Dog bite to chicken tail, wound advice please

[saraluvsanimals]

Hello all, one of our chickens was bit on the tail end by a dog. The bite/attack was not witnessed, there could be other injuries but I have not seen anything other than the bite. The last time we needed a vet for a chicken there wasn't one that would see chickens, so I'm hoping someone on here can give advice.

What I've done so far: separated her and have her contained in the garage. Flushed the wound with sterile saline, sprayed on vetericyn plus poultry, put some neosporin (with no painkiller ingredient).
-I tried putting a colloidal patch over it, but after checking it was starting to stick to the dry skin so I removed it (and it wasn't really touching most of the wound, but was keeping it moist).

Approximately 1.5 hours after the attack, she was up and drinking water and eating. She is still eating and drinking and has pooped once. In the pictures, you can see the tissue with the preen gland is a dark purple; it was not like this earlier.

 

[MarlaMac]

The biggest issue is to treat for shock.

Put chicken in a warm, darkened, quiet space and offer sugar water (1 cup water, 1 tsp sugar). Offer it to her beak so she knows it is sweet. Hopefully she will take it by herself.

Then, clean her wound. If you have clorhexidine that would be best. If you have never used it, please read the label. It is sold in super concentrate. If you don't have clorhexidine, use an epsom salt solution. If you don't have epsom salt, use reg salt. Clean is well by flushing the wound.

Allow the wound to dry then apply plain triple antibiotic ointment to the wound. Flush the wound a couple times again tomorrow and apply triple antibiotic ointment to the dry wound after each cleaning. Then keep the wound covered with triple antibiotic ointment as it heals. You don't want the wound to dry out.

You will want to keep her away from the others until she is healed because you don't want the to start peck at her wound, which they will.

Offer her her regular feed. If she is not eating, offer her wet feed, egg or any other treat she might be interested in. At this point, the idea is to get her eating.

Once she is calm, check her over well for additional wounds and treat as necessary.

 

[MarlaMac]

The biggest issue is to treat for shock.

Put chicken in a warm, darkened, quiet space and offer sugar water (1 cup water, 1 tsp sugar). Offer it to her beak so she knows it is sweet. Hopefully she will take it by herself.

Then, clean her wound. If you have clorhexidine that would be best. If you have never used it, please read the label. It is sold in super concentrate. If you don't have clorhexidine, use an epsom salt solution. If you don't have epsom salt, use reg salt. Clean is well by flushing the wound.

Allow the wound to dry then apply plain triple antibiotic ointment to the wound. Flush the wound a couple times again tomorrow and apply triple antibiotic ointment to the dry wound after each cleaning. Then keep the wound covered with triple antibiotic ointment as it heals. You don't want the wound to dry out.

You will want to keep her away from the others until she is healed because you don't want the to start peck at her wound, which they will.

Offer her her regular feed. If she is not eating, offer her wet feed, egg or any other treat she might be interested in. At this point, the idea is to get her eating.

Once she is calm, check her over well for additional wounds and treat as necessary.

Edit - sorry, didn't see that she is already eating/drinking. That is great. Everything else remains the same.

The discoloration of the preen gland looks like injury/bruising. You may see some green color appearing. This is bruising.

Good luck.

 

[saraluvsanimals]

Edit - sorry, didn't see that she is already eating/drinking. That is great. Everything else remains the same.

The discoloration of the preen gland looks like injury/bruising. You may see some green color appearing. This is bruising.

Good luck.

Thank you!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Sounds like you are doing everything right so far! Rinse twice daily with the sterile saline. Then coat with the Original Neosporin. You can coat with the Veterycin spray to keep it moist. She should do fine, esp if she is eating and drinking already. Good job!

 

[saraluvsanimals]

Sounds like you are doing everything right so far! Rinse twice daily with the sterile saline. Then coat with the Original Neosporin. You can coat with the Veterycin spray to keep it moist. She should do fine, esp if she is eating and drinking already. Good job!

Thank you!