Attacked chicken-disattached skin

[WhitWhit]

We had an attack from some predator yesterday...we found an injured hen last night and a dead hen today. The wounded hen has deep wounds showing bone and skin tissue around her neck, shoulder area and skin pulled from her body handing from her chest. We put peroxide on her which she so patiently let us do, then we put on human type antibiotic ointment on her. We probably should attach her skin back to her body but don't know how to hold it together. The unattached skin is about 3 inches long I'd say. The hen is eating and drinking and walking around. She jumped right out of her cage we kept her in last night and walking but has to lay down and rest often. Any help would be appreciated so we may help her. Thanks.

 

[mderby48]

I had that happen when the neighbors dog got hungry... All I did was spray Blu kote on her And separate her from the rest of the flock. She was completely healed in couple weeks. After a month her feathers were growing back. Keep an eye out for signs of infection, she may need antibiotics. When I first discovered this on my hen my husband said put her down but I refused. Blu kote works amazing.

 

[BunkyB]

Good going so far. If it is possible you could try to fold the skin back to as normal a position as possible . Peroxide is good initially. Try not to use it too often as it dries out the skin causing more dead skin flakes and the edges of the would could become a little jagged.

This may sound weird but I have had a lot of rescues due to dog maulings in the past and coyote maulings. Chicken skin seems to be a fast healer when treated right...I am as smart as a dump truck but I have wacks of experience...lol

Go to your local drug store and pick up a can of liquid band-aid (spray), or the paint on kind in a bottle. While you are there pick up a roll of wrap bandage, the cheap see through stuff will suffice. Clean the wound once more, pat it dry and fold the skin as best as you can to original. Spray or brush the liquid band-aid along the tears and try to ley dry, it works fast. With someones help lay the hen on its back, she should become docile and easier to handle. Wrap the bandage around her body and underneath the wings and try to cover the whole area with wrap if possible. On her back in your lap that is...

After the area is wrapped up nice grab some sticky tape and tape the end down. The birds wings are not obstructed and less liable to become frustrated. It should only take a few days and the skin grows over pretty fast. If she is not fussing and tolerates the wrap leave it on a couple more days. The longer the better. If she is a fussy fart you may need to apply more tape the same direction as the wrap making it harder to get off.

Sorry for the ramble on there but I breed wild turkeys and the toms are not gentle during the mating practice and I have seen 20 inch peeled back gashes that healed nicely with this method... Best of luck.....Steve

 

[WhitWhit]

Thanks so much for the great suggestions. I need to order Blu Kote since I thought I had it for our horse but it was Scarlex instead and I was afraid to use that. There's so much you can't get from this little town we live in after 5 oclock and the Dollar Store didn't have liquid band-aid at all so I remembered that years ago my grandmother had replaced the skin on a cat with Preparation H...lol....and the cat healed nicely and was fine. She had said the preparation H has healing agents and used it quite often for animals and self for things quite unrelated to its original uses. I figued we'd try that so we did...hopefully not a mistake. The hen had more like a 5 inch long piece of feathered skin hanging in front of her which we placed back as well as we could after cleaning it and adding the prep H, then placed gauze around it. The hen stood perfectly still allowing us to work on her. We didn't place her on her back because her neck wounds are quite bad and we didn't want to cause her more pain. Copper, a RIR, seemed to know we were helping..or she was in great pain and didn't care. But one thing my daughter did when bandaging was to cover one entire wing, which I didn't know she was doing on that other side, insisting it must be wrapped well to support her. I don't want the hen unbalanced so I'll watch and see if I need to rewrap.

Oh, one more thing! The chickens wounds are beginning to smell like an infection may be coming on...I don't how to get antibiotics for her.
Any ideas as to what type of antibiotic and where to get it...I do know that our vet will not just give it out for a chicken...only one vet nearby who only treats animals like dogs or cats...

 

[BunkyB]

It is great what you are doing so far. Right now having a brain fart as to antibiotics, I keep thinking salene but there is other stuff to get.. I often use pump spray bactine and it does the trick for me. As for the foul smell, if coming from the wounds there may be a deeper puncture. Try the bactine or some one else here may know of a good under the counter antibiotic.. Good luck and don't give up. Steve

 

[MCraft-NPoultry]

Thumbs up to Bunky ! Do exactly so! Poor little hen, wish her and you the best of luck! Definately try to get some antibiotics for her!