Turns out I love them more than I thought!

Welcome to BYC. Sorry about your loss of your hens and injuries from the dogs getting to them. In my first year, I lost one hen and 2 were injured by my sweet golden retriever who played with them after they came over our 4 foot tall chain link fence into the yard. We learned they all could fly up and onto the fence and jump over.

With the electric poultry netting, they cannot jump up to it, so they tend to stay inside their chicken yard. Before we got the poultry netting from Premier 1, we used a shock collar on our dog with the body of the dead chicken. He never came near our chickens again. Normally, I don’t like shock colloars, but it worked immediately, and we never usued it again.

I hope your 2 injured pullets recover fully.
 
Your story made me wonder how I got so lucky. Our dogs love the chicken and strive to keep them safe. The chicken leave chicken candy all over the place for them as a reward for good dog behavior even though us humans are grossed out by it. I will never understand why after eating chicken leavings a dog needs to love and lick me. Welcome to BYC and so happy to hear all is not lost!
:lau I thought my naughty Scottie was the ONLY dog who LOVES chicken poo! She's not allowed in with the chickens, she's a vermin KILLER and will hunt anything that runs!!
 
I love the idea of an avian first aid kit but I would need to do some research because they're so different. Perhaps there's a thread on here somewhere about constructing one...? I'll do a search.
The basics are not really all that different from any other first aid kit ... tape, antibiotic creams, gauze, tweezers, scissors, etc. The differences lie mainly in some of the medicines you need to stock and the restraint system you choose .. which is often just a large towel ... and a sock with a hole in the toe. I'll let you research that one ... just for yuks and giggles!. :D
 
The basics are not really all that different from any other first aid kit ... tape, antibiotic creams, gauze, tweezers, scissors, etc. The differences lie mainly in some of the medicines you need to stock and the restraint system you choose .. which is often just a large towel ... and a sock with a hole in the toe. I'll let you research that one ... just for yuks and giggles!. :D
Yeah I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner, but this morning it occured to me that I have a bunch of the prefilled sterile saline syringes that we use at the hospital, which I tend to accumulate when I forget to empty my pockets before I leave work. Took one of those and some sterile gauze and just dabbed at their backs to loosen the scabs a little, then applied some basic neosporin. Put their brooder plate in there from when they were babies so they had something to snuggle to keep warm since they were still a little damp when I put them back in their box. At first I was too scared to touch the wounds at all but I'm starting to feel better about it and remembering my basic wound care stuff. I need to research the medication part, but I have more at my disposal than I realized.
 
Chicken: (CHIK n) noun. Organic version of the ideal canine squeaky toy.

Omg that cracked me up. We actually got these rope chicken toys for the dogs for their Christmas stockings that make a crackling noise when chewed on. My husband said it sounded like bones crunching and it creeped him out but I thought nah, it'll be fine. After the mayhem on the 23rd we took the crunchy chicken toys out of their stockings and will be retaining them until we can be sure they won't just reinforce bad behavior :rolleyes:
 
It's just about first aid, and doesn't need to be extensive, but the same basic kit for everyone.
Drugs get old and will be outdated when you actually need them, so don't go overboard in that department! I'd bet that you already have essentials at home, and need very little else that can't be bought fresh the next day.
Do look at the FARAD.org website for drug information! You are treating food animals (eggs, at least!) and what goes in, will show up in egg yolks, sometimes for a long time. Do be aware of this issue.
Hoping your two girls are doing well!
Mary
 
I'm wasn't to second (or third) the idea of electric poultry netting. It will work with your Newfies. This is my first year with chickens, but I've been beekeeping for a while. The poultry netting, with bacon tied right to the stand, quickly trained our rampant black bear population to avoid my bee yard. The bacon makes the bear touch the fence with their nose or tongue. My dogs learned immediately as well. Now I've set my chicken coop inside the netting too. Keeps the chickens in and the predators out (except raptors)
Good luck and welcome to BYC
 

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