Really Bad Wound

Hi all!

I am very new to this.

I had my girls in a coup but some how on of the doors got loose. I have no idea how long they were out. When I was getting them back in I saw one of my girls probably got attacked by my puppy (Border Collie/Australian Shepherd). I have been keeping them safe for awhile because he had already killed one, at least I think it was him.

I love my chickens and I am very upset she is injured but I don't have the money at the moment to take her to the vet. Could you please give me any advice to try to help her? I have her in a large dog kennel with bedding, food, and water. Should I clean her with water or would saline solution work? I have a tube of neosporin and some bandages. It is a pretty awful injury. I believe some of the muscle is gone and you can see her bones. Any advice would be sooo appriciated.

That is a pretty significant injury. I would try keeping her isolated from the others, slathering the wounds with antibiotic ointment, and hope for the best. I have had birds recover from significant skin lacerations much worse than hers, but have never dealt with an injury involving the loss of that much flesh. I really don't know what the prognosis is, but if she were mine, I would give her a chance at recovery.

As long as she keeps eating there is hope. Wash the wound with copious amounts of warm water - flush it rather than scrub. An injectable or oral antibiotic would be a good idea as well, if you can get hold of something like Penicillin. Good luck.

Chickens are really tough.

Flush well with warm water and a little betadine solution (CVS).

Then slather with a ton of triple antibiotic ointment.

Then cover with a combine dressing (also CVS)

Then bandage with vetrap or coflex. I would just put the bandage around her whole body in order to immobilize the wing. But make sure that you've got ointment on the underside of the wing if the wound goes alltheway through to the bottom of the wing.

Change the bandage every three days, trying not to take any new skin with it when you take it off. Flushing the bandage with warm water will usually help get it off without disturbing any scar tissue.
Continue with flushing, ointment and bandaging until you see some good granulation tissue. Once you see a good amount of granulation tissue, you can switch to a wound powder like wonderdust without a bandage. It should heal within a few weeks.

I have a baby right now who scalped herself down to her skull and she's starting to grow flesh back after four weeks.

So I just rinsed off the area and tried not to touch her or move her too much. Squeezed a bunch of Neosporin on it, placed a gauze pad and wrapped her up
.

Thank you!!! I will look into that powder! I hope she makes it. I am soo upset and I feel terrible for her.

Looks good - hope she does well.

If you have already cleaned the wound, put some iodine on her wound. Not to be bossy, but those Australian Shepherds are the worst dogs for having on a farm. they attack everything and mine have killed many chickens.

Thank you everyone! This is an awesome site with so many helpful folks.

While diluted tamed iodines such as Povidone iodine can be used to clean wounds, strait iodine is very irritating to healthy tissue and can cause further damage. Safer to use an antibiotic ointment - and not one with a local anesthetic (anything that ends in -caine).