Big cut on chick's face - help please!

[TomboyChickens]

My 8-week old chick got under foot!!! She went screaming away and started bleeding immediately. I finally caught her. She's got a pretty deep cut but she was otherwise acting fine moving around with the other chicks. I'm afraid to use Blu-Kot because it's so close to her eye. I've got her segregated so the other chicks don't peck at her. Does anyone have recommendations for what I can use to clean and cover? Anything else?

 

[azygous]

Clean the wound with warm soap and water, and flush well to remove all bacteria. Get the Blu-kote and use a Q-tip as an applicator. When that is dry, smooth on some antibiotic ointment to further protect against bacteria and to keep the wound moist for faster healing.

Do this every day until the wound is completely healed. Do not allow the wound to scab over and dry out or it can take forever to grow new tissue.

 

[Trisseh]

Personally I would avoid blu-kote and use an antiseptic or antibacterial ointment to help keep it moist. Blu-Kote makes a mess and you can’t get a good visual on the area after applying it. Plus, the blu-Kote is meant as a protective layer, so applying other things on top is not really all that helpful... watch for flies, keep it clean and use the ointment. This wound will heal by second intention and will take time. Medicinal honey may be of benefit once you have new tissue coming in. Just my opinion but I like to see what I’m working with. Lol.

 

[TomboyChickens]

Thanks, everyone! So her top layer of skin is ripped off and there's a big area of subcutaneous tissue exposed. Does that require anything more or different?

 

[Trisseh]

You want the wound to remain clean but moist. If it gets really dry it’ll take longer to heal. It’ll depend on how tolerant the chick is, and what you have available to you to use. If I were dealing with something like that, I would probably use nitrofurazone or hibitane ointment. Basically any antibacterial wound ointment will do to start with. Once it’s granulating in well with healthy new tissue, I would switch to medicinal honey (it comes in a squeeze tube or infused bandaging material) or a wound barrier like DermaGel. Usually clean wounds once or twice daily with saline solution or dilute iodine or chlorhexidine solution. Then you reapply most ointments twice daily, or once if it’s hard to do. Reminds me of a dog we saw once that got caught by its collar in the bush for a few days. Poor thing looked like someone had tried to garrotte it. It healed up really well but took months.
Also definitely keep her separate from the others, and watch for flies. You don’t want to wind up with fly strike too! Chooks are pretty amazingly resilient so hopefully she’ll do just fine.

 

[TomboyChickens]

I love BYC! Such helpful folks. I'm using Vetiricyn Poultry Care spray and Bacitracin. I'll take a trip out for more meds tomorrow. Any reason to consider an oral antibiotic, or is that going overboard? I don't love the idea of giving chickens antibiotics, but I'll do anything to make the girl feel better. And you're right -- they're so resilient! I had a chick with such bad wry neck I thought for sure she was a goner, but then she just got better.

 

[azygous]

No oral antibiotic is necessary. If you clean the wound twice a day, and keep it moist with an antibiotic ointment, new tissue will grow in from the edges of the wound toward the center. I had a chick with the entire back of her scalp removed and she healed nicely. When she was seven years old, the same chicken was scalped again by the rooster, and she healed again. Never any infection.

 

[TomboyChickens]

Hi, here she is, a week later. It looks to me like she's healing, but I wondered what you experts thought. We're still doing twice daily saline irrigation, Vetericyn Plus poultry spray, and bacitracin. She's staying inside away from flies and the other chicks. I'd love to be able to get her outside with her sisters soon. Thanks in advance.

 

[azygous]

You could try letting her out with the others but in a crate or temporary enclosure so they don't pick the wound.