My Hen was injured by my dog

[mccaff mama hen]

Chicken Little (sons chicken), my White Rock Hen, was free ranging last Saturday and Stormy, one of my Collies (who has always loved the girls, but was on prednisone so I don't know if that played a role) anyway, my grabbed a hold of here and pulled out a few feathers. My DH had to get Stormy off of Chicken Little. She was kinda in Shock since on many days they have laid in the yard or bushes together. I picked her up and gave her a quick look over and didn't see any blood and put her back in the coop/run. She spend a lot of time in the coop the next day, but it was getting really cold and snowing again. She was still eating and drinking. I would try to look at her closely when she was out in the run and when I would hand feed her some scratch, she seemed good.

Well today, I went out and decided to let them out for a while since they seemed tired of being locked up even with the snow on the ground. I started to hold Chicken Little to stroke her back and noticed inside her wing was kind of wet, so I pulled her wing out a little and noticed she had been hurt. Up under the wing joint area was terrible blue green bruising under the surface and right where the wing folds her skin had been torn and smells like it's infected. I feel just awful. She's so sweet, my son will be devastated if we were to lose her. Is there anything I can do or need to look for? I don't know what to clean her with or keep the area dry to it could heal? She doesn't appear to be in much pain and her disposition is the same too. Also we only have 2 chickens, do I need to worry about the other one if nothing happened to her?

Thank you for any help or suggestions.

 

[horsejody]

It doesn't sound like she is suffering from shock since she is eating normally. If there re any breaks in the skin, keep it clean and put neosporin on it. As for the bruising, I don't know. I would watch her closely for now.

 

[teach1rusl]

I agree that if she's eating and drinking well, she'll probably be fine. If you were grabbed really hard, you'd suffer some bruising too. As horsejody already said, be sure to look for punctures. I'd just keep an eye on her for a few days...

 

[mccaff mama hen]

Thank you so much. What would you suggest I clean it with since it's so cold here I can't imagine getting her wet with water would be good. Could I apply peroxide with a cotton ball to clean it first or would something else be better.

 

[chickerdoodle]

It would be good to try to clean the are with saline or warm (not hot) water if its all you have. It is important to not get her chilled so may have to be sure its dry before you let her back out. You hopefully can get a better look at it once its wet and cleaned off. Neosporin is a good to put on the wound. If it is a deep wound then it needs to heal from the inside out and should be cleaned a few times a day (don't forget to prevent chilling). Bruising should heal by itself in time and since she is eating and acting normal it most likely will. Infection on the other hand gets worse with time so keep up the neosporin. You may have to use systemic antibiotics if she gets worse.

 

[jjthink]

As above.

That you smelled an infection means she is probably hurting and at risk. Another recipe for cleansing before neosporin is 9 parts water to one part betadine. Use the neosporin WITHOUT pain relief ingredient. For pain you can crush 1 baby aspirin per cup of drinking water, fresh batch no less than daily.

I would now not trust the dog with your birds.

JJ

 

[horsejody]

Don't use peroxide. It dries the tissue and causes more tissue to die.