Rooster with Raccoon Damage ~ permanent hole in head

[GwenDellAnno]

I have a roo that protected his ladies from a raccoon and took all the damage himself. I have been "first-aiding" him and he is now on the mend. He lost one eye and a chunk out of his comb.... the eye is still weeping a bit (a bit of tissue still left in the socket which is slowly leaving) but otherwise it all seems to be healing well. My problem is the hole in skull behind the eye socket. The tissue is healing (I have blue-kot in it and wipe SWAT around the outside of the wound each day to keep the maggots/flies away), and he seems to be feeling much better... much more alert, crowing again and eating well.

Today I put him in with the hens for the first time. A couple of the more dominant hens started immediately "cleaning him off", pecking at the dirt he has dropped down the front of him and around his face. As soon as they started on the wound, I shooed them away and removed him again.... it's too soon.

My question is about the hole in his head. It is never going to "skin" over. What would you do to protect the hole from getting dirt in it?? Should I try bandaids over it?? (I wouldn't do that until I was sure that the tissue was completely healed with no infection left in it). Here's a pic of what his head looks like. The skin around the hole is actually getting clearer and cleaner as the dead stuff and scabbing falls away. I'm very optimistic about his full recovery, I just don't know what to do with the hole.

 

[Knight Hawk Ranch]

Give it some more time to heal. It may yet fill in with tissue. Nature is amazing sometimes in how she heals things up.

 

[EweSheep]

If it is not that large, let it heal and keep up the good nursing skills on him.

If it is large, a couple of stitches will do.

 

[chkn]

I think he'll heal over. He probably won't be feathered there. Maybe someone else can tell you best about treating the wound. It sounds like what you are doing is working pretty well. Crowing is a very good sign.

 

[Davis5454]

We had a roo that had a hole in the skin on the crown of his head. It naturally wanted to pull open and you could see his skull.

I had hen that had a hole in her side....don't know why. It was the size of a 50 cent piece. You could see her ribs and muscles. I could even stick a finger in all the way across her side.



Both animals wounds healed up with no problems. I just put a little Neosporin on them and keep the other chickens away until they are well healed. They will pick at it to see what it is and make it worse.

Your guy was pretty beat up.....it'll take a few weeks on the short side....maybe a couple of months on the long side.
Our roo took several weeks. Our hen healed up very quickly since it was under a wing and couldn't be bothered.

Don't give up.....he may have lost an eye.....but will heal fine. Don't expect his comb to grow back though.

BD

 

[GwenDellAnno]

No, I'm not expecting him to replace the comb or the eye, but I figure he will do fine without either of those.... At first I thought he had lost both eyes because the other one was crusted shut with blood. But I read about other folks with blind roos surviving, so I decided to work on him. I was very glad when it cracked open after about the first three days. I will just keep up with the SWAT and perhaps now that it's not oozing I'll try some of the neosporin or something similar. I guess this is a case where patience is a virtue. It has been about three weeks and as he is steadily improving I have nothing to complain about. Thanks for all your encouragement.

 

[perolane]

I had a quail with a very bad head injury....you could actually see brain matter. I cleaned her up, gobbed on neosporin, & left her for the night fully expecting her to be dead in the morning. She was alive.....I continued to fill that hole with neosporin every day & she continued to get better. It took almost 3 months for it to close up, but it did. I still have her today!

I have great faith in that stuff along with good care. Sometimes you just never know & I hate not to give anything a chance.