I looked! I've seen worse.....much worse. Those dogs are standing and eating. You won't have any problem keeping them alive. Everyone is correct however about giving plenty of SMALL meals.....and also this is not the time to evaluate temperament and prey drive. Starving dogs will not behave the same as normal dogs. Their instincts to kill will win out. I don't have opinions about what to feed them....just food! Keep their bowls apart as they may fight over the food. Keep all other animals away from starving animals eating. The female you think may be pregnant should have some sort of extra calcium, cottage cheese would be excellent.
After feeding them, this is what I would do:
1) Find out the laws in your area about strays. Call Animal control or the police department and learn what they are and begin taking the steps. Sometimes they ask you to place an ad, keep the dog a certain number of days or make a report to animal control. Do not assume their owners were "BAD". They may have lost the dogs, the dogs could have been stolen, or they could be searching desperately for them, do not make assumptions. They are not pit bulls and don't have fighting scars, so you don't have any evidence there that the people are "bad". Even very nicely raised dogs could be skittish of strangers especially after their ordeal. So place a "found" dog report and see if any local papers do free ads for "found" dogs, many do. Put up a flier at the vet clinic, that is how you make the dogs legally "yours" to do with as you see fit.
2) Take the dogs to any local vet to scan for a microchip (I've never seen one charge for this). I've seen animals returned to their owner after five years of being lost. While at the vets, ask if there are any local rescue organizations that could help with re-homing some strays you found. I sure hope there is a local group. In my area, there are several groups that would probably put your dog on a wait list for a foster home. See if anyone from the vet clinic will give you free advice, such as what breeds are they, is the one pregnant, how old do they look and do they look familiar to them? Try to find out where you might find low cost spay-neuter assistance and whether someone ELSE will pay for that for you, give you dog food, crates, etc.. Finding a group that would list the dogs on Petfinder.com after you have established there is no owner (some areas have a three-day waiting period, our area has a 30-day one).
3) For the time being, keep those dogs away from your livestock. If that means shutting them up in a barn or being chained or crated or caged, so be it. What they need right now is rest and food, not exercise. We can help you "train" those dogs in a few days if you need to. For now, see what their status is. If you find no owner is looking for them, I'd immediately start looking for a home for them because of the livestock issue. I'd treat them for fleas and worms (this is where a rescue could help you, they often have this stuff on hand already) so they don't contaminate my property.
I once assumed "bad" people had lost a dog I found and was angry that I had to adhere to laws to find the former owner, but I did, while I fattened the dog up. Lo and behold, the dog was microchipped and the owner contacted. I was so reluctant to give the dog back, it had finally started to gain weight and I'd had it about two weeks. But I was legally supposed to give the dog back,so I called the people, and this was their story. They had been on vacation a few months earlier, and hired a neighbor to watch their dog while gone. The neighbor had accidentally left the gate unlatched and the dog had escaped and the neighbor was so upset and worried he never told the owners. So they come home and their dog has been missing for two weeks. Our shelter is a three-day hold and they didn't understand that all dogs with microchips are scanned, and didn't realize their dog could not have been put down. Even so, they looked and looked for the dog, hoping it had not been euthanized, and finally about three months later, I found them through the microchip they had put in their dog as a puppy. They were overjoyed! They never stopped looking for their dog, just missed my ad, and were appalled at how thin it had become, and it was also 1/2 a county away from their home. The dog was shy, but that was because people had been mean to it while it was a stray (it was a big, tough looking pit bull cross). The dog was extremely happy to find these folks and I realized not to judge owners by the way a stray looks. They were very nice people and vowed to NEVER have their dog babysat that way again and next vacation they would take it with them. And I vowed to always look for owners. Usually if a dog is in that condition there will not be one or they will not come forward. Someone who dumped them will not call you.
Bless you for taking them in, I cannot stop myself from helping starving animals, it just isn't in my nature. Let me know if you need more assistance, helping strays is a specialty of mine. For the time being assume they would both kill your ducks, livestock, whatever, until proven otherwise. Send me a PM if you would like, I'd be happy to help you find a local rescue if I can, or if there is none I'll see what I can find nationally that would be helpful to you. But asking at your local vet clinic will usually get most of the answers, you may even find there is a place you can take them where somebody will take over for you. In our county, the local groups would jump all over the two skinny dogs and you'd have a foster home in a few days. I forget where you are at, but I'd take the dogs myself if you could get them to me.
