neighbors' dogs attacked my chickens

cocoloco

Songster
5 Years
May 31, 2016
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Last Friday 2 loose dogs (11 month old puppies) came bounding into my yard and started terrorizing my free-range chickens. My husband tried to grab one, while I tried to grab the other - by the time we chased them off, I had 2 injured chickens. One was lightly bitten on the butt - we quickly treated her, she is fine. Our rescue chicken Dusty had 6 wounds on her back and butt. My vet was booked - so I had to bring her to an emergency clinic (lucky me - they charge twice what my vet charges.) Xrays showed no broken bones and clear lungs but the vet said she still felt she would die because she had labored, wet breathing and she suspected internal bleeding. I said "clean her up and give me antibiotics - I will take her home to die with her peeps!" We kept her inside with us in a large dog cage. She survived the first night - making raspy breathing noises. The next day she seemed better and started to eat. On the 3rd day, I put her in a pen next to the flock and she jumped up and started scratching and acting normal in every way. 5 hours later, she was acting tired and sick again. We brought her back in. 2 days later, she is still alive - eating pellets, hamburg, boiled eggs. I have not seen her drink water at all - so I have been giving her A LOT of watermelon to keep her from getting dehydrated. She will be fine for hours - then will close her eyes and look sick. I brought her out to the flock today - she hung with them for 15 min - then walked back into our house and into her cage! She was breathing heavy again - but it is over 80 degrees out. She was fine within minutes of coming into the AC - then she followed me all over the house. The ER vet recommended I follow up with a visit to my vet but her darn bill was $350! It will cost me another $100 to take her for a follow-up with my vet. What else should I be looking for - if she is bleeding internally? My chicken is on Bactrim - 480mg - I give her 1/4 tablet every 12 hours. I have been shooting B12 liquid into the watermelon slice to boost her energy. I kept her wounds cleaned - then sprayed them with bluekote before putting her out to keep flys away and others from pecking her. BTW, her poop is normal. This girl went through hell BEFORE she came to live with us - I really want to save her. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
It sounds like you are doing a good job. You might want to up her protein intake to help her heal. Bugs are great, and boiled mashed egg is pretty easy and they love it. Good luck with her.
 
Thank you for your response. I have been feeding her bland cooked hamburger, leftover turkey, - she actually turned her nose up at the egg - wouldn't touch it! Hopefully, slowly, she will overcome this. When we got her from an overcrowded farm, all her rump feathers were missing - they were just filling in when this attack happened. She's smaller than the others - destined to be on the bottom of the pecking order but she's really lovable. Today, I caught her pecking her biggest wound - it must be pulling as it heals/closes up. I just put some non-lidocaine antibiotic ointment on it. I have been crushing and mixing the antibiotic in with her food - but she won't eat anything with the pain med in it - she spits it out - so I haven't given her any. I might try a baby aspirin.
 
Where is her biggest wound? Maybe a chicken apron would help. If you put the medication in a syringe or dropper and hold her head upward, you should be able to dribble it in. She should then swallow it.
 
You are wonderful! Your care is so good. I think she should be out of the woods. Time is necessary.. Waiting to see progress is hard. sending her love.
 
I have several syringe droppers I have tried to use - she will not stay still. My husband will attempt to hold her neck and head while I pry open her beak - it is horrible - we are so afraid of breaking her little neck. I put the dropper in her mouth and squeezed the contents - she gagged - the fluid came out of her eyes - then she ran and hid from us. Two days ago I tried putting it at the corners of her mouth and dribbling it - her beak never opened, it dribbled all over the counter. The doctor asked yesterday if she still had labored breathing - I said - "Only after we give her medicine - she gets so stressed out she pants". This morning she is up and walking around - occasionally - maybe, every 20 min or so, she will make a noise like a wet cough. Dr said she may have had some contents of her crop come up and go into her lungs during the attack - but Xray showed no liquid in her lungs.
 
Yes - I am crushing the bactrim and putting it in the food - so she is getting her antibiotic. The vet also gave me pain meds -carprofen 25mg - that's the pill causing problems. I was supposed to give her 1/2 a pill every 12 hours - she will NOT eat those crushed and added to the food. I used most of them up trying to get her to eat different foods with them. For example, she loves raisins. I hollowed out a raisin, stuck the tiny pill in it, put it on a little dish - with 6 other raisins around it. I watched her eat all of them except the one with the pill. I took the pill and disguised it in a tiny piece of cheese - she loves cheese - she wouldn't touch it! Another website suggested I crush the pill and mix it with yogurt or water, suck it into the syringe - then dose her with that. I tried that 3 or 4 times - that's what I was referring to in my last post when I said it was traumatizing her. We stopped doing it. She is eating her antibiotic, no problem, but not getting her pain meds but I would rather have it that way, than the other way around.
 
The antibiotics are the important thing. The other is an anti inflammatory so that I wouldn't bother with since it causes more stress that good.
 

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