The dog attacked my hen... help/advice

Sorry to hear about your hen. You need to keep her separate from the others as they will attack any hens that they see as injured or sick. Can you put her in a box inside for the night, somewhere quiet? Also if you have any purple spray to put on the wounds, it's an antiseptic. She will be in shock, don't try to handle her too much or keep peering in at her, leave her in peace as much as possible tonight. Let us know how she is in the morning.

Thanks, she seems ok thios morning, she is moving around her little run (with the other 3 silkies they havent come out either!) ive put some fresh water in, which they all dashed for. She looks awful though, I think because of her missing feathers you can see chunks of black.

Im calling the vet this morning and will try and pop her up, if not I will buy some purple spray.

Thanks all. I will keep you updated.

I found this after a quick google search. I hope it helps.

Orchardlady.

Maggots within a wound are typically not a major danger (and in fact sometimes a good thing, as they seem to confine themselves to consuming only necrotic tissue). This gives you time to assess the situation and choose an effective, safe approach.
Ideally, flushing maggots from the wound with sterile saline works very well. Sterile saline is pretty harmless stuff and is used to remove pretty much any foreign material from open wounds. Alternately, in the case of a very small number of individuals, you can also remove maggots from a wound with tweezers.
You most definitely don't want to use toxins to kill them. First, as you're dealing with an open wound, the toxins you use will find easy access to the patient's system. Secondly, maggots can decompose when dead, thus introducing a bacterial threat.
Bear in mind that maggots are a larval stage, and as such will not reproduce within a wound.
Note also that maggots are sometimes used clinically, especially in cases where super-sensitive debridement of necrotic tissued, especially from burns, is desirable. In this case, the maggots in question are sterilzed (both in the antiseptic and reproductive sense).
Old school paramedics will also tell you that discovering maggots in the bandaged wounds of transients and people that cannot perform good wound care, is a good sign, usually meaning that the wound will be clean and uninfected.

I do have some saline but she has a hole in her about 6cm across, and shes only about 4 months old.

I know it seems heartless but we only brought her for £5 a month ago she hasnt really become a pet yet (and im pretty sure she is a he!) I dont want them to suffer? My neighbour has had chickens for years so I will pop along to see what they think, as to be fair I couldnt actually do the deed!

Thanks for your support peeps.

T

Neighbour was great, she said its not that bad!!! Its torn the skin leaving the hole rather than taking a chunk of her flesh, so she seemed to think it was worth a try.

We have applied the aluminium spray which creates like a layer over the wound so that its not open, hopefully this will smother the maggots that are in there too, Ive put her back in her small enclosure, shes tucked up in a corner but she has been in a box all night so maybe thirsty and hungry. I cant get the other 3 hens out so she may be hiding her bad side as shes bright silver so the other hens dont see?? Im going to try and get them out in a bit. My other 2 hens (who the 4 silkies dont like) have decided to go broody I was also trying to get her off the nest as they have gone broody again and she was cackling like mad, hopefully now shes settled down. I can get the other hens out leaving Barry to rest and recover.

I will keep you all updated.

Thank you

   So sorry she did not make it.  You did everything you could to give her a chance of recovery.  Never heard of the spray so can't comment on that. 

i think the spray must be like silver spray which has antiseptic properties. My friend was given it for a wound on her arm following an operation.

Cant say whether it the spray would have affected the chicken. Maybe the infection was already in her system before the spray was applied or maybe it was shock.

Sorry to hear she didnt pull through.

Think it may have been this splash101.

www.vetoquinol.co.uk/downloadable/FarmerGuideWound.pdf