rooster attacked by dog...need help

[fancy feet]

Last monday we had a small dog attack our chickens , my rooster tried his best to protect the girls. he has a area on his back about 4x6 that is missing skin, muscle is showing. we have been keeping him confined , spraying his wound with vetricin spray and wrapping him up with 4x4's gauze and vet wrap. he is doing well, eating , drinking pooping and crowing. my question is will his skin grow back, and feathers. or will i have to keep it covered forever. we love this guy (he is a blue cochin) and he is very sweet. any info would be great. thanks

 

[Chambertin]

For an area that big I can only offer support.
I have had some amazing recoverys of my girls, but we never had an injury that serious.

If he is that happy now I'm pretty confident that barring infection the guy will pull through. Feathers, I dont know but at least the skin should slowly cover the area? I really hope so!
I've seen some crazy injuries done to the wild turkeys near my place in Michigan and they are ugly but still bounding around.
Just keep it ifection free and he should keep crowing.

Good luck!

 

[outdoorschik]

Just wanted to chime in... I rarely post here, but do use it as a resource. Wanted to reassure you that it is doable even with a wound of that size.

I have a hen that had a wound of that size under her wing and around most of her leg... full skin was gone & all muscle was showing + some of the lower internal organs were exposed (i'll post you a photo of 2 weeks in later tonight... I actually didn't take or post any earlier ones as I thought people would be appalled I was trying to heal a wound of this size). This happened around 3/1 and she is is almost healed now.

For the first two weeks, I bandaged her with vet wrap and sterile gauze, changing the dressing twice a day with tons of triple antibiotic ointment and vetericyn spray first + moistening the bandage with it. I cut back the dead skin and cut the extra feathers that hung into it. I also injected antiobiotics penicillin in the breast for 7 days in the recommended amounts found online here. I kept it clean and moist, slightly loose with the ability to drain out the sides (and drain it did!)... the smell was not good, but luckily there was no infection. I found that with all that muscle, if it dried too much, that was terrible for the muscle. A heat lamp and extra nourishment was very important to treat the shock, moisture loss through thte wound and healing. The greenish/dark brown areas that formed scared the heck out of me, but it appeared to be related to the muscle drying/getting damaged and did not spread.

After 12-14 days or so, she would no longer tolerate the dressing ( at first, she left it alone and was quiet, not minding the dressing, but after 2 weeks she literally got more energetic and would pick at it/pull it off, so I decided to go with what she was telling me) and a thin protective layer had formed so I stuck to vetericyn three times daily. She picked at it herself a bit, but seemed to actually remove mostly the dead flesh

She was in a dog crate with food water and treats for over 1.5 months. Loneliness was a big issue and she seemed super depressed, so I had to bring in another chicken at times to even get her to eat. I spent a lot of time just being around her. Also battled a secondary infection of the skin that must;ve been related to her weakened system... a very weird condition that caused her to scale and peel with a thick yellow crust that actually crusted over the face/eyes, this has gradually gone away on it's own, but I'm not sure what it was and had to treat that as well.

The skin closed, pulled in on itself, covered the area and her feathers have actually begun to come back AMAZING!!! There is only a small half dollar sized area that I wonder if it will ever feather up.

Today, she is back out with the flock, but in a wire crate as they have rejected her since she was gone for so long. ..
My advice... it is a long and expensive process (lots of vetericyn and dressings) to do it right. very time consuming if you are cleaning and dressing it adequately. But if you have the time, $, and patience, he will heal. .

 

[fancy feet]

Thank you so much for the info. I was concerned about the muscle drying out , so ill do the triple antibiotic too. he is actually in a wire dog crate in the coop(we have a big shed) because i only have 2 hens left from this attack. they are much happier with him out there and so is he. i have hope now that he will heal, im in it for the long haul ,he is just too sweet to give up on. ill look forward for the pictures though so i know im on the right path. this is my first experience with a forum , you have helped alot.
thanks

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

I had a rooster with a dog wound much larger (almost 1/4 of his skin gone or torn) and he healed perfectly- not a scar to be seen, fully feathered back in at the next moult. But I had a hen with a gash in her neck who still has a jagged naked line on her neck almost 3 years later. Depends on the chicken, I guess.

 

[Bill Matthews]

FANCY FEET: Been raising chickens 65 years. The rooster will be fine if he made it this far and is thriving as you say..The feathers may never return but that will make you love him even more....One thing, healing at some point will need exposure to air and regular conditions. So don't keep the bandages on for extended time..He'll be great and Good Luck....

 

[mmorgan79936]

Our Pyrenees just got into the White Cochin Coop and killed 4 hens and severely injured my Rooster. We just came home and found white feathers all over our yard! We thought we lost everyone but when we got to the rooster he just popped up and ran. Right now I have him in a horse trough in our barn with food and water. I do not know what to do at this point?? Please help and if anyone can tell me do we have a chance for survival? I love this guy

 

[Eggcessive]

His wounds look pretty deep, but chickens can recover from some awful injuries. He may be in shock for awhile, and sometimes chickens will die from that. When he is stable enough, clean his wounds with weak Betadine, Hibiclens, or soap and water. Normal saline is also good, but put some antibacterial soap in with it. Let it dry off, then apply some Neosporin or other antibiotic ointment. Getting him to eat, drink, and to not get infected will be the next hurdle. Offer him eggs, tuna, dry cat food, or other high protein items in addition to his feed to tempt him to eat. An antibiotic such as amoxicillin. keflex, or clavamox would be good if you can get it. Keep us posted. Good luck.

 

[fancy feet]

our rooster looked much like that last april. he has recovered nicely and is back protecting his girls. we used alot and i mean alot of Vetericyn. You can get the spray from pet stores or tractor supply like places. its cheaper to get the horse wound spray, we sprayed that on the wound, then put triple antibiotic on some gauze pads , put that over the wound lightly then wrapped with rolled gauze and vet wrap (not to tight) . we only did that once a day. we kept our guy in the coop with his girls but in a wire dog crate. he seemed to like that better than being alone. it took about three months of this wound cleaning and wrapping before he had enough skin grown back. his feathers are all back now and he is doing great. it will take alot of hard work and money , but if he's nice its worth it. they also have a water additive for stressed birds that helps too, and meal worms. hope this helps

 

[mmorgan79936]

Ok so update today..he survived through the night although he looks so sad. Seeing his girls get killed along with his own trauma I am sure is why he is so sad. I sprayed a ton of Vetericyn. Fancy Feet I am doing exactly what you did with yours but I do not have mine in the coop with his girls because he only has 1 surviving girl out of 4 that we found later that night in the 1st big run we fence off for rotation. She apparently flew over the first fence and then she went behind our electrical box and hid all night there. I honestly don't think he will do too well out in the coop with the rest of them he gets a bit anxious when I had him on my lap and heard the other rooster crowing. He has been eating and drinking. Drinking a lot!!! Right now I just checked on him and he is perched on his water bowl in the horse trough. He can't walk real well on his left side, he tries and nearly falls. I just pray he makes it. He is such a great rooster!