My sweet Leghorn attacked badly

[ShellyLynnW]

Hello community, I'm writing this with such a heavy heart. We came home last night from picking up my daughter, to find feathers all over, we found another huge pile elsewhere. After searching, my neighbor came & told us he found our sweet girl in his dogs mouth. He put colloidal silver on a rag, and fed her a little sugar water. I finally got her home, and she's as he set her up, on hay, covered in a rag with silver on it, covered in more hay, b/c of the massive feather loss. I'm terrified to hurt her, I meant to be up most of the night w/her, but my pregnant body had different ideas. She seems to be breathing slowly, & hasn't moved. Should I be lifting her head to a cap of water to drink? Sugar water? Or should I use the vitamins, electrolytes pack I have, or something else? Should I take her and wrap her up? With gauze under the wrap? I'm sorry, I've just lost too many girls, (6) to neighbor dogs. My flocks at 14, including 2 bantam roosters, but more chicks on the way. Also, I'm desperately trying to find a Maremma. I was given the name of a fantastic breeder last year on this very site after losing my sweet Silkie Lucy , and I'm working on saving money to one day buy from this kind man, but I cannot afford the price he's asking at this time, and would love to have more peace of mind! We have a Great Dane (last night's offender), 3 golden retrievers, 2 labs (who took the 6), +more dogs that aren't well kept restrained in the area! Plus another blood thirsty dog who's been taking anything he can get from neighbors! We unwittingly, but thankfully stopped an attack on our neighbors beautiful Peafowl & female turkey just the other day. Sorry for rambling, I'm just feeling overwhelmed by fear, it's my duty to protect these precious animals! And I'm praying my current flock does not lose a sweet member.... Also, should my girl pull through, is there something I can do to help her not be uncomfortable with feather loss?? Will she need extra covering???

 

[staceyj]

I’m sorry for your trauma and for your poor girl as well. She is most certainly in shock.

Keep her quiet in a dim place and yes try to get her to drink, electrolytes would be great. Eating too may come back faster with something yummy, like scrambled or hard boiled eggs.

The open wounds should be cleaned outburst thing this morning very well with soap and water to prevent infection from festering due to contamination. Pat dry afterwards and evaluate the whole body for injuries.

You can use what you choose to cover them (triple antibiotic ointment without pain reliever would be my first choice , but many swear by Manuka honey, silver cream, veterycin spray gel etc ) in the hopes that they heal.
Chickens do heal from massive injuries so don’t lose heart.

Since you stated that you’re pregnant , if you don’t know the vaccination status of the dogs, I’d wear gloves and be especially careful.

Dogs are prey driven animals, especially in packs.
Hopefully you’ll get good suggestions on how to protect your flock in the future.

 

[Howard E]

This.......this changes everything.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/dogs-and-electric-fences.1210854/

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

I am soooo sorry to hear about your situation. Do you free range your flock???? I also have bird dogs and because of that, I am unable to free range. My neighbors have chickens too, which free range. We have invisible fence for my dogs to prevent them from leaving the property, or worse, killing my neighbor’s chickens. Bird dogs + free ranged chickens = disaster!!!!

 

[staceyj]

Keep her warm but not wrapped up.

 

[Christina.Rich]

So sorry to hear about your horrible situation. I went through something relatable 2 Sundays ago. I went inside to do some laundry around 6pm and a fox wrecked havoc on my free ranging birds. Took 8 of them, and injured two badly. I currently have one of my Australorp hens in a dog crate inside....still. Took her to the vet that day and they treated her for a dislocated hip and everything. She's getting better, but it hurts to see your babies in pain.

I can say from my experience, keeping her in a small crate or cage of sorts and giving her minimal room to move helps. My vet also prescribed Carprofen for her pain and discomfort, which I can tell has been helping. I'm not sure if you have a local avian vet near you, but maybe just by calling and telling them what happened-they would spare you the expensive vet visit and write a script for it. Some vets understand that its a livestock animal and that dropping hundreds of dollars just isn't an option. You would just have to give a weight and they might give you the proper dosage. They gave it to me in pill form, which she has no problem eating.

If the above is not an option, I would recommend dissolving one Advil pill in her drinking water.

 

[Duckstail]

If it was a great danr that attacks your hen it's not going to be too hard to restrain such a big dog. They're really not that agile a 5 foot fence probably be more than enough to keep those dogs away!

And any dog could be a livestock guard dog it just depends how you train them.. my dog was bred to kill bulls but it does a pretty good job protecting/ playing with my flock!

 

[llombardo]

A responsible dog owner will not allow their dog to roam. It's very disrespectful to the neighbors and very dangerous for other animals and the roaming dog. I have 7 dogs, they are not even allowed off leash in my front yard. Most of the time I can't even bring them in front because the neighbor down the road lets his doberman roam. Now this particular dog is rock solid, really doesn't bother anyone, but my own dogs would not be happy with him coming on to the property. It kind of stinks that I can't bring my dogs out there, even for walks, but I'm not breaking up a fight between a german shepherd and doberman.

 

[ShellyLynnW]

Yes, we do free-range, & I know that's why we lost the 6 last year. It's basically a disagreement with my husband, that I didn't win. I am selling things, & saving money for a fence and for an LGD. This year this is the first attack. I may make some eyes roll, but I'm a Christian, and the only thing, short of standing outside many times a day with them, is to pray! It may sound silly, and predators are predators, but I have been extremely blessed so far! My neighbors have lost many to Hawks, & as of yet, & prayerfully never, had that problem, and another dog had hit two very local farms hard, and this is our first attack. I was able to speak with the owner of the dog, & he's a good man and I know he'll be watching his dogs, but I'll just feel so much better when we're fenced in, with an LGD! I don't know if this is also silly, but since we have gotten goats, it actually seems that we see less predators? *Update on my girl* I checked on her, and I thought she was gone, but she's just not breathing as heavy as she was last night. I'm about to try to give her some drink, food if she'll eat, and start to redress her wounds! Should I keep her wrapped in a blanket??

 

[ShellyLynnW]

And thank you EVERYONE, for your kind words and great advice! Wonderful article on fencing, and gives me new ideas!