My dog attacked one of my girls last night......and I could have prevented it......please learn from my mistake I was really busy last evening. Hubby was out and I had both kids running between my house and the neighbors playing with their children. Plus the 11 (3 day old) chicks that I was cleaning their brooder. My son ran into the house and said two of my adult girls got out of the run. I ran outside, rounded them back into the coop, and found the hole that was dug under the fence. It was here that I should have stopped what I was doing and repaired that spot myself. But instead, I decided to wait for hubby to come home so he could do it properly and went to finish up the brooder. About an hour later I called the kids in for their bath/bed and my let my GSD out in the backyard. As I turned to shut the door I glanced out the window and saw him standing over my Rhode Island Red girl! That fast, he had her! (And this is a dog who I have worked with religiously with "leaving" the chickens.) I thought for sure I was walking up to a dead chicken......but miraculously she was alive! I scooped her up and ran back into the house with her and quickly set up an infirmary in my bathtub. After close inspection she had only 3 small punctures. 2 on her side and one on her back. She was a little shocky but otherwise ok. I droppered some sugar water every half hour for 2 hours and let her rest. Then I flushed the wounds with a 50/50 mixture of hydrogen peroxide and warm water and packed with neosporin without pain relief. I currently have her in a dog crate in the house and she is eating/drinking/pooping normally. I even got a bawk bawk from her this morning. Only time will tell....but I think she will heal. Well, I hope she will. Lesson learned: Even with a dog who is well trained, an accident can happen. Make sure your coop/run is secure. If you see a weak point fix it immediately. And always remember, even your own dog is a potential predator (although my boy was heartsick last night, I think because he saw how upset I was). Don't let your guard down.
The good thing is that chickens are remarkable healers and it sounds like your girl's injuries, fortunately, aren't too serious. Thanks for the advice from your experience. I, too, learned the hard way. I put off fixing a loose board in the fence around their run to the weekend and a stray dog got into my run and killed four of my girls. It's tough to learn lessons this way.
I had my chickens freeranging yesterday and a stray dog ran up into our yard. At first I thought she was going back to see our other dog who is in a dog run but nooooo she wanted to chase the chickens. Our chickens are dumb they won't run from a dog because both our dogs are nice to them. So they just go walking up to this strange dog and it barks at them trying to get them to run so it could chase them. My dh chased the dog off and it ran about an acre down our driveway to the street. About 15 min later it snuck back around through the woods into the back of the property and started stalking the chickens again. This time dh threw some rocks at it. Luckily it started pouring rain right about then and it took off and didn't come back. I am keeping the chickens locked up today grrrr.
We want very much to get another dog after ours passed away a few years ago. But when I hear stories like this, I'm hesitant. Sounds like your hen will survive. I'm happy for you. Best of luck!
