Injured hen recovery tips needed

lalaland

Crowing
11 Years
Sep 26, 2008
3,628
515
281
Pine County MN
I have a two year old hen that was attacked by a dog on Monday at dusk. She has some major gashes and puncture wounds. I've cleaned the wounds and packed them with nustock (a sulphur and tar oil salve). The dog carried her in his mouth, and i do not know if she has any internal injuries in addition to the deep wounds.

She stands, doesn't move much at all and very very slowly when she does, talks a little, and is drinking (electrolytes). She is not eating, although I was able to coax her into taking a few bites of a scrambled egg, one bite of a tiny shred of turkey yesterday. THis morning at dawn, I uncovered her cage and she drank more, but would not take egg, dry oatmeal, wet oatmeal, or yogurt. She drank plenty of water, and had a very watery poop with some solids.

I would like to tempt her to eat a little more. She is not a tame hen, although she might be by the time she has recovered.

I am considering pulling her out for a closer exam to ensure I didn't miss any wounds, but also do not want to stress her more.

Any suggestions? No sign of infection yet.
 
I would examine her completely. It may help to have 2 people. You can cover her head to calm her some.
When I have predator wounds I first flush them well with saline solution and then use betadine (organic iodine).
Campho-Phenique helps too and relieves pain. Lastly put some eye type triple antibiotic ointment in the wounds. The eye type melts at body temperature and will seep deeply into the wound.
A little baby aspirin in the water can't hurt for pain.
All of those things are available at drug stores.
Don't freak out if she doesn't eat the first couple days. Do make sure she drinks though.
 
Thank you for responding.

I pulled her out of the kennel yesterday to get a better look - I could not find more wounds. The nustock is still covering the holes and gashes, and the flesh at the side looks ok.

She moves super slow if at all, and I am hoping no internal injuries - this is the third day after the attack. She is eating a bit and drinking ok, and starting last night has had normal droppings, if very small ones.

I am trying to make sure she has easy to digest, high protein foods.

The camphor phenique, would you put that on a wound? Or just some bare skin (has plenty of that as she lost many feathers).
 
I had the same thing happen to one of my hens a couple of weeks ago. She looked dead, and was in shock when I found her. After caging her overnight, I found that she wanted to be out in the coop with the other chickens. She limped and was pretty puny for the first week, but ate better, and her feathers started growing back. She had bite marks, torn skin, and most of the feathers lost off her back, tail, and one wing. She had been laying and was getting close to her molt when it happened, and it forced her into a molt. Now, she has starting looking much better, and has regrown quite a few of the lost feathers. I only sprayed her a couple of times with Blukote, initially, and decided not to handle her much after that since she is very skittish. I hope your hen heals well and gets back to normal.
 
that is good news about your hen, eggcessive. It is encouraging too.

I wish I could put Goldie back with the flock. What keeps me from doing that is how slowly she is moving and how little she moves. She will stand in the same spot without moving for a long time. The first day she never sat down. Now she sits most of the time, in the same spot. I think the movement must be painful. One wing is dropped. I have flexed it and think there are no broken bones in it, I think it is a muscle issue related to the wound right at the shoulder.

She most likely could not get into the coop, which requires a jump of about 18 inches and clearly couldn't manage to get to a roost.

I think she would do better with the flock, and I do have a shelf cage. I am hoping to try putting her there where she can at least see and hear the flock, but will wait until she is a little more active. She doesnt have any interest in leaving the kennel - I can leave the door open.

At least she is eating and drinking on her own.
 

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