Chicken Update: Dog Bites, Molting and More

Dog Bite

About a month ago I happened to go in the backyard right as I hear one of my chickens squawking like crazy.  Scanning our yard I see chickens fleeing away from our fence which then brought my attention to one of ours on the OTHER side of the fence where a DOG lives and it’s flying frantically across the yard.  Then the dog leaps and catches the chicken right in his mouth!!!!  I scream and yell at the dog and he lets go and the chicken comes running toward the fence trying to get through.  It’s Oreo, the mischievous one, what a surprise.  She finds a small opening under the fence and gets about half way under before getting stuck.  I frantically dig her out and can’t believe she is still alive at this point.  Our neighbor’s yard was covered in feathers.  I pulled her through the fence.  The bite wound was deep and her flesh was grotesquely torn and she had a limp.  I hoped for the best but expected the worst.  My daughters and I rushed to the store and got bandages and neosporine.  I doused her wound with it and covered it with gauze and then wrapped it around with that stretchy band wrap.  

 After a few days I couldn’t believe she was still alive!  But her wound had turned a horrific bright green color.  I figured she must be doomed at this point but I’d give her a few more days.  After all she was walking and eating and foraging like normal.  The other chickens didn’t even peck at her like they normally do.  They were actually being really nice to her.  I think the biggest help was when I poured hydrogen peroxide on the wound.  The green went away.  It cleaned it out, dried it up, and closed healthily.  She grew her feathers in over a few weeks and was back to normal!  I cannot believe how resilient chickens are!  

So here are my wound tips:  1)clean wound with soapy water  2)use neosporine and gauze bandage and wrap 3)replace bandages twice a day for 2 days 4) day 3 use hydrogen peroxide and let wound air out.  I think Oreo’s wound turned green because there was too much moisture and the bandage wasn’t letting it air out.  I am no vet by any means but this worked for our situation and there is no one around that wants to stitch up a chicken.

Broken Leg

A few months before that Oreo broke her leg, who knows how.  It healed all on it’s own.  She limped for a few days, sat for a few days, limped some more and then it was all good.  It took a couple weeks to heal.  In the mean time I brought her food and water and moved her around the yard to be with the other chickens.  Apparently broken legs are somewhat common.

Molting

With our abundance of eggs I felt charitable and have been giving our excess away to friends and family.  Well, about a month ago I noticed an increase of feathers…all  over   the   yard    everywhere.  yeah they are molting.  (molting is when birds shed their feathers and grow new ones).  And did you know they molt for about 2 months?  And did you know chickens don’t lay eggs when they molt?  Yeah, now I’m out of eggs.  When I was out of town my husband threw away our last carton because he left them out on accident.  I shoulda told him they’d probably be fine, but I figured we’d get more.  Yeah, not so much.  I miss my organic eggs soooo much.  Store bought ones are such a let down.  And I can’t bring myself to buy the organic ones because they are 4 bucks.  So I guess this is a good lesson for me to keep my stock pile up for the fall.  They usually molt every fall, it’s warm enough to lose feathers and there is still an abundance of food for them to prepare for the winter.

Brooding

Pigeon is our brooder.  Brooding is when a chicken wants to hatch her eggs.  She’ll sit on her nest all day and may come out once or so a day.  It’s about a 21 day cycle.  Even if you don’t have a rooster, they’ll brood anyway.  She gets all fluffy puffied up and squawks around the yard when she finally emerges from the coop once a day.  They can brood about twice a year.  They do not lay and become a nest hog.  It’s rather funny.  I usually bring her food and make her get out to drink water.  Brooding can be onset by a nest full of eggs or just the season or some are just more inclined to brood.