Emergency! Injured neck, tongue hanging out!

[theawesomechick]

My hen, Speckles, seems to have been the victim of a raccoon attack on our coop. Her throat has been ripped in the front and her tongue is hanging out. We haven't done anything so far other than clean the wound with water and rubbing alcohol. What should we do next? We don't have a vet nearby that will treat chickens.




Thank you for any help!
(these pictures are before cleaning)

 

[theawesomechick]

Please? We're trying to sew it up with thread but she keeps fighting it. She's a strong little bugger.

 

[chicknmania]

ouch, that's nasty. There's not a whole lot you can do, imo, except keep her in a warm, private pen. I always feel that they do better if they can still hear and see their friends, they don't get so stressed out. I don't know where you are, but if it's cold, she's going to have to be warm and stress free as much as possible. You can try to keep the wound clean with Veterycin. It is a good treatment for wounds, doesn't sting, and is beneficial.Plus, you can use it on any animal, so it's multi purpose. Also, you might want to take her in the house,in your case, as sometimes an injured bird can attract predators, they can sense the distress, or the victim makes noises that are associated with an injured animal. Plus, of course, they can smell blood. If she is still eating and drinking, that's most important. Hows' she doing otherwise?

 

[newwestchick]

I'm not entirely sure how she would eat or drink with her tongue hanging out the front of her throat? Or that without being able to eat and drink it would be able to heal...

It might just be beyond repair. If she's your pet give her a few days like chickmania suggested.

If she's not and you raise for meat and eggs, you might want to cull her before she loses too much weight to be good for freezer camp, then it wouldn't be a total loss.

Best of luck!

 

[chicknmania]

I guess it wasn"t clear to me that it was hanging out her throat, sorry. Yeah you do need to try and stitch it up. If her bleeding is under control, you could try holding her on her back...usually they don't struggle as much that way. With a wound like that, I'd have her on some antibiotics....preferably Baytril. Or at least injectable penicillin. And I wouldn't mess with it too long. If she doesn't show improvement quickly, you'd be doing her a favor by putting her out of her suffering, because she truly will be. Most vets will euthanize a chicken for you, even if they don't actually treat chickens. And we pay 10.00 or 15.00 to have it done here. To us, it's worth it, I don't like to cull them myself.

 

[chicknmania]

Also, it might be too late to stitch it up. You're supposed to try and do that within the first twenty four hours.