Next steps...healing, diet, boredom

[MaiBee]

First of all I can't thank everyone enough not just for the advice on dealing with my 2 poor dog chewed chickens, but also the totally non-judgmental empathy and support over the 4 that we lost. I'm posting this thread because my girls seem to be over the hump on surviving (the attack was 6 days ago and they're doing pretty well) but now I need to figure out what comes next.

They both still have staples in their backs, one has just a few, the other has many many going across her back in multiple places and down onto her leg. They are both eating, drinking, pooping...all that good stuff. They are living in a huge cardboard box in my basement with a divider to keep them from picking each other's wounds. The more injured one (Ghost) has a large black area on her back that looks like old dying tissue/scab (eschar, pretty sure, from my experience with human medicine). They have another day of antibiotics and they'll see the vet next week. I've been doing some gentle cleaning with sterile saline and applying neosporin.

So here is where I come to my questions. Someone on my previous thread suggested adding electrolytes to their water, but are their food items that will help with healing? More protein? More fat? Supplements of some sort?

Also, I don't think I can move them back outside to their coop until their wounds heal and some feathers grow back...Colorado winters are unpredictable and it's been cold lately. Because they're separated I'm particularly worried they'll get bored. What are some things I can do to keep them stimulated? I threw some of those dried mealworm balls in there this morning but they haven't really touched them. At first I was trying to keep it quiet and dark in there to help with stress, but now they seem like they may be ready for some activity. Also thinking if we have a warm afternoon I may take them outside for a while (supervised) and let them get some fresh air. Thoughts? Anything else I can do for their wounds?

 

[Eggcessive]

Do you have any pictures of the wounds and feather loss? It is always good to try to keep them with their flock or get them back within a few days if possible, so there will not be a big deal trying to reintegrate them later. Dog crates with food and water, where they see each other, but cannot be pecked or hurt are good. I have used polar fleece one piece chicken saddles over bare spots when feathers were missing.

Chicken feed has everything they need, but with sick or injured birds I will offer some scrambled egg, tuna, and some vitamin BComplex crushed into the food. Limit too many extras, since the chicken feed needs to be 90% of their intake. Electrolytes can be good initially for a few days, but can cause diarrhea if given indefinitely.

 

[Eggcessive]

Also they might enjoy having a friendly flock mate visit as long as there is no pecking. I would let them go outside as the weather permits. They might enjoy pecking at a few sunflower hearts.

 

[micstrachan]

I agree a little protein boost might be good for tissue repair and feather growth. Are they in separate boxes? Can you just have some chicken wire or hardware cloth between them so they can keep each other company?

 

[MaiBee]

They're in a big box with a cardboard divider. Unfortunately they cannot see each other but when I go down there I hear them singing to each other.

I think we can do some visits, but the one is so raw and the other is much larger and was our dominant chicken, so it would need to be supervised. I'll attach pictures that were taken right after the vet. You can see that the smaller gray one has a much more significant injury.

 

[SW31]

Ok, been there in January 2018 with two chickens badly attacked by a dog. Here’s how we pulled them through after the vet stapled and stitched the skin back together again. Got a lot of excellent help from forum members.
1. It’s very cold here at night so as they lost so many feathers we created a run in our hall to keep them warm. It was too cold to put a, mostly, featherless hen outside. They needed warmth and had no winter plumage.
Yes, it was a nightmare in the hall and kitchen and we had to find ways to block off rooms and access elsewhere. My cat was terrorised by them.
We bought a small Omlet house and run but they always wanted to be let out so it was a plastic bag, paper wipes and bucket and mop routine for the next two months.
Funny enough looking back I have fond memories, seeing their characters more than I would have done when they were outside!
2. Don’t put them with the other chickens while they still have open wounds as they will peck the wounds and healing will take longer. We brought the other hens into the house but it was a waste of time. When we finally put them out, when they had regrown most of their feathers, we used a purple spray to hide raw skin where the feathers were still missing.
3. We got a pommade from the vets to help fight off infection on the skin. OH had to inject one with antibiotics for two weeks.
4. I really upped their protein as I knew they would need plenty to help grow back skin and feathers - grated cheese, minced beef etc were added to their normal feed.
5. At first we kept the two hens separate - they could see each but not touch. Once the wounds had started to heal we put them back together as it was clear they wanted to be together.
6. Watch their crop. The antibiotics destroyed the good bacteria and the bird being injected daily developed a serious crop problem and vet had to open up her crop to clear it out and was at the vet for a few days. Get some crop drugs from the vet as a precaution.
7. When one hen had to go back to the vet the other one was very lonely and would stand for hours looking into the glass on our wine cooler. She was looking at her reflection so I would say to her go find your friend and off she’d go. If they are looking a bit stressed where they can’t see each other try placing some mirrors near them so they can see a chicken.
8. When you put them back out with the other chickens you will need to operate a slow integration method. To the existing chickens they are seen as intruders and ours initially attacked the injured hens. It was a slow and careful routine after that.

After about six weeks they started relaying so I knew all would eventually be well.

 

[MaiBee]

Ok, been there in January 2018 with two chickens badly attacked by a dog. Here’s how we pulled them through after the vet stapled and stitched the skin back together again. Got a lot of excellent help from forum members.
1. It’s very cold here at night so as they lost so many feathers we created a run in our hall to keep them warm. It was too cold to put a, mostly, featherless hen outside. They needed warmth and had no winter plumage.
Yes, it was a nightmare in the hall and kitchen and we had to find ways to block off rooms and access elsewhere. My cat was terrorised by them.
We bought a small Omlet house and run but they always wanted to be let out so it was a plastic bag, paper wipes and bucket and mop routine for the next two months.
Funny enough looking back I have fond memories, seeing their characters more than I would have done when they were outside!
2. Don’t put them with the other chickens while they still have open wounds as they will peck the wounds and healing will take longer. We brought the other hens into the house but it was a waste of time. When we finally put them out, when they had regrown most of their feathers, we used a purple spray to hide raw skin where the feathers were still missing.
3. We got a pommade from the vets to help fight off infection on the skin. OH had to inject one with antibiotics for two weeks.
4. I really upped their protein as I knew they would need plenty to help grow back skin and feathers - grated cheese, minced beef etc were added to their normal feed.
5. At first we kept the two hens separate - they could see each but not touch. Once the wounds had started to heal we put them back together as it was clear they wanted to be together.
6. Watch their crop. The antibiotics destroyed the good bacteria and the bird being injected daily developed a serious crop problem and vet had to open up her crop to clear it out and was at the vet for a few days. Get some crop drugs from the vet as a precaution.
7. When one hen had to go back to the vet the other one was very lonely and would stand for hours looking into the glass on our wine cooler. She was looking at her reflection so I would say to her go find your friend and off she’d go. If they are looking a bit stressed where they can’t see each other try placing some mirrors near them so they can see a chicken.
8. When you put them back out with the other chickens you will need to operate a slow integration method. To the existing chickens they are seen as intruders and ours initially attacked the injured hens. It was a slow and careful routine after that.

After about six weeks they started relaying so I knew all would eventually be well.

Really excellent advice thank you. Sadly there are no other chickens that survived, so that will make coop reintroduction a little bit easier. It seems warm today so I may take them out for a little bit and just watch them to make sure they don't peck each other. The run in the hallway cracks me up. Unfortunately my house has a fairly open floor plan so I don't have a good way to block an area off. They'll have to be basement chickens for now. We see the vet in a few days so I'll ask about crop drugs. After I look up what that is . I'm doing wound care and applying neosporin to help moisturize the skin and keep it from getting infected but I'll see if the vet has anything better. The inflammation has come down so much that the staples are loose...I'm sure they'll feel better once those are out! How long did it take for yours to grow their feathers back? I'm thinking these girls may be stuck inside, at least at night, until spring.

You all have been so helpful as I've really felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants here.

 

[MaiBee]

I agree a little protein boost might be good for tissue repair and feather growth. Are they in separate boxes? Can you just have some chicken wire or hardware cloth between them so they can keep each other company?

That's a good idea. I'll see what my husband can fashion. He's great with stuff like that.

 

[MaiBee]

Do you have any pictures of the wounds and feather loss? It is always good to try to keep them with their flock or get them back within a few days if possible, so there will not be a big deal trying to reintegrate them later. Dog crates with food and water, where they see each other, but cannot be pecked or hurt are good. I have used polar fleece one piece chicken saddles over bare spots when feathers were missing.

Chicken feed has everything they need, but with sick or injured birds I will offer some scrambled egg, tuna, and some vitamin BComplex crushed into the food. Limit too many extras, since the chicken feed needs to be 90% of their intake. Electrolytes can be good initially for a few days, but can cause diarrhea if given indefinitely.

Just scrambled up some eggs for them. It was one of their favorites when they were little but I haven't given it to them in a while. Hopefully they still love them.

 

[Eggcessive]

You might want to check in to making a one piece no-sew chicken saddle that would cover the injuries on their backs. I made some out of polarfleece in my first year, when my hens were being overbred by a young cockerel. They are easy to make out of a 7x9 piece of polarfleece, cutting two slits for wings to fit through, and are held on by the chickens wings. Here is a similar pattern:
http://www.linnacresfarm.com/2014/04/how-to-make-simple-hen-saddleapron.html