big wound in chicken neck**warning gross pic

[oceanbird]

I did put iodine on it right when it happend- I'll separate her and give aspirin & electrolytes.

 

[montana girl]

How is your hen doing?

 

[kinardmommy]

Hi, I never post anything because this is usually my wifes thing to do. But I could not help but to reply to your neighbors dog problem that you have. We have several dear animals, livestock and of course chickens. I have a rule that I go by, if you have any type of animals, you are responsible for them. If you do not contain them and they go to a neighbors yard and harass them or thier animals, then don't be surprised if they come up missing. Then on the other hand, if my neighbors animals are not contained and come over to our little farm and harm one of my animals, well..........obviously your neighbor is not going to take care of their animal, so you should! Just don't publicize what you do and go on with your life and caring for your dear animals that you work hard for. This is a hard call for me to make at times and I don't enjoy doing it, but it will never stop if you don't take action.
Sincerely,
Mr. Kinard

 

[oceanbird]

Thanks for you thoughts- our chicken seems to be doing well- she is eating and drinking. She even layed an egg yesterday. I feel bad for keeping her separate because she wants to be out with the other chickens. I just let her out for an hour or so at the end of the day when I get home from work.

I put blue-kote on the wound by the suggestion of the staff of our local feed store but I think I'm going to let that wear off and switch to antibiotic cream. She is also drinking antibiotics.

As for the neighbors this is the first time it has happend so I'm going to give them the bennefit of doubt when we talked about it they were sympathetic. If I see the dog again I'll call our dog officer he has been patrolling our neighborhood a lot anyway because of all the loose dogs.

 

[HipChickDigs]

Thanks for posting this question and all the feedback! One of my bantams just beat up another girl, leaving a bloody hole in the back of her neck. I cleaned her with a saline solution, thickly applied neosporin, and am keeping her inside in a clean, isolated area until she is healed.

I was so worried she would die because the hole goes straight through the thick skin (you can see the neck muscle!), but she is eating and drinking. This post helped me figure out what to do and hopefully she'll make it through.

 

[lindsleysmith]

That picture depicts what happened to one of our ranging hens when my young dog got to it yesterday. My vet helped me clean the wound, and put in 5 stiches, leaving a hole to allow the wound to breath and to allow me to flush with vetadine. If it were anything but an egg laying chicken, she would have dosed with antibiotics. However, her quick research on a vet forum stated upon a dosage of antibiotics the eggs should not be sold (therefore I presume eaten) for 6 months. We do not sell our eggs, but out of concern high load of antibiotics in our eggs and a seeming inability to distinguish who laid which egg, we decided to hold off on oral antibiotics and hope that vigilant cleansing with vetadine will prevent infections. If she does get an infection, we will treat and figure out the egg situation then. She also mentioned that there is some absorption with topical antibiotics (ie neosporin) and just didn't know what to tell me about whether it should be a concern. I have decided not to worry and will dab some on the wound as preventative measure (thanks in part to the many suggestion here to do so). So where this leaves me is keeping the hen contained and comfy, flushing wound vigilantly and watching for infection. I will use neosporin today after sleeping on it. The hen by the way is amazing! Hardly phased throughout all of this- was the best patient the vet has ever seen (she did use a local anesthetic before stitching). Eating and drinking today- poops look mostly fine, but I in the last 24 hours I have cleaned up to puddles of diarrhea. Other than that though, the poops are normal. Hoping for a quick recovery.

 

[lindsleysmith]

Want to follow up my last post after speaking to the avian vet in our practice, who has always impressed me with his knowledge vet science.

He said that birds in particular heal very well on their own (unlike dogs, cats who he would absolutely treat with antibiotics). 24 hours after stitches and a thorough cleansing of the wound at the time of stitches and then 3 times since with vetadine, his recommendation is to hold off on anymore vetadine wash and to certainly not use any antibiotics, either topical or oral, since these eggs are for human consumption. Provided the wounds looks good, he feels that the bird should heal on it's own just fine. Just keep it clean, watch it closely for a week (for infection and/or necrosis), and hope for the best. Of course we may see an infection and have to make a decision then. He bases this rec upon the fact that we do eat eggs (as I suspect everyone here does too), and as far as the USDA recs are concerned, and for his own liability then, the bird and it's eggs would not be fit for consumption upon receiving an antibiotic. He did acknowledge that this is all based on USDA research/policies, and that there are some antibiotics that have been studied that would be acceptable provided the eggs were not eaten ever afterwards. Given we are talking about the USDA, I think their policies are for agribusiness production of birds, and to lose one bird of many is not big deal.

Of course I did jump the gun and dab some neosporin on the wound this morning out of concern. While he can't say that that would be acceptable per USDA recs, he did say he could eat a spoonful of neosporin and not die. I will likely not concern myself with culling her eggs after one application of neosporin, as I highly doubt it presents a problem. Who knows how many antibiotics I've eaten over the years before getting my own birds. I suspect if there was a USDA study on a single dose of neosporin, it would not be an issue.

Bottom line- Glad to have not given the bird antibiotics, and hope that I won't have too. Apparently birds are amazing at healing. If a wound is kept clean, it may not need antibiotics unless infection sets in. If antibiotics are administered, a decision has to be made about whether it presents a concern about egg consumption. But if research hasn't been done to prove that there is no problem, then the stance is to not eat. If anyone has this research, please share.