Baby Chicken Disasters

Today we had a run in wih our dog. I wasn't too sure how she would act, and I didn't trust her. My instincts had been correct. She attacked Alpha Beech. My baby. Thankfully I have a chicken first aid kit all set up and good to go and a chicken forum and social media to help me out and calm my butt down. Because boy, let me tell you, I was fully FREAKING out. My baby was scared, running around, and in pain. I am going to show a picture below, it isn't that graphic but it could have been a lot worse, and I will make sure to tell you why. 

So we had been outside. Getting ready to come inside and I was letting my daughter put the babies in the carry box, which is getting to small. (This box will never again be used. I have already gotten a bigger box for next time.) I was holding Amber, our Vizsla. I was already on edge because Amber was pacing before we took them out, lip licking and just not being very calm. Then it happened, Alpha Beech jumped out of the box and right in front of Amber. Amber lunged and jerked me forward just a half inch. That is all it took. She had Alpha in her mouth. I yanked on her collar and she let her go. Alpha went screaming back into the coop. It took me everything to not freak out in this moment. I quickly took Amber inside and out of the way so I could get to Alpha Beech and tend to any wounds. 

I get back to her and it took at least a minute to wrangle her. Felt like an eternity. She was so stressed and scared. I get her inside to inspect and I see that thankfully she is not fully punctured, but enough that it will cause issues with her sisters. I clean and disinfect the wound. I then put on triple antibiotic onto the wound to prevent infection. I put her in the brooder to help warm her up and then I notice she is getting picked on. So I ended up holding her for a few hours and keeping her warm so she can have time to rest. It is important that she gets the rest in so she doesn't have any issues healing. 

I know she will be okay, I just wish she didn't have to go through this in the first place. My advice is to train your dog to be good to birds before it is an issue.  You don't want to be in my situation where you have an injured bird and have to wonder if she is going to be okay and then have to change the brooder to make sure she is safe at night.  Worse case scenario I would need to create a crate inside of the brooder to place miss Alpha in so that she is afe and secure while she is still able to be in contact with her sisters. The other issue that would take place would be removing her  completely and then I would have to go through a process to reintroduce her to the flock, which can take a few weeks to do. 

Thankfully, everything seems to be going okay and she should have a full recovery.