Please HELP-Hen attacked by dog!!

[luvmigrls]

"( Tuesday neighbors dog got a hold of my 1yr old BR. Tail and butt feathers all gone. Skin and bite wounds surrounding her vent 5" in circumference. I cleaned her up at the good advice of some good BYC members. Cleaned with hydrogen peroxide , treated with neosphorine, and giving her yogurt , vit E, and electrolytes. I a have keep her isolated since Tues. She is eating some and not sure about drinking. She is not limping as bad and does walk around some, but sits mostly. While some of her external wounds seem to be healing over(?) she is still oozing out of her vent hole a messy merkey yellow color. Could this be her releasing damaged eggs, waste, or infection(?) I have noted no unusual odder. Please- any help you can give would be much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Erica]

I would be concerned about internal infection, whether it was an egg broken internally during the attack, or from the bite itself. With that coloured discharge your girl may need antibiotic treatment, if she's a pet.

Put simply, a yellow vent discharge isn't usually good... Sorry to say that luvmigirls.

 

[schellie69]

Sounds like an egg go broke inside during the attack and now there is infection. I am not sure what you could do there was a post about draining fluid from a chicken you might do a search speckledhen posted it. Good luck you might also think about antibiotics not sure they would help or what kind to give hopefully someone with more knowledge will post.

 

[Tenderft chick]

This happened to my Americuna last year. Pretty close to the same area as yours. Big hole in but and could see bone and all the feathers gone.

What we did was clean out the wound daily with disinfectant that I had gotten from the vet a long time ago, but I have recently seen at Fleet Farm, think it is called Nolvosan. Using a plastic syringe would go into the wound as far as possible and get the cleaner (mix with water) all over, cut down all the feathers within touching distance of the wound so they would not introduce dirt or anything into the wound. After that I used good ol' Watkins Petro Carbo Salve all over the wound daily. The skin did turn an ugly yellowish color almost like chicken meat that has been in the frig to long. Almost put me off eating chicken ever again (almost). Kept her in a small dog crate with a towel under her and cleaned out daily. Gave lots of treats - rice some cut up grapes and lots of left overs and parts of meals. Kept in the house in warm dark area for the first night then brought out to be with the "house flock" (humans, cat, dogs) so she wouldn't feel depressed.

The big thing is to watch out for smell and if the area is feeling hotter than the rest. I believe some feed stores do carry some types of antibiotics for livestock that can be used on chickens, I would check with them. There was another thread this summer about other chicks that had been attacked by dogs last summer so you could peruse them also.

Hope this helps. Thoughts are with you and the chick.

 

[luvmigrls]

tenderchick- What is the Watkins Petro Carbo-like neosphorine? Thanks for helping. I will get some of the Nolvosan and some antibiotic. I am not real good at getting around but I will try to find the article you mentioned.