Please help! My dog got my hen!

[brandnewfarmer]

Two days ago, one of my free range hens got over the fence and my dog got her. She definitely has a broken wing. We wrapped her wing, brought her inside, and started antibiotics. She was acting fine right after the attack aside from her wings hanging down. The following day she couldn't walk. She kept falling over to the side with the broken wing. I thought it was due to the wrap so I removed it but it didn't help, she still fell to that side. I wrapped it back up and laid food down on the ground for her and we are offering water every hour. Today, she is sleeping a lot and still can't walk. She can stand with assistance to keep her from falling over, and can walk as long as you keep her steady but she is sleeping a lot! I don't want to put her down but I don't want her to suffer either. Any advice is welcome. Please help me save my girl!

 

[emmaie892000]

It sounds like she may have some kind of injury to her leg, or in the best case scenario, her balance is just affected now that she doesn't have full use of that wing. Does her leg have any swelling or redness?
You're doing the right thing wrapping it, just keep her inside and comfortable.

 

[etammy]

Do you think there is any chance of a brain injury? are her eyes normal, are the pupils opening to normal size?
Is her abdomen swollen-if yes, could be internal bleeding. Are her poops black? Give her time to heal, she can survive the attach if it was not to bad.

 

[brandnewfarmer]

She does not have any open wounds, leg injuries or stomach swelling. Her poops seem normal, certainly not black. Her eyes look normal, possibly a little brighter, but pupils normal. She wasn't eating and drinking. When I got home from work last night, I thought I was going to have to put her down. She had extremely labored breathing through her mouth, her comb was very white colored and she was shivering. She didn't even wake up when I moved the crate she is in. But...:I had done a lot of reading on here and learned a lot. I admit, I am new to chickens. I had gone to Walmart and gotten some things for her. I stayed up with her all night and gave her water soaked food, pedialyte, poly vi sol, baby aspirin, and baby spinach and kale. She did not like the yogurt. I wasn't sure about flavored pedialyte, so I got some of both but she loves the fruit flavored pedialyte. She perked up quickly and started dunking most of her beak in the pedialyte and started sucking it down. She ate 2 handfuls of the spinach/kale and quite a bit of laying pellets too. I also put a heat lamp near her, covered her up with towels, and placed a hand warmer under the towels with her (not touching her and I was awake with her all night making sure she wasn't getting hot). When my son woke up, he took over and I slept for a few hours. When I woke up, she was awake, eating, drinking, and yes, even standing!!!!! Yay! She still can't stand up by herself (from a laying position) but if you place her on her feet, she can stand without falling over. She still can't walk without falling though. Baby steps. We took the wrap off her wing to re-wrap and the wing seems to be laying to her side where it should be, not dragging the ground, so we have taken the wrap off for now. She is still weak and her legs try to give out on her while she stands but she's a fighter and keeps standing. She stood for a good 30 mins straight before I had to leave for work so I'm not sure how long total. From the reading I have done, I think it's a brain injury. My son said the dog shook her pretty good. There doesn't seem to be any broken bones in her legs so I'm hoping we can keep her strong enough to wait out the brain trauma. She seems in pretty good spirits this morning. We will keep working with her.

 

[BBQJOE]

Not sure if I'd shoot the chicken, the dog, or both.

 

[brandnewfarmer]

I understand your point and I was pretty angry, and the dog got a scolding for sure, but I can't shoot a dog for being a dog and I can't shoot a chicken just because it's inconvenient to help her heal. It was our fault for not checking the yard better.

 

[mg15]

I would let her heal. Be sure to give her pedialyte through a syringe a 1cc would be small enough so she would not inhale.
Keep her very warm and quiet. She needs Nutri Drench on the tongue. There is bird powder food for pet birds. It is very good.
Give her chance. See what happens.
My dog got 17 of my girls. Been there.

 

[brandnewfarmer]

Is nutri-drench the bird powder food at a pet store or something different? Does she need those things if she is now eating and drinking on her own?

 

[mg15]

Is nutri-drench the bird powder food at a pet store or something different? Does she need those things if she is now eating and drinking on her own?

Nutri Drench for poultry is liquid in a white bottle. The bird food powder is called EXACT. If she is not eating enough to keep her body weight up
you will need to feed her high nutrition Exact. She would do well with some Pedialyte too. She needs to be eating enough so she doesn't go down hill.
They use a whole lot of energy getting well. And they need alot of liquid too. They need to re-hydrate from all of that shock. Just keep up with the Drench, Exact and the Pedialyte and the
warmth.

 

[brandnewfarmer]

Thanks. I'll try to find that stuff tomorrow.