Wylie got attacked by a pack of Coyotes yesterday!

OMG, I cant believe it, but she is okay, she has a few minor puncture wounds, and Jake saved her life! And it happened at 4:30 in the afternoon. I live in the country - my husband was out front filling the bird feeders and Jake and Wylie were out with him. They like to go out and sniff a and stuff. Jake was in the driveway and started barking like crazy, my husband thought he was barking at the UPS driver so he went up, but Jake is looking out back, hair raised and still barking. Wylie is not around so he calls her and she comes running up to the house with a coyote in front of her and 2 chasing her. We have had coyotes around before, but it is always at night and never this time of year.

I told my husband its those darn turkeys scavaging the bird feeder that is probably attracting them. We have miles of trails behind us and I take the dogs alone lot of hikes. Never again.
This has totally freaked me out. I just shook all night.

I am taking Wylie to the vet again, so they can check her and probably giv eher antiobiotcs and maybe a booster rabies since it expires in December.

Honeybear

 

Ack!! How totally scary! I'm so glad she is okay. Give her a pat and give Jake a big, fat cookie for saving her life!!

Poor Wylie. She just isn't having a good week.


Jamiya

 

Honeybear! ACK! I am so sorry to hear that. You are not having the best week. I am glad she is okay. What a hero Jake is.

Give them both lots of hugs ang Jake a big kiss for beign such a good Boy!

 

I just got back from the vet, he was upset the emergency place didnt have me come in last night to get Wylie an antiobotic shot, and that dog bites are nasty stuff. And he scared the heck out of me - that even though our area isnt prevailant in rabies and that the carriers in our area our bats and skunks, rabies is deadly, I show sysmptoms, I die! and it is rare but rabies can still be transmitted when vacinated. AKKK, I was cleaning her bites without gloves, so I am freaking out. And by law she has to be quarantined for 45 days, and she can do it at the house.

She got her blood test back everything looked good, she did have something elevated, now I cant remember what it was, but htat sholdnt cause her problem. He brought up addisons disease, but said lets wait until she gets thru the bite healing.

Honeybear

 

I know what you mean Honeybears, and thats why we have a bounty on coyotes out here. $30 a body.

The thing you need to watch for is infection in those bites. Coyotes are scavengers. They rarely hunt unless they are hungry and can't find anything.

Soooo you can imagine all the bad things that are in their mouths. Coyotes are highly agressive towards outside packs of dogs, and most of the time deadly to domesticated dogs.

You were lucky. Its a total MYTH that coyotes only run at night. They are up and going all hours of the day and night. Just because you see them during daylight hours doesn't mean there is something wrong with them.


Give wylie a big ol hug for me and keep an eye on those bites. Expect to see yellow puss, but if an odor persists....take her back imediately!!!

 

Sam, it sounds like Texas has a huge rabies problem, I just did a search on info and Texas is bad . My problem is I live in a "game preserve". Part of buying our property is no hunting, fishing, etc. And the problem with this is there are no predatars so we are being overun by turkeys and coyotes.

And when it puts our pets in jeapardy, thats different.

I am going to tell the owner what happened. I thought coyotes slept all day and were nocternal.

 

Honeybear that is so scary!! I can't believe they were out in broad daylight like that! My husband and I were out in Colorado a few weeks ago, and have thought about moving there because both of our companies headquarter there, but I have heard that Coyotes can actually come right into someone's back yard and steel their dog!!! Omigod that would be so awful!! I hope Wylie makes a speedy recovery- my thoughts will be with her!

 

I have a friend with a chow mix who insists on staying out during the night (not free of course). One night his barking awoke his owner and he looked outside and found his dog surrounded by coyotes. This was during the winter when they get braver cause they are hungrier.

Scary though...we get coyotes too. Sadie would never be able to defend herself - I can imagine your fear

I've seen many out during the day also...once x-country skiing we came across 3 coyotes running around. I've seen more of them during the day and evening than at night. I hear them at night but not see them.

 

That's awful Honeybear!! Give them both kisses from me.
I have no idea of how bad coyotes are... never seen one... I have never been outside of Australia. I'm glad we don't have animals over here that would come after our dogs. We have dingoes here (not that I live anywhere near where they would be) but they are small and shy and usually kill chickens. Actually, the one scary animal around here that threatens our dogs would be snakes in the warmer months.
I hope you are all ok, that's a shame that you fear going on hikes now

 

thanks for all of your thoughts, I will give Wylie a great big hug from all of you
Jules - I thought the same thing about coyotes, I alwasy thought they would go after small thing, like chickens, small dogs etc, not a dog their same size.

We actually named her after Wylie coyote, because when we first saw her wandering our neighborhood that is what we thought she was from a distance. We had them going thru trash, etc, because our housing development was encroaching on their space. Now that I live in the country I never thought this could happen.

honeybear

 

That's kind of ironic that she's named after her something that attacked her. It's kind of like how I was named after someone who turned out to be nasty! Sorry to bring the subject onto "ME ME ME" again.
But Wylie is the hopeless funny cartoon one isn't he?? Just think of that one and not the real coyotes.
My thoughts are with you & your furbabies.

 

One thing that will deter coyotes from coming around is to keep your yard clean. Free of debres and trash. (I'm assuming your not living in a junk yard LOL!!!)

Anyhow, they are scavengers. They go around looking for things to eat. THey will hunt only when they are hungry and nothing is found to eat. They don't kill dogs for food. Most of the time they will kill a dog and leave it. They do this to prevent the breedings from outside packs. They alpha male and alpha female (usually the largest in the pack) will do the killing. No outside females allowed, definately no outside males. The female is the head of the pack and over the male.

More than likely they weren't attacking her out of plane meaness..but she may have intruded upon their territory. Coyotes have territories. (the whole reason males lifting leg thing....they mark their area's) Thats probably what set them off, and if Wylie is a friendly dog, she probably approached them.

Now if a bitch is in heat, I've known bachelor males to come seek them out. But I believe you said she was spayed.

I don't think the comment about coyotes hunting down your dogs in your back yard is true. Maybe if its a small dog like a chi, or something,t ehy probalby mistake it for a rabbit or food.
Rarely do they approach domesticated dogs. Usually only if the dog is in their territory or incroaching on their pack.

Sorry for the long post, I've lived with them all my life and have done a bazillion researches on them. But I'm not an expert. Just wanted to throw my 2cents in to help clarify some things.!

 

That must have been really scary...I'm glad Wylie is okay.

 

Thanks Sam, makes sense, they could have been scoping out the turkeys, Or are the turkeys too big for them?? and Wylie wondered into their territory. checking them out. I am lucky it wasnt Jake wandering in that area,, because he is a big oaf and I dont think he could have gotten away from them. he moves at a snails pace.

The vet said that also when a female is in heat, the pack members will bait a male dog to approach and then go for the kill. I dont know why and I may be leaving some of it out because that just doesnt make sense to me. maybe thats what you mean about preventing from breeding outside the pack. you said they go after dogs, do they go after deer? My husband seems to think so. I have heard it is like a wives tale that dont go after cattle or deer for eating.

Our property and surrrounding area is spotless. we live in an extreme fire danger area, so we have been clearing the surrounding area of brush and trees and we are by law have to clear 100' of this frm the house.

Jules yea it is ironic. Wylie coyote is the mean coyote cartoon with the Road runner and he is always trying to kill the roadrunner.

She even has a loony tunes name tag that has the wylie coyote character on it

honeybear

 

They say a regular dogs mouth can cause alot of damage, imagine what a coyotes would do. Keep those woulds clean. I can not even imagine being in that sort of predicament. Take care.

 

I live in Phoenix up against the mountain preserve. Coyotes come into the neigborhoods even more so now with urban sprawl. They come down for water and food now that their natual resources are being depleted,(rabbits, ground squirrel, mice, etc.) They'll come down from the mountain to eat dog food, cat food if it's left outside and for water out of pools, fountains, and irrigation. I even lost a couple of outdoor cats. Now, my cats are indoor cats only. When I walk the dogs up the mountian trail, the coyotes will come really close. Sometimes only one out of a pack will get really close like it's trying to "Flirt" or entice my dogs to follow it. The rest of the pack is just kind of hanging back around behind the boulders. There have been incidents as of lately where the coyotes are approaching babies that are left unattended on porchs in playpens and swings. In a way I feel sorry for them because us humans have taken away so much of the deserts to build shoppping malls and tract housing. Anyway, i hope Wylie recovers from his run in with the critter. That's funny, though, I was thinking about the Wylie Coyote thing, too. Wasn't that the RoadRunner cartoon? I can't remember.

 

Coyotes will go after baby calves or sick cows. My father raises cows and he has lost newborn or sick calves to coyotes. They have also attacked sick cows.

And I have a coyote story to add here....

I have two toy dogs who know to stay close to the house when we visit my parents. I had let them out for their morning potty and went back to bed. I heard the awfullest noise and went back outside to find a coyote in the yard trying to get to my two (I assume). They would have made a nice snack as they were both under 10 pounds at the time. My parent's 20 pound rat terrier (all muscle-farm dog) was fighting the coyote off. I'm convinced he saved my two from becoming breakfast. I was able to get my two back in the house and call Scooter (rat terrier) into the house. He got away with a small puncture wound on his neck.

 

Cleaning the wounds out with a simple saline solution is the best thing you could do for them. Saline Kills bacteria and also promotes healing where Alcohol etc... will also kill the delicate new skin endings that are trying to heal.

Even many dogs (poop eaters) have VERY dirty mouths...in all reality... Coyotes probably have cleaner mouths than those poop eating dogs out there...

 

Glad dogs alright

I'm so glad your dog is alright, i had to be away from home about 7 yrs ago and a coyote at my chow. I was so sick when i got home . id hads her for years.my son and hubby was suppose to be watching her.