Roo attacked by dog! Help!

[James Bond]

My neighbor called (very upset - her dog jumped the fence and attacked my roo).
We have only had chickens for 7 months (1 roo - 11 pullets) and I have never done this type of thing before. I have been reading posts on BYC since we got the chicks as day olds in April - so I sorta knew what to do. I think. I brought him in - had the 9 yr old (owner of chickens) hold James while I rinsed him with water - then used cotton balls and hydrogen peroxide to clean the area. We held him for awhile to let the area air dry - it is a big patch on his back and a lot of missing feathers - tail feathers are gone too. He fell asleep several times in our arms and was very calm - his breathing was regular. I wanted to keep him inside tonight but everytime we put him down he would not stay seated and I don't have a crate.
I put a thin layer of antibiotic on him and returned him to the coop. I raked the straw - added new - put elecrtolyes in the water - and left the heat lamp on for him.
I checked him a bit ago and he was sitting/sleeping in a corner. The temp tonight isn't to be lower than 35 - with the lamp he should be comfortable. I think. I had the 10 yr old take photos and would like some advice on what I should/can do for him.
Please post any suggestions!
Thanks
Peggy
I'll try to add photos but am not sure how....

 

[rooster-red]

Sounds like you've done pretty well so far... keep an eye on him, and watch for pecking from the hens.

 

[crazy4chicsinBC]

Peggy
Sounds good what you are doing but I'm certainly no expert. Others will add suggestions. For the pics go to photobucket up;oad your pics then copy and paste the link it provides you with. Thats what i do., but again I'm "certainly no expert".

 

[jjthink]

Depending upon the extent of the injury he may be in pain and need relief. 5 regular aspirin (325 mg each) crushed per gallon of water is the usual dose recommended here on BYC.

If he has any deep wounds he will likely need oral or injectible antibiotics in addition to topical.

When this happened to my roo, I kept he and his hen friend in a ceramic tiled bathroom so he wouldn't also be dealing with cold on top of the injuy. 35 may be too cold for your roo in his condition. But maybe the heat lamp is raising the temp appreciably above that?

He needs peace and quiet to get over the shock. I'm concerned that he kept falling asleep in your arms - was it night time?

For wound cleansing the usual recommendation I get from vets is 9 parts water to one part betadine solution.

Thinking toward the future, extra protein in his diet is usually recommended to speed up feather growth.

Hoping very much this poor fellow will be alright.

My roo managed to come back from 3 attacks over the years (people being irresponsible about dogs)- with lots of med care, TLC etc. - they are amazing beings.
JJ

 

[James Bond]

Here is a try at the images!

[

This is the only wound - but alot of feathers are missing in another spot. I picked the three best photos but it is all the same injury.

Thanks for any advice -
Peggy

 

[pollysmum]

chickens are resilient creatures... and bounce back from such attacks usually ok

they look pretty horrible... but with some care they can and will recover

You need to isolate the bird... the hens will peck at his wounds and make them worse... very important you do this

Get a cardboard box or something... or confine him to a room and put down newspaper or something, always allow enough light so the bird can eat and drink

Also shock is a big killer with these sorts of attacks, and you also have to think about the fact that the dog may have injured the bird internally, so keep him in a warm place if you have one..

Predator attack of a chicken

Isolate the bird so the other birds don’t peck at the wound, they will if you leave the bird in with them

Put Tetracycline or Tylan soluble into its water
Both are good all-round antibiotic and will help guard against infection
And provided with high protein pellets. Protein helps with the healing process
Also if you have any Electrolytes put that into the drinking water also
You can make the pellets into a wet mash, not runny just wet, using butter milk as the wetting agent, add some grated apple it will help his digestion, as the stress of the attack may have caused his immune system to fall and when this happens their digestion also suffers

Don't worry about pulling the skin back over the wound as you often seal infection in that way, especially if there are maggots in or around the wound.

Iodine is great for initially cleansing most wounds because of its strong antibacterial benefits, but in the case of deeper wounds one has to be careful. A good habit is to cleanse the wound with hydrogen peroxide (which bubbles out bits that we can't see), then follow that with what I call "Iodine Tea". Iodine Tea, a solution used frequently at vet clinics to irrigate (wash out) wounds is just enough iodine mixed into warm water until it's a tea color. You then use that in a syringe without the needle to strongly squirt into the wound several times. That ensures that the iodine is getting deep into the wound to kill bacteria.

See if you can get a spray called KRS or blue cote, or citrogen spray, it’s used on horses, it is blue and repels blowflies, colors the skin and helps stop other birds from pecking the area… Only get the one that colors blue not pink or red.

There's an old adage "dry wound-wet dressing, wet wound-dry dressing" that applies. Especially with chickens in the winter, one normally has to be wary of using wet ointments because the birds can chill easily. Small spots of it are certainly acceptable, however. Because of the nasty nature of chickens, most wounds are wet (weepy) so we do dry dressings like Furox spray (yellow powder, otherwise known as furoxazone) or blue lotions like Anti-Pick lotion, or other livestock lotions which dry to a blue film.

Many times I put no dressing at all, just keep the bird in an area away from flies and other birds and in a clean environment, and the wounds heal much better if left to their own devices and healing power

If you find the bird has already be infested with maggots, then you will have to flush them out, its best to use warm water so you can use a fair bit of it- flush with a sterile syringe to get some pressure in there to flush those maggots out.

Remember maggots only eat dead flesh, so once they are removed the wound should be pretty clean.

After cleansing the wound thoroughly, it's best to dry it out so, only use gauze. Never use cotton wool, bits of the cotton wool come up and get into the wound and cause problems, if you intend to put a dressing, the wound needs to be dry to allow it to adhere to the wound area better.

I recommend keeping a wound open and dry (especially in the summer time) so that the air can get down into it. Most of your bad wound bacteria are anaerobic (in other words, they hate air - love the lack of air) and they thrive in closed conditions.


Some people prefer to pack the wound with an ointment such as furacin, polysporin or icthammol. An alternative to the mentioned ointments is honey- unpasturized, if possible (and no bread crumbs in it!) - pack the wound with honey- honey has excellent anti-bacterial properties and helps produce granulation (healing) tissue.

But to be honest… just flushing on a daily basis with tea strength betadine does a much better job even on badly injured birds, I’m just giving you all the options here, seeing as this is your bird the end choices are totally up to you.

When using wet ointments, flies find the wound and leave their eggs deep in the ointment. When they hatched, I had a nasty surprise and an even nastier task.

When the wound was re-cleaned, I took the old standard vet advice and used a dry would dressing instead, aerosol Furox so that it would get deep into the wound, and from that point onwards the wound healed fantastically.

Some people are concerned with the openness of a wound and consider stitching as an option. The problem with SOME stitching, however, is that it creates a pocket and closes the wound up from air. Because of that, it is always best to let a veterinarian or someone experienced do that work. Often a vet will leave a drain tube in a deep wound so that the resulting pus has an outlet. In any case, stitched wounds require a very careful watch.

Often when skin dies, the resulting dead (necrotic) skin has to be abrided (cleaned off) because there's really no need for it and it begins to break down. It is also common for there to be infection inside the wound that isn't obvious from the outside. If that happens, you have a serious situation, which can result in blood infection and death of the bird. So, you can see, that if you were dealing with an injury of that magnitude it would be best to get a vet or experienced stockman involved

When a wound is open, you have the chance to be able to examine it more easily and less chance of anaerobic infection. Actually, you would be surprised just how large a wound can heal with feathers and all!

Chickens heal from wounds remarkably

It doesn't take a surgeon or a master-poultryman to take good care of a wound. It just takes a little understanding of how wounds work, a close watchful eye, and a willingness to take the bird to a vet if you intend to keep it and if the wound is more than you can handle easily.

Keep the bird quiet - disturb it as little as possible.
Any added stress (from even SEEING a human) will impede healing.


Hopefully with these tools, now, you'll be able to face a poultry wound with more confidence and more success. I wish you all the best

 

[rooster-red]

Quote:
Good posting!

 

[crazy4chicsinBC]

wow i learned alot reading that...thank-you

 

[James Bond]

Thanks so much - that was great advice and I'll need to read it several times to digest it all.
I went out to check on James after my second post and saw him get pecked several times -James didn't even move when they were pecking him so I went to the neighbor (the owner of the dog) and asked to borrow a crate -they brought over a large dog crate - the plastic kind.
James is now in my kitchen with electrolyte water and sleeping on an old bath towel.
He really didn't move at all when I brought him in the house - is it normal for him to be so quiet after trauma like this?
I think I"ll be going to farm and fleet tomorrow (there is one in my town) and picking up some supplies. I ment to have the emergency kit ready for this type of situation but kept putting it off.....
Tomorrow I'll see if he'll eat a scrambled egg - how long will he be in my kitchen?
I have a dog - he is now going to be in the breezeway until James moves out to the coop- I don't want to stress him out. I have 3 boys (3-9-and 10) and we can get loud.

This will be a long night.
Peggy

 

[dlhunicorn]

Peggy your bird is in shock and though bringing him in the house is good (temps are more stable and his system will not have to deal with keeping warm) the sounds and such in the kitchen of you all moving around and such are not beneficial to him... he needs to be in a quiet place. The shock is more life threatening than the wound at this moment. Can you not put him in the bathroom or another room where few ppl come into and there are not so many sounds to disturb him? Please do try (his sleeping and being quiet is a sign that he is still in shock). You must also monitor his water intake and encourage him to drink the electrolyte water... dribble some water alongside his beak... fluids is more important now than feed though do keep some feed close to hand for him to peck at but make it moist and do not give any grains ... it costs more energy for his system to process the grains as opposed to pellets or mash (if you have some unmedicated chick starter or grower...wet that by mixing in cooked in water oatmeal or make a bowl out of a melon or cantelope and put in in there...the juice from the melon will keep it moist)
Flies at this time of year (especially if in your house) are not a problem.. I would not use blue cote as it will create a crust on the wound (the outer layer will dry) and this will hold in the weepy exudate from the wound and create more of an infection danger... KEEP THAT WOUND MOIST until it is at a stage where it is no longer weeping so extensively. before applying any iodine you must flush the wound daily with sterile saline... you can make this by boiling 1/4 tsp salt with a quart of water for five minutes and letting cool. FLUSH COPIOUSLY...then you can apply the iodine tea or betadine or the product listed below (which is reccommended for these types of wounds)
Here is a link from the AVIAN WOUND MANAGEMENT site and also below that a link to a product that is advised for these types of wounds:
http://www.worldwidewounds.com/2003/august/Cousquer/Avian-Wound-Assessment.html
excerpt summary on TREATMENT measures:
First aid
Traumatised birds often have multiple injuries and may be further compromised by dehydration, malnutrition and other problems, especially if there has been a delay (hours or days) between injury and presentation [1]. Fluid and nutritional therapy and treatment for shock are critical in the early management of all traumatised birds. Overzealous wound and fracture treatment before stabilisation of the bird may prove fatal [1]. Some first aid of the wound, however, will inevitably be required.
Wound first aid will usually be performed at the time of the initial or subsequent clinical examination. It need not be high tech but should fulfil a number of basic objectives:

Cleaning - The wound should be cleaned quickly to remove as much contamination as possible. ........Sterile isotonic saline (0.9%) or a solution of 0.05% chlorhexidine may be used. Care should be taken not to wet the bird excessively as this is likely to increase the risks of hypothermia.

Haemostasis - veterinary attention should be requested if there is excessive bleeding. Bleeding from most small wounds will stop following the application of a wound dressing.

Protection from dehydration - the use of a hydrogel (e.g. Intrasite) will help protect a wound. (see the link and product below-DL)This can be covered by a vapour permeable film dressing (e.g. Opsite) to provide further protection. (the wound must be able to "breathe")..........................

...........Analgesia and antibiotics - broad spectrum antibiotics can be provided in the first instance: clavulanic acid potentiated amoxycillin (150mg/kg orally or subcutaneously) will provide cover against most aerobes and anaerobes. ...................Local anaesthetics should not be used in birds due to the suggested sensitivity of birds to drugs of the procaine group "."

http://www.ronsvetsupply.com/granulexv.html
GRANULEX:
A "must have" product for advanced wound care. This is an over the counter, veterinary version of a prescription human product that has been used for many years to treat bed sores, deep abrasions and thermal burns. The active ingredient, Trypsin, is an enzyme that digests necrotic (dead) tissue, enabling it to be removed while at the same time, stimulating healthy epithelial cells to develop so that they can cover open or slow healing wounds. Can be used with or without bandaging. Use twice daily, washing debris away between applications. Labeled for use on dogs, cats, horses and cattle. Manufactured by Bertek Pharmaceuticals for Pfizer Animal Health."
(this product is often to be found in the HORSE section of feed and animal care places or you can order online from the link above)