4-day old chick & a cat =(

[chicknhawaii]

I consulted via phone with my hatchery but am feeling very guilty & very on-edge about the treatment I've been giving to my little girl.

Somehow, with all precautions & 4 of us sitting in the same room as our 2 chicks, none of us saw one of our cats on the bin & how in the world she worked a claw into the bin far enough to somehow get the one.

We just got both chicks on Friday!

Anyway, there's an open wound under her wing to about her thigh - I looked it up & I guess it's called "degloved"? I cleaned the area with some peroxide & applied triple antibiotic ointment then covered with a non-stick gauze pad then wrapped stretchy gauze around her. I've been changing the dressing in the morning and evening but tonight, she's doing her very best to pick off the dressing. They are under a heat lamp, temp will be about 66 degrees at the lowest.

Any advice on if I'm doing the right thing, the wrong thing, both, neither, and if I should even put a dressing?! Maybe just pile on the ointment & put them in red light? I hnc what I'm doing, what it would look like if infected.

She is eating & drinking & remains in the same bin with her friend. Her friend is a White Leghorn & slightly bigger to begin with, she's a Brown Sex-Link.

 

[Judy]

Hmm, that's a bit of a problem.

Most people don't try to dress chicken wounds, just clean and use an antibiotic ointment. Trouble is, often the others (other for you) will pick at the wound so the injured chick will have to be separated til there is no redness visible. Many folks use a product called BluKote on wounds. It comes in generic; the main ingredient is gentian violet. It stains the wound (and everything it touches) blue/purple which conceals the red and hopefully prevents others from picking at the wound. It's also an antiseptic.

Chicks don't do well alone, though. Maybe you can separate them with a bit of window screen or chicken wire so they can still see and hear each other.

Just in case you didn't know, be sure the antibiotic ointment does not have a "caine" ingredient (cetacaine, benzocaine, etc.)

Good luck!

 

[chicknhawaii]

Hi! Thank you for responding, I'm sorry I didn't respond earlier!

My little one is hanging in there - her eating & drinking have not slowed down (except last night when she swallowed a stringy part of the gauze - had to pull it out) & her friend doesn't seem to be picking on her too much.

What I ended up doing was risking huge amounts of stress on her & putting a cut piece of non-stick gauze pad with ointment on it (no -caine in it, I read that here). Then I wrapped a gauze around her & taped it. But of course as she gets stronger, the more difficult it became to get it to stay.

Plus with a bit of fluff or string hanging, both would pick at it.

I finally found an elastic type gauze thing in my first aid kit and am using that b/c it's the perfect size to just slip over her head & wings to hold the ointment pad to her body. And since it's white, no one really bothers with it when she's had it on for a few minutes.

It seems she'll be just fine but until it's 100% healed, I'll be having anxieties.