 foot solid wood panels, on both sides of the area, and the chain link and gate in front will be covered with a privacy tarp or something. Our goal is to hide them so that the dogs don't see them and if the dogs get close the barrier fence it will be quite a ways from the coop. Under the fence in the entire perimeter will be rebar or horse fence sections that will be buried about a foot down. If digging begins they will hit the rebar and/or fencing. My hope is that out of sight out of mind, or at least maybe the pups will get bored and lose interest if they don't see them?... We will do what it takes for their safety, my dogs are 11 years old, never been around chickens and I don't blame them for what happened, but I knew if they were ever together that this would happen. We feel really bad about the other girls, I wish it never happened, especially that one of them was a rescue... But now I am overprotective and attached to my injured girl and going the extra mile to protect them and stop yelling at my dogs who don't understand why we are upset. I hope the fencing ideas work and the dogs lose interest and get back to chasing the cats around! Let me know if anyone has any ideas or thoughts about the fence idea please,
Thank you for your concern

 

[Kelsie2290]

Sorry about the girls you lost, it is hard to lose a pet at anytime. Glad the little one is doing better, glad you found some friends for her. She should warm up to them given time, chickens are funny that way, they are flock animals and want other chickens but when you bring a new one in they are appalled at first and turn into mean girls. Are the new ones about the same age?
Ya, the dogs don't understand what they did is wrong. Do take a look at that link TwoCrows gave you, even though your dogs are older and you probably won't ever be able to trust them with chickens, some training to behave with the chickens when you are there may help sometime in the future if somebody is outside and the dogs/chickens get loose.
With some separation like that, dogs do get used to the chickens in pens and start to pretty much ignore them when they figure out they can't get to them. Especially if you work with them around the chickens, lots of basic obedience training. Burying wire etc works well, if you use electric fence is also a really good dog/predator deterrent.