Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 12 year old female walker/fox hound. She has hip displasia, a bad knee, has had pups, not fixed, and is blind in one eye. I have had her since late Nov. 2006. I have been useing her as my chicken flock gaurdian once a week since March. Last Saturday I thought that my flock got attacked by a pack of coyotes and that Nina just ran away. Then yesturday I saw her go into the coop and I screamed at her from an upstairs window and she ignored me so I ran outside as fast as I could and she had killed one of my chickens. So it was her that killed 13 of my chickens last Saturday. Why would she out of no where do this? She has also been snoring horribly all night for the past 2 months. And she would sleep 24/7 if you let her. She doesn't even want to get up to go pee. Could she have a tumor? I do not want to keep her. I have 5 other dogs that never bother the chickens and here she is old as dirt just killing them to kill. She hardly has any teeth. It is getting time to put her to sleep due to her physical ailments but should I do it sooner now that she is killing the chickens? What is she tries to kill another dog? She gets rimadil and joint vitamins daily. Any advice?

I honestly don't know what to say for advice. My guess is she is hurting from all of her ailments. Yet, I'm not exactly sure why she'd take it out on the chickens. Still behavioral changes and pain do tend to go hand in hand. If it were my dog, I'd be at the vet working on a new pain management system and I'd also retire the dog from her guard dog duties. She's obviously not adept at that skill any longer. I'd make her as comfortable as possible and go from there.
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Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles

When is the last time this dog has seen professional veterinary care? With all of the ailments and infirmities she might be in pain which can be a major cause of behavioral changes. I can say one thing with this dog being dysplastic is she probably shouldn't have had pups but I realize that happened before you got her. Do you know the cause of the blindness in the one eye? This too may be a contributing factor to her killing chickens if the sight in her other eye is being compromised. If it were me I would take the dog to a vet for evaluation and complete examination.
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Bob

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.