Large dog bite on hen's back - lots of exposed muscle

[10-hens-in-Vermont]

I'm new to this forum and come here for some help! Our neighbor's dog got a big piece of chicken tonight. We are keeping her calm, and have irrigated the wound with saline as best we could. She doesn't seem terribly distressed. Thought about a visit to the doc, but the estimate is upwards of $600!!! So, can we treat her ourselves? What should we do? Is it more humane to put the chicken down? THANKS for your help!

 

[emys]

Chickens are pretty resilient when it comes to wound recovery. Don't give up on her yet.

Keep her in a quiet spot by herself. Use Neosporin without the pain killer to keep it moist and keep infection out, and wrap her in clean bandages, use a wrap all the way around her body to keep the bandage on. Change her bandages regularly.

Give her some vitamin/ electrolyte powder in her water and feed her some good high protein food (scrambled eggs are good)

 

[Gallusfarm]

Quote:
I agree with all above. We had a girl with a huge chunk of flesh removed from where the wing meets the back (from a dog) and did what was stated above and she came out just fine. We went to the dollar store and got a baby's shirt and put it on her for a bandage.

Good luck!!!!!

 

[CMV]

First, trim all the feathers around the wound so they are not constantly getting gummed up in the mess and contaminating your site. Clean the wound out ONCE with peroxide to kill any dog mouth germs. I like to use betadine tea (one part betadine and 10 parts water) for the initial cleanse and then any subsequent cleanings I use either the tea or normal saline depending on how the wound looks. Cleaning the wound thoroughly is very important. Cover the wound in some kind of wound dressing-Neosporin (works well, but is very wet, so may not be appropriate for large wounds), Blukote (great stuff, but burns going on and can be too drying) or Bag Balm (works about the same as Neosporin but is thicker). I would not recommend bandaging the wound unless you have Vet Wrap/Coban on hand to attach the bandages otherwise they will not stay put and the bird will be constantly picking at them and the wounded area. Keep the bird warm, dry and away from her coopmates until she's healed or nearly healed. She's going to need lots of protein to repair the damage- scrambled eggs, yogurt, BOSS and cat food in limited quantities. Monitor for signs of infection- redness, swelling, increase in temp, increase in oozing from the wound and stinky smell. I don't use antibiotics unless I see overt signs of infection, but some folks would use them prophylactically after an attack like this.

She can heal from this. Chickens are amazingly resilient. Good luck. Keep us posted on how she's doing.

 

[10-hens-in-Vermont]

Thank you all for the advice. We did clean and treat the wound. She was quiet during the night. This morning she seemed distressed, kind of breathing hard and chirping like a cry. My husband brought her to the vet and he put her down.

He said that she was very hurt and it would be hard for her to recover.

 

[Gallusfarm]

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that...

 

[CMV]

Sometimes it's better that they don't survive wounds like this. It takes months of isolation to get them better and that is the worst form of torture for a flock animal. So sorry for your loss.