2mth old Chick w/ LARGE HOLE in Chest! PLEASE READ?

[luvarabhorses]

Ddawn, I don't think she is necessarily sewing in infection. Just use a whole lot of neosporin around the stitched area once sewn. She may not be able to just stitch the crop, then the outer skin. Perhaps the crop will repair underneath, read my Walter the duck story in a previous post.

 

[nnbreeder]

I would not use the dissolving stitches though if you decide to go that route. I would use the regular type and just plan to leave it there. It should build a callus around it and close the wound.

Then I would give her soft foods but just a little at a time to keep the crop from stretching so much as they do when full. Maybe feed some Kaytee Hand Feeding Formula that can be bought at Petsmart or similar stores.

After the crop is closed off use a lot of sterile water on the other to clean very well and in this case I would follow up with Hydrogen Peroxide so that maybe it will take enough of the scab off so the wound can knit together.

 

[threehorses]

If you buy some of the handfeeding formula, it keeps for a while in the fridge. An added bonus is that it has live bacteria in it so you get probiotic action.

I love the advice given to you by the others here. It's a learning experience for us all.

 

[countrybum]

Put some antibiotic ointment on a guaze pad and place it on the wound. Then take some wrap and wrap it around the body to hold the guaze pad in place. Leave it alone for a couple days and then change it. Only change it every other day. You mess with it daily it is not going to help, you have to give it time to heal itself. Find her a crate or confined area so she is not moving around a lot and leave her in there about a week.

My chicken had a hole in her side that was open and the above is what I did, she is still here and today, you cannot tell she was ever injured.

You will be amazed at the self healing powers God gave our animals.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
It is standard medical practice to leave a traumatic wound open that has been open for several hours, much less several days, on people, even if it was a "clean" wound. A wound inflicted by another animal would never be perceived as clean. Tis sort of wound must have an outlet for drainage. No decent medical practitioner would ever sew a necrotic or infected wound in a human together. On the contrary, drains are often placed during surgery, and not just for drainage of an infected wound.

If you got away with it with your duck, great, and I am glad for your duck. That does not make it good practice, or advisable. Neosporin limits some or a lot of bacterial growth, but does not prevent all bacterial growth, by any means. Nothing will do that.

 

[luvarabhorses]

Ddawn, Don't you think that gaping wound needs closed? I just stitched up a young hen (about 6 weeks) with her neck sliced open deep. The way the wound was ripped it left plenty of room for drainage. Maybe it would be better to say, leave a small spot unstitched at the bottom of the wound for drainage (that is what my vet always did with horses btw). I just got the feeling from the posts that she was worried about sewing it perfectly and that's why she wanted the MIL there. The idea is for the wound to build tissue to meet and mend . I understand that it won't heal very pretty and will have a lot of granulation tissue, but it will heal and we are talking about a chicken here.
I forget if you are the vet on here, and if you are I am not trying to insult your intelligence. But we are talking about animals that eat dirt here and are naturally exposed to about 1000 times more bacteria in a day than humans and other animals are. Neosporin won't keep all the bacteria out, but it won't kill the new skin cells that you are trying to form the way hydrogen peroxide, alcohol whatever will. I really like the Nu Skin liquid bandage as a top dressing, but it won't stick well if you've really slathered the area with too much neosporin. The other thing to keep in mind is that too much neo on the exterior of the wound will actually trap dirt due to the vaseline nature. Walter's wound was such that I squirted the neosporin in a pocket that had formed and some seeped around the stitches once stitched.

 

[luvarabhorses]

Also, it is a miracle what saline solution can do with a wound like that. Boil two cups of water and add one cup of salt. Pour into an empty dish washing detergent bottle and squirt regularly (once cooled). Doesn't matter if there is a sud or two left in the bottle.

Ddawn, Looking at the picture carefully it did not look infected to me. If it is infected, I guess you are right if staph has taken over. I thought the wound looked fairly clean.

 

[threehorses]

I'm not Ddawn, but I'll definitely answer your question unbidden (wink). No - I don't think that this gaping wound needs closing. As an ex-vet tech, I know very well that wounds like this, once closed, tend to be more likely to go bad than if left open to the air. Especially animal bites.

I agree that it doesn't look infected now. Honestly I feel it's because she's left it open. You can't see the microorganisms that are being fought by the body in that wound, however. So you simply don't close up animal wounds on birds. That's what our vet told us about any animal bite on any animal. And besides, the skin that you would use to do so isn't there. If there were deep tears in muscle that were the sort of gap you could stitch, like a gulley, that might be different. But this pretty much looks more bowl-shaped.

The fact that they're in dirt means one of two things. Either you remove them from their dirt environment to a clean mending place, or you cover (lightly) with a material that allows air in and keeps dirt out. In the case of this bird, it's in a difficult spot. The wound looks like it's being kept clean and the covering dressing keeps dirt from touching the wounds.

If she wanted to cover the wound additionally, she could possibly get a t-shirt, put it over the chicken, legs through the arm holes, and two holes for wings cut. Then gather the 'bottom' part onto her back and keep it gathered with duct tape. (Make sure you don't cover the vent.) You can gather the neck opening together a little more and keep it gathered (not tightly) again with duct tape. I child's cheap white t-shirt would work. They're washable, cheap, and very airy - keeps dirt out, allows the wound to 'breathe'.

I've had probably a half dozen wounds like this one in various places on chickens/ducks/geese/horses and made a practice never to have them stitched. The one time I did, on a horse, I ended up having a necrotic and very nasty wound despite twice a day cleaning, had to finally remove the covering (the vet did it), and once it was open it healed.

Granulating tissue will fill in the gape.

The problem with this one is going to be the possibility of a crop hole. The issue is whether or not to stitch it. As the bird is doing wonderfully, I'm not sure I would change a thing yet.

Just my 0.5 cents, again unbidden, but thanks for reading it anyway.

Good dialogue.

 

[countrybum]

 

[innof8happinesses]

We did it!!!! Skittles has surgery just a few minutes ago. She DID have a hole in her crop! As we suspected by the new blue dye water leaking yesteday.

We cleaned up around the exposed crop and you could literally see the hole open and close as she breathed. It was less than 1/8" dia. We sterilized a circular needle and bright orange thread in water for 10 minutes. At first it was hard to stitch because the tissue of the crop was so delicate that it would break before the needle went through to other side. But M-I-L went deeper (as she is a trained nurse), and it took! Just one nice stitch of double thread. We are not planning to remove it.

We cleaned the area a second time with saline solution and trimmed feathers and looked over the scabbing. Then, added a dab of betadine ointment (I hope that is ok) to the suture site and put her back in the tank. We allowed her some of her favorite cilantro snacks for being such a good girl. She laid upside down for the procedure in my hands. Then flew out of my hands when I released her. Nothing slows her down!

My daughters took a bunch a pics. I can see if any are good enough to put on this post later tonight!

You all have been sooooo helpful! I would have never ventured to get this far with her without all your awesome insights. I think there are so many ways to treat a wound... and we have had some unconventional methods that have worked well for us in other injuries in the past. But your brainstorming ideas and past experiences really gave us a wealth of knowlegde!!!! Woo-hoo!

Now, we shall see what happens from here.... Thank you!