The Middle Tennessee Thread

[TinTennessee]

I got a call from my neighbor at 230 this morning to check my birds.  Her dog had been in my yard and came home with a feather in her mouth.  Her dog broke down an entire wall of my coop and pulled my favorite bird, Dorothy, out.  (She's my avatar/soul mate.)  She is a little beat up, has some puncture wounds and is missing some feathers but is still breathing.  She's very calm but I think that's because it's still dark.  I called the emergency vet but for birds, they have you leave a message and call you back.  It's been three hours and still no call back.  Has anyone had any experience with an injured bird that has survived?  I will do whatever it takes for her.  She's in a large dog travel crate wrapped in a towel right now.  If she makes it to morning, I'm going to make her a cricket and meal worm omelet!!!

sorry to hear about the injury, hoping she recovers.

 

[Penny Hen]

I don't think thatbwould work for this....it really would only be the far corners. the pipe goes way beyond the middle of the litter buckets. like 2/3 or more to the back. the chick bucket it would not be a problem with since it has 3 holes to feed from. I am thinking it is not going to be a problem with my set up but I will let you know in a week or so. going to let them eat it all and see.how long that takes about 35 lbs of feed per bucket. I put them in all 10 pens in the back and now with the waterers in too I will only have to worry about eggs most days. yeah! if it works.

Fill the corners with silicon caulking sloping them to the middle.

 

[CatMom]

I got a call from my neighbor at 230 this morning to check my birds.  Her dog had been in my yard and came home with a feather in her mouth.  Her dog broke down an entire wall of my coop and pulled my favorite bird, Dorotty....
...She is a little beat up, has some puncture wounds and is missing some feathers but is still breathing.  She's very calm but I think that's because it's still dark.  I called the emergency vet but for birds, they have you leave a message and call you back.  It's been three hours and still no call back.  Has anyone had any experience with an injured bird that has survived?  I will do whatever it takes for her.  She's in a large dog travel crate wrapped in a towel right now.  If she makes it to morning, I'm going to make her a cricket and meal worm omelet!!!

So sorry to hear you're going through this! Kudos to your neighbor for calling you tho'. When -my- neighbor's dog attacked my 5-bird suburban flock I had just let my girls out of their coop to range my fenced backyard. I left for work as usual, my dogs were in their run in the side-yard but my housemate hadn't got up yet... about an hour later I got a message from my room mate, our dogs and chickens squalking had made her look outside & she foiled the attack : now the police needed to talk with me since I am the homeowner/chicken owner! Long story short: neighbor was cited for loose dog violation, but I did not press charges for 'destruction of property' because (although my birds now have PTSD ;-) all of them survived.

Here's the tally of injuries though: my #1 hen, a Dominique -who roomie swears charged the dog to gives the others a chance to get to the coop- was mauled pretty badly. "Ma Deuce" had two large puncture/tear wounds (one tore open her back & the other under her opposite wing, from where the dog had tried to carry her off), and she was shocky; I rushed her to the nearest livestock/poultry vet in the Clarksville area -he's in Dover for those of you out this way- the bird was treated as much as 2 hours after being injured due to my travel time from work + looking for birds who had been carried off &/or went to ground + drive to Dover...-

The vet gave me antibiotics to inject into the bird for several days, plus Hexadene rinse to clean the wounds, and an iodine & antibiotic 'wound paste' that his office gets from a local formulating pharmacy.

Deuce had to live in my guest bathroom for a couple of weeks while her skin grew back and she was about 2/3 plucked, but that was in May... today she is still top bird and most of her feathers came back -though her tail kind of looks like a mohawk.

While under medication, she didn't really lay at all and the vet instructed that if she did lay not to eat the eggs until 30 days after the last treatment to insure that the meds were out of her system. She obliged by not resuming laying until about day 25. The vet had speculated that she might not grow back her feathers or resume laying all season, I guess that was the worst case & I'm glad he was wrong.

Out of the remaining 4 birds, 2 had no punctures but large patches of feathers ripped out (which grew back eventually) and stopped laying for about a week ; 1 lost most of her tail feathers (most of those seem to have come back, though she spent the Summer impersonating an Araucana, and she hid so well for so long I was sure we'd lost her; strangely she never stopped laying)... and 1 was unscathed since she was laying an egg at the time of the crime & had the smarts to stay in there, her laying was unaffected.

The neighbor (and her dogs) have since moved away and I am finishing putting up a 6+ foot tall privacy fence and always looking for ways to improve security for my birds.

Best of luck to you and your bird(s). I was sure I would lose my brave little Dominique, and today she is just fine. For creatures who can be so delicate sometimes, it is surprising how tough they can be too.

 

[Penny Hen]

I got a call from my neighbor at 230 this morning to check my birds. Her dog had been in my yard and came home with a feather in her mouth. Her dog broke down an entire wall of my coop and pulled my favorite bird, Dorothy, out. (She's my avatar/soul mate.) She is a little beat up, has some puncture wounds and is missing some feathers but is still breathing. She's very calm but I think that's because it's still dark. I called the emergency vet but for birds, they have you leave a message and call you back. It's been three hours and still no call back. Has anyone had any experience with an injured bird that has survived? I will do whatever it takes for her. She's in a large dog travel crate wrapped in a towel right now. If she makes it to morning, I'm going to make her a cricket and meal worm omelet!!!

How is she? I rescued a dove who had flown into a window and put out her eye. I put her in a dark box so light wouldn't aggravate her wounded eye and bought some of the Nutri-Drench for Poultry and mixed 1:3 in water and feed it to her every hour with a straw. Doves make a "milk" for their baby birds (regurgitated pulp from their crop) so I figured it might work. She seemed to recall how to eat that way and I fed that to her for the 30 hours it took me to get her to the wild life rescue people. At first she was very shocky pacing in circles but the poultry drench and the dark box took care of the shock. The wildlife people were amazed that she survived that.

Worry more about dehydration than solid food the first 24 hours. The poultry drench has electrolytes and sugars that help with the shock. Use Vetericyn for the bites. Or Neosporin or Triple Antiboitic. Vetericyn witll give you sticker shock the first time you buy it but it is absolutely worth the money. I wouldn't be without it if I can help it at all. Because it has a water consistency and is sprayed it can soak through hair and feathers coating a wound thoroughly.

 

[Penny Hen]

Hi, Tim! Looks like there will be a bunch of Wyandotte folks at the Green River show in a couple weeks. There are also hatching eggs for sale on eBay!

Where is the Green River show and when? I would like to go see it if it isn't too far from me.

 

[Penny Hen]

I am about to despair that my Olive Egger pullets are ever going to lay. They were born in April but are still not laying that I can find. The roosters have been crowing a month and a half now. The two roos finished molting but the girls still seem to be shedding feathers. It was like that went through a Juvenal molt then turned right around and Fall moulted. They are free ranging at the moment and roosting in the antique falling down shed while I finish their pen. but I haven't seen any eggs in the shed and they don't seem to be squatting or anything! And they don't seem all that interested in the roosters either.

 

[Penny Hen]

I swear I saw someones post that was looking for Silver Seabrights but now I can't find it to quote it. Never the less, their is a seller right now on Ebay selling Silver Seabright eggs from Decaturville, TN. You could get in touch with them and see if they have chicks.

 

[Penny Hen]

Hey their is also a Seller from Elizabethtown, TN selling 6 Ausburgers chicken eggs. Very decent price currently for such a rare bird.

 

[Chrystal Dawn]

My Dorothy passed away about 5 hours ago. The emergency avian vet in Nashville never called me back so I called them again and they told me that they don't see chickens if they lay eggs. I would tell you how I feel about them but I'm afraid if I did that I would be banned from this sight.

I drove her out to Black Fox in Murfreesboro and they got us in right away and took her in the back, put her under, gave her steroids and antibiotics, and sutured her up. The vet told me to give her pedialyte and baby food and baby her and hope for the best. I got home and had to get ready for work and I brought her with me so I could keep her hydrated but she passed shortly after I got here. I'm pretty much devastated. There will never be another one like her. She was a dog soul in a chicken body. She always came running to me and if she heard me near the back door she would have to peck at it to let me know how much she needed a treat. If I was sitting in the backyard, she'd be in my lap and if I was talking to the neighbor, she'd have to fly up and sit on the fence to be near us and get loved on. I'm going to bury her beneath the peach tree that she loves to dig up and bathe under.
Thanks for all the advice and encouraging words. I'm glad there's people out there besides me who understand how hard it is to lose a chicken without making stupid jokes about having it for dinner.
As for the neighbor, she's paid for her vetting and bought me a new coop and is rehoming her dog. I'm very fortunate to have such great neighbors.

 

[puddleby]

Chrystal Dawn, I am so very, very sorry. I know only too well that soul mates can come to us in many forms, including galline. I know the pain of missing them when they have gone ahead...not gone, just gone on ahead - and we'll catch up....
I'm wondering which avian vet was not available for you. I know a good one in Nashville and hope this is not the one who let you down. This kind of information is good to share...we all need to know where to turn in the event of an emergency.
My thoughts are with you and your beloved Dorothy....