Answer please! need wound help turned black. Have searched no HELP.

[AndreaS]

You've been given lot's of great information here! I just wanted to post an article that I found on an old post here....I keep a print up of this with my chicken first aid kit. May be helpful.

This is not my information, I copied it from an old post!

I hope that's okay!

Quote:

 

[Kasia]

I've had a lot of experience with such wounds and first of all, don't panic.

The skin will die off, and yes, the smell can be pretty awful. I will tell you about my experiences with such wounds as trained by my wonderful avian vet.

Two years ago we got an Americauna hen (we run a bird rescue) that was hit by a car and left on the side of the road for 4 days until someone noticed she was moving. She smelled dead. She had a badly broken leg and a nasty gash in her side, some skin missing, and she had maggots.

It was a Saturday and my vet was closed till Monday, but he does email me back when I send him a question. I was told not to use peroxide, as it destroys healthy tissue as well. He told me to mix 1 part batadine or iodine to 10 parts warm water, and wash the wound out with a little pressure. I used a turkey baster to squirt the water on her wound and squirt out the maggots. Then with tweezers I got all the maggots out. I used surgican scizzors to cut away the black skin, being careful not to cut any dying skin because as long as it had a blood supply, it would bleed and lead to infection. He then told me to use unpasteurized honey on the wound. Honey is antibacterial, it has natural antibiotics and it promotes healing. So twice a day I woul clean her up with the betadine solution and then pack the wound with honey and gauze. That's it. When the skin became black, I had to do a little bit of debridement as well. I had her on antibiotics to take care of any infection she might have gotten while sitting out in the elements for 4 days.

Phoenix has been with us for 2 years now, and the only thing wrong with her is she walks with a limp due to the broken leg. She has never seen the vet.

The skin will not grow back, but the tissue underneath will grow a thick coating that will act like skin. However that area won't grow any feathers.

Since Phoenix, we have gotten several skinned ducks and a couple more chickens and each one of them is fine, not one of them ever saw a vet. They have a very resiliant little body and heal up very nicely.

 

[newbiechickenowner]

is there a good suggestion or two for the antibiotic to go in her water or mouth for internal help since it has become necrotic? should I give her something of tha nature?

 

[Kasia]

I've always used Baytril, since it's a broad spectrum antibiotic and have been using it for over 6 years. I've also used Cipro, Amoxycillin and am currently using Tylan and Baytril, depending on what the problem is.

Have you noticed any maggots? Is there any way you could post photos? Or if not, does the wound look somewhat similar to my photos in the post above?

 

[newbiechickenowner]

They are good photos, but it can be hard to tell in pictures. It has the area that looks like a 2x2 in tear, but, then, at the corner of the tear, you are then able to pull away the feathers and skin to an area that is probably 2x3 in at least where the skin will pull away from the body almost like a giant pocket. Can any of the antibiotics go in the water? to make it easier?

 

[Kasia]

I think it would be best to give her the antibiotics by mouth or injection since water dilutes it and you can't control how much she gets if she's drinking it in the water. Usually with mine I do give tylan mixed in their water if they have respiratory infections and such but for injuries as serious as this one you want to make sure she gets the proper amount on antibiotics into her system. Otherwise it may not be enough. I found that with mixing their antibiotics with their water, I can't really watch who drinks how much, at times the water gets knocked over and then I can't tell if ANY of them had ANY water, so to me it's just easier to give them a pill, liquid antibiotic with syringe into their mouth or injection. But that's just me.

I have had a couple of my chickens decline really fast so I didn't want to chance it and wanted to make sure they got a full dose rather than not enough.

 

[newbiechickenowner]

So I went to TSC and the Co-Op and ran into the same problem.....I can find the bag antibiotics and I am not able to give injections yet. Can someone tell me exactly what they use for an ORAL antibiotic, what type, how many MLs orallya and for how long? Also, does anyone have an easy way to explain how to give them an antibiotic SHOT? The problem is that almost all medications at both places only went down to SWINE and NOT chicken (or ducks - I have been fortunate so far, but I am assuming with the number that I have, I will eventually need to assist a duck).

This would also be helpful for some of the other titrations of medications...like...electrolytes....only brand I could find, didn't go down the chicken and....told you how to mix 110 gallons...Umm...I have 1-5 gallon waterers. So, any advice that you could add would be really helpful. I ended up with the put-in-the-water antibiotic as I found nothing else except injectable Tylin (I just spelled that wrong, but I did have the printout and looked at the correct thing that was recommended

)

 

[Kasia]

Ugh I know, I had the same problem with something I had to mix in with their water and all I have is 1 gallon waterers and this thing said use the whole packet to make 150 gallons. I suck at math, so I had a friend of mine to work it out in teaspoons.

With injections, you have to dose it according to their weight. I use injectable Tylan on both ducks and chickens. I haven't injected any of my birds though. I don't want to give an injection to a bird smaller than a serama, so I give them a pill or liquid by mouth.

I'm not sure how to explain how to give an injection, but if you would like, I can make a video of me giving one of our new chickens her injection and I'll post it online.

 

[AndreaS]

Here is a link for how to give chickens an injection

http://shilala.homestead.com/injection.html

My understanding is that for injuries You use Penicillin G.Procaine ( in the fridge of the feed store) or Batryl (from the vet)

I have instructions on how to use the Pen G saved somewhere, if you want them, I will try and find them for you.

 

[newbiechickenowner]

Kasia, what is a "serama"? Just curious. So when you say you use the injectable, but don't inject, do you use it orrally with a syringe? What do you do with the pills and where do you get them? Sounds like you take in all sorts of creatures

AndreaS thanks for the link. Looks helpful.

Someone said that everyone prefers a different place to inject. Where do you both prefer to inject? Does it matter based on medicine or medical issue at hand? or is it just preference?