My hen injured, when should I give antibiotics?

chickenbaby

In the Brooder
11 Years
Jun 10, 2008
22
0
22
Tooele, Utah
The neighbor daschund always stalks our coop (stupid dog will have a limp next time I see it near the coop). This time our kids didnt completely pull the door until it latched and the dog got in and reeked havoc. Sadly the dog killed 6 chickens and 2 ducks. Another duck, chicken and turkey each have wounds on their back from pulled out feathers and small bites or scratches. They are doing very well. One of my hens was skinned on her rear area. I washed the wound and put on neosporin, I am trying to keep it clean. I have Penicillin G Benzathine and Penicillin G Procaine (all together in na bottle) and I am told 1cc is the correct dose. Is this the correct antibiotic and when should I admister it, if at all? I am really worried about my hen. She is eating and drinking and relatively active (her bum hurts of course so she doesnt sit). I have lost so many hens and only have 2 left now and really want these guys to stick around. PLease help me!!!!!!!!!!
 
I don't know for sure, but when my hen was injured last year, the local vet gave her a shot of antibiotics. I'm in Utah as well!! Also I call animal control every time I see my neighbors dog in my yard. I tried for 2 years to talk with them but they never listened. Now I send out animal control. The dogs recently discovered my chickens so I don't take any chances.
 
Thanks, I am really frustrated with that dog, he sits at our house all day long barking at everyone that comes to our house. An animal control friend said to catch the dog and drop him off at the shelter next time he hangs around the coop. Luckily the neighbors feel bad and we have not seen that dog since the slaughter. Hopefully my hen heels well, the blogs I read seem to say they are hardy little buggers!
 
As long as your hen is eating/drinking and moving about, I would not worry. Chickens are very hardy "critters" - she should however be seperated from other chickens until her wounds are completely healed - chickens have a propensity to peck at other birds displaying any blood on their body. Penicillin is good for respiratory infections but not external wounds. I was formerly a hatchery manager and responsible for growing 30,000 pullets at a time - have seen many such injuries all of which healed in short order!
 
I hope your remaining birds will fair okay. You are doing good things for the injuries and good advice has been given above.

There are dogs in my neighborhood that get out and as such I am the one to close the run gate and coop and also check each several times in case I didn't quite latch something right - becoming OCD about it actually! I've long had nightmares of something similar happening and don't want to take any chances. It's a shame that the universe punishes for truly innocent mistakes but unfortunately it would seem to be merciless at times.

As to the dog, please present a hefty bill to the dog's humans. There are other threads on how to best compile a bill. It's so important to do this so irresponsible folks with dogs begin to learn there are consequences for their behavior.

So sorry all this happened.
JJ
 
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