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The Pit Chicken Keeping Thread

Awesome, I didn't know there was a backyard chicken thread here already...I posted a couple of things on the Pet thread. I've had chickens for 2.5 years. Love them, but it's a tough gig as we've lost 4 of our 11 over the last year: 1 to a red tailed hawk, one to ovarian cancer, one to an internally ruptured yolk, and one to my neighbors cocker spaniel. We've just clipped the birds wings to keep them in our fenced yard because our neighbors are assholes and won't fence their dog (it's attacked our chickens three times and killed one).

We've got an austalorpe, an Easter egger, a silver laced Wyandotte, a barred rock, two buff Orpingtons and one bantam. The Barred Rock and the Aussie are the best layers, the Easter egger is the friendliest.

Anyway...chicken keeping is awesome. So glad I got into this.
Fitting post from the birdman
 
We have one silver laced wyandotte, one easter egger and two cream leg bars. The wyandotte is currently recovering from an attack. Worried about infection and trying to decide if I should try to remove some necrotic skin, but she's doing pretty well.
 
What attacked her?

The dog down the street attacked our barred rock about a month ago. My wife is a vet and we were able to get antibiotics for the bird plus some topical anti microbial cream. We also had allu spray, which is like spray on bandage. We also had a large patch of dead skin which we left on because it helped form a scab that allowed the skin to start growing back. The bird has recovered fairly well. We kept her separate from the other hens for about a week but she rejoined the flock and seems one now.
 
What attacked her?

The dog down the street attacked our barred rock about a month ago. My wife is a vet and we were able to get antibiotics for the bird plus some topical anti microbial cream. We also had allu spray, which is like spray on bandage. We also had a large patch of dead skin which we left on because it helped form a scab that allowed the skin to start growing back. The bird has recovered fairly well. We kept her separate from the other hens for about a week but she rejoined the flock and seems one now.

....so, should I be worried about the potential that some of the birds that this raccoon grazed but didn't strike down (he was reaching through the cage...I have no idea how he got one...they aren't brilliant) may have been exposed to rabies?
 
....so, should I be worried about the potential that some of the birds that this raccoon grazed but didn't strike down (he was reaching through the cage...I have no idea how he got one...they aren't brilliant) may have been exposed to rabies?

She is an equine vet and not a chicken expert, but a colleague at her university recommended which antibiotic...however, being a professional ornithologist myself, I can tell you that birds can neither contract nor transmit rabies. Rabies is a mammalian only disease.
 
What attacked her?

The dog down the street attacked our barred rock about a month ago. My wife is a vet and we were able to get antibiotics for the bird plus some topical anti microbial cream. We also had allu spray, which is like spray on bandage. We also had a large patch of dead skin which we left on because it helped form a scab that allowed the skin to start growing back. The bird has recovered fairly well. We kept her separate from the other hens for about a week but she rejoined the flock and seems one now.

I think it was a juvenile fox. She is healing up really well an Alu-shield has worked great on one wound. I did injectible penicillin for 5 days and topical antibiotics as well.

The patch of dead skin is down from one of the wounds. Where it seems like the skin came loose. The skin is closed on all sides, but I'm wondering about opening it up to see if there is infection underneath. I'm hesitant because I don't want to make things worse.

If I get a picture anyway I could get your and your wife's opinion?
 
we want get some chickens but urban raccoons are a serious issue in LA

probably need a big dog
 
I think it was a juvenile fox. She is healing up really well an Alu-shield has worked great on one wound. I did injectible penicillin for 5 days and topical antibiotics as well.

The patch of dead skin is down from one of the wounds. Where it seems like the skin came loose. The skin is closed on all sides, but I'm wondering about opening it up to see if there is infection underneath. I'm hesitant because I don't want to make things worse.

If I get a picture anyway I could get your and your wife's opinion?


I can ask her, but like I said, she is an equine surgeon, not an avian vet except to our own birds.
 
She is an equine vet and not a chicken expert, but a colleague at her university recommended which antibiotic...however, being a professional ornithologist myself, I can tell you that birds can neither contract nor transmit rabies. Rabies is a mammalian only disease.

Cool, thank you.

P.S Bastard came back last night. I will be spending the 5th of July at the Depot.
 
I ended up cutting out as much of the necrotic skin as I could today and am glad I did as it was infected underneath. Only concern now is some spongy looking flesh I couldn't do much with towards the back of the wound, but by the time I got to that the hen was stressed enough so I threw on some neosporin and called it a night. She is still eating and drinking well, so I am hopeful. Now that I have cleared off the dead skin, I am hoping it will stop being so weepy and the other areas will dry out a bit so I can tell if more needs to be cut off. She definitely has a long row to hoe, but she is pretty high energy and active, so I am not ready to just cull her.
 
Cool, thank you.

P.S Bastard came back last night. I will be spending the 5th of July at the Depot.

If he/she is really causing you trouble, Acquire or borrow a "have-a-heart" trap....then relocate the beast at least 10 miles from your house, any less and there is a decent chance it will come right back to your yard in a day or two. Relocations of wild animals are generally illegal but it's the best thing for coon and bird, so just don't get caught.
 
I ended up cutting out as much of the necrotic skin as I could today and am glad I did as it was infected underneath. Only concern now is some spongy looking flesh I couldn't do much with towards the back of the wound, but by the time I got to that the hen was stressed enough so I threw on some neosporin and called it a night. She is still eating and drinking well, so I am hopeful. Now that I have cleared off the dead skin, I am hoping it will stop being so weepy and the other areas will dry out a bit so I can tell if more needs to be cut off. She definitely has a long row to hoe, but she is pretty high energy and active, so I am not ready to just cull her.

Well glad you cut the skin back then. If she is eating and drink with gusto, I think she's got a good chance.
 
If he/she is really causing you trouble, Acquire or borrow a "have-a-heart" trap....then relocate the beast at least 10 miles from your house, any less and there is a decent chance it will come right back to your yard in a day or two. Relocations of wild animals are generally illegal but it's the best thing for coon and bird, so just don't get caught.

Please send directly to Bz's beach house
 
If he/she is really causing you trouble, Acquire or borrow a "have-a-heart" trap....then relocate the beast at least 10 miles from your house, any less and there is a decent chance it will come right back to your yard in a day or two. Relocations of wild animals are generally illegal but it's the best thing for coon and bird, so just don't get caught.

I have several coops in the backyard. I was using the one that had the losses as transitional housing for 10 chicks we hatched on site from our accidental rooster. They're juveniles now (ranging from four months to 10 weeks old), but I had no choice but to put them in the big (with a lot more structure and security to it) coop with the main layers. They may not love the back of the feeding and watering line, but it's better than being gutted by a raccoon.
 
Good news, my chicken that was attacked by the cocker spaniel down the street about 6 weeks ago has been healing and recovering quite well. Yesterday she laid her first egg since the attack. It was a bit oddly shaped and a bit smaller than usual, but the fact that she is laying again says to me she is pretty much recovered.

Clipping their wings seems to have prevented them from wandering too far. Two of my seven birds can still easily get over the fence, but they don't like to be out there on their own away from the rest of the flock, so they all mostly stay put in my back yard now.
 
That's great news. I am still working on getting my wounded bird healed up. It has been really slow going so far.
 
Question for the chicken coopers: hypothetically, if one of your fledgling chicks got out (or got left out) and somehow got over the neighbors 5 foot fence, anf the neighbors hypothetical dog killed the chick because she thought the chick would be "fun to play with," how would you want to chick back, if at all? Hypothetically, thrown back over your fence under discreet darkness, only to find it in the morning and ask "what happened?" A knock on the door from the hypothetical neighbor saying "somehow one of your chicks got into my backyard and my dog killed it here you go."? Or would you would you even notice at all that one was missing?

Asking for a friend.
 
Question for the chicken coopers: hypothetically, if one of your fledgling chicks got out (or got left out) and somehow got over the neighbors 5 foot fence, anf the neighbors hypothetical dog killed the chick because she thought the chick would be "fun to play with," how would you want to chick back, if at all? Hypothetically, thrown back over your fence under discreet darkness, only to find it in the morning and ask "what happened?" A knock on the door from the hypothetical neighbor saying "somehow one of your chicks got into my backyard and my dog killed it here you go."? Or would you would you even notice at all that one was missing?

Asking for a friend.

Ha! Hypothetically speaking, I would definitely notice if one of my birds went missing, but I only have 7, but if your hypothetical neighbor has dozens of chick running around they may not notice. Anyway, lets just say hypothetically they only have a few birds and would definitely notice if one was missing I'd probably suggest the hypothetical dog owner should go and knock on the door of the hypothetical chicken owner and say something like, "Sorry but one of your chicks got out and into my yard and my dog killed it. If you want the carcass back I could bring it over to you."
 
Ha! Hypothetically speaking, I would definitely notice if one of my birds went missing, but I only have 7, but if your hypothetical neighbor has dozens of chick running around they may not notice. Anyway, lets just say hypothetically they only have a few birds and would definitely notice if one was missing I'd probably suggest the hypothetical dog owner should go and knock on the door of the hypothetical chicken owner and say something like, "Sorry but one of your chicks got out and into my yard and my dog killed it. If you want the carcass back I could bring it over to you."

Hmmm ok. Would they honestly want it back, or are you just talking transparency = a good thing?
 
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