rooster attacked by visiting dog need urgent help

[RaisinAFlock]

My rooster had a recent eye injury/ infection which I treated him for and nursed him back to health, he healed very fast and went back into coop within a day or two after spending time in an isolation cage during treatment. I used vetricine, neosporin with pain relief and fluids and flushed his eye and it worked. He was doing pretty well and able to see out of both eyes but has always had a mobility issue (unstable on his feet) and unable to fly which is why when a visiting dog got inside my fully fenced yard (he slipped through the gate) and went into the chicken run and coop and went after any chickens he could catch, he got into the run because I left the gate open to round up my free ranging flock, for the night, as it was getting dark, I stepped away for a brief moment to check for chickens and heard a ruckus back at the coop so I came running to find the dog, I didnt really know what to do, I tried to scare the dog out, but he seemed confused and scared of me and instead of running out of 2 of the gates he ran straight into my chicken coop going after chickens left and right, panicked, I tried to approach the dog to command him to leave and I got close enough to try put him in pet carriers I had sitting there with 2 roosters inside, I let the roosters out, of each cage and carefully tried to coax the dog into the cage but it did not work and he tried to bite and attack me he bit my hand so afraid for my safety I grabbed my fishing net I use on a regular bases to capture misbehaving poultry and I wrangled him in the net as if he was a chicken. The first time I captured him he got out of the net but the second time I grabbed him he couldn't get away so I gently lowered him over the fence and into a separate fenced yard where he would remain contained and not able to get chickens. My part of the yard that my young puppy (german shepard) and my mothers dog (10 month old black lab) are normally in. They were not in there at the time. Or near me or the chickens and the puppy is being trained to herd chickens. So forget the dog. All I can think about is omg my chickens right. The rooster "Kevin" was huddled up at the base of a very large tree trying to hide from the dog, he was injured, with bite wounds all over that same side of his face head and neck as his eye was before. His feathers were everywhere on the ground. Also were feathers from my favorite hen on the ground. I informed my mother of what had happened, it was getting dark, 10 chickens roosted on the fence, 5 chickens, in two different spots, the flyers that flew to safety. The rest of the chicks were in the coop trying to hide from the dog. It was my worst nightmare. Everything was a blurry. Barley able to see in the dark I brought the chicken inside my house and wrapped him in a towel and laid him in my bathtub while I got him a hospital cage ready. My mother was banging and shouting because the dogs owner was leaving and she wanted me to speak to him. I didn't care about that right now, my main priority was to flush the bite marks and wounds on my rooster. I went out to quickly speak to him which he talked over me and denied and proclaimed innocence on the dogs behalf, I said I had a dying chicken to attend to and walked away didn't even give him the time of day and let my mother handle it. I flushed the wounds with warm water. I sprayed vetricine on the wounds. I applied neosporin with pain relief to every puncture wound I could see. And I wrapped him in a warm clean bath towel and put him in his hospital cage with some water. I fed him some banana and a slice of bread with oats and honey. I put a small heater on osolate blowing on him and covered his cage with a warm clean thick dry towel and I turned the light off and closed the door. He looked much better in the morning, I let him out of the cage and walk around inside the bathroom all day on some towels so he could "forage" for some various food scraps, feed, water, electrolytes and probiotics water, grass, herbs, greens, apple, bread, dirt, and sand from outside and a few grit pebbles mixed in his feed. He walked and pooped a lot. Poop was normal most of the day. I cleaned out his cage. Flushed his wounds. Applied vetricine and neosporin with pain relief to his wounds. Hes got some brushing on his back and neck, minor swelling on his face but no other injury that I can see. At first his breathing was funny I thought maybe his lungs and maybe some broken or fractured bones. But he didn't seem to be in too much pain. I gave him some fluids in a syringe and am letting him rest. I am hoping for a miracle.

 

[Outpost JWB]

I am so sorry about the attack

I have been through this....more than once. So, I will give you the best advice I can offer.

When my husband's dog attacked my flock, there was blood and feathers everywhere and the chickens were screaming their warning cries for hours afterward. One of my roosters ran away and did not come back until the next day. My partidge cochin (Fur Foot) had puncture wounds all over her back side. You could see her insides. I thought there was no hope. She was my favorite chicken. I treated her with peroxide & neosporin. I kept her in a dog crate as she could not walk and I didn't want any further injuries to her. Plus I wanted to give her time to just heal if possible. She did get better and made a 100% recovery.

The measures you have already taken are perfect. The vetricine and neosporin should help. It will take time. At one point during the healing of Fur Foot's injuries, I thought she had an infection or that she had gangrene. She had a bad smell and her wounds turned very odd colors. This is all part of the healing process.

As for the rest of my chickens, their injuries were minor and I treated them as needed. BUT they were freaked out for a couple months. They were very much on edge and not theirselves for awhile. Just give them reassurance and understand this is part of their healing process.

What you need to focus on is insuring your chickens are safe from another attack. I hope this helps and again I am so sorry

 

[Percheron chick]

The dog owner has bigger problems because you were bit as well. Follow up with animal control while you still have the scars to prove it.

 

[Outpost JWB]

The dog owner has bigger problems because you were bit as well. Follow up with animal control while you still have the scars to prove it.

I missed that part of it! I was quickly reading while getting ready for work. Definitely take action with animal control and local authorities. Otherwise this could happen again, and again. Next time you could be injured worse.

 

[RaisinAFlock]

The dog owner is not my neighbor, he does not live in a residence here. He recently began renting 1/2 of a shop near my house and property in exchange for doing maitenece work for my landlord. So technically he's both a tenant and an employee of the property owner. The old tenant of the shop was hardly ever around and never brought dogs. The new tenant visits more frequently with several small and vicious dogs that he leaves in his truck. He recently replaced a window of ours on behalf of our lanlord after the window broke during a cold snap. We put it in writing and it took 2-3 months to finally get them to fix the window. This guy with the dogs showed up as a new tenant within that time period. His truck was parked at the shop during my nightly coop close up time, and he left the dog in the truck unattended with the rear pick up truck window open, as he proceeded to unload construction materials into the shop. He claimed that he was completely unaware that his dog even exited his vehicle, as he went to drive out of our gated driveway without his dog. Not only until my mom stopped him and asked him if the dog in my fenced yard was his or not, of course he said yes, but he also claimed bulls*** because he didn't believe my mother so she made me come outside to talk to him but I don't believe him because I was shouting for my mother at the top of my lungs for a good 10 minutes while the terrier was trapped within my chicken run and coop. And my neighbor was leaving her driveway a good 1/2 acre away from me and she heard me shouting for my mother. The shop is much closer to my property than that. There's the shop a partial ungated fence, my huge garage which the chain link fencing wraps around, my gated yard, my house with my woodshed and chicken run and chicken coop right next to my house. I know he would have had to have heard me shouting and realised his dog was missing. On top of this my husband and my mother claimed that he admitted his dogs ran after my free ranging chickens previously when my grandmother was visiting and when he was visiting the shop. That he had joked about his dogs never seeing chickens before and being unsure of how to react around them. He completely talked over me when I spoke to him about his dogs actions and was only concerned with my hand and not my chickens.

 

[Outpost JWB]

Sounds as if this man is a very irresponsible pet owner. I would get the local authorities involved. You are wasting your breath trying to rationalize with this person who doesn't seem to care. I would also inform the landlord how his employee conducts his business.

 

[RaisinAFlock]

Fourtnately my hand is going to be OK. However the situation made my heart problems worse as recently I began to have chest pain which became significantly worse after the incident. That is my biggest concern that and the health and safety of my chickens. Pretty much all I can do is immediately stand outside by my gate even if is cold and dark and wet outside to protect my chickens from a dog attack while he is visiting if inhappen to see him come in the driveway to visit the shop yes I can tell him and the landlord and property owner he needs to either leave his dogs at home or completely restrain them in the vehicle at all times. Or I can keep a gun in my woodshed and shoot his dog dead if he ever enters my fenced and gated yard again. My entire yard has chain link fencing and gates, my chicken run has a chain link gate, a heavy duty metal gate, heavy duty fence posts and 52ft of 7 feet tall chicken wire and 52 ft of 5 ft tall chain link fencing up against the woods. With the exception of hawks and eagles its predator proof and as soon as we can we plan to net over the chicken run to keep Ariel predators out, but it buts up against a huge evergreen tree which provides tons of cover and shade and protection from up above.

 

[RaisinAFlock]

The dog got in my yard because the gate was cracked open enough for a chicken to squeeze through when the gate is fully closed there's a huge gap that small animals can squeeze through so we keep a taught bungee cord on it to stabilize it and normal the only thing that can fit through it is a small chicken or small cat if its closed. Unfortunately for me this was a very small dog who squeezed right through.

 

[RaisinAFlock]

The only way the dog got in the run was because I left the chicken run gate open while trying to get the flock inside for the night. That was the one day they happened to be out free ranging.

 

[RaisinAFlock]

The landlords have already been notified of the incident but they are not going to do much about it other than to tell him he needs to keep his dogs in his truck at all times or leave them at home. Unfortunately for me the landlords are no longer so chicken friendly because my neighbor in the back started complaining my chickens were making his dogs sick because he didn't fix his fallen fence panels and the landlords didn't either. On top of this across my 1 acre fully fenced field of pasture, my next door neighbor also has chickens who pretty much exclusively free range in which those chickens go onto the property of my neighbor in the back and he is also a tenant and he does nothing but complain about everything and everyone. He chewed me out one day for his dogs being sick because of my chickens.