Bloody injury to neck

[mychickenbrood]

I thought I would share what I am doing for a hen who I believe was attacked by a hawk, which I also believe was chased away by our dog.

Anyway, she seems fine, other than she is missing skin on the back of her neck. The blood was dried by the time I noticed her and is just a solid mess. I cannot wash it off as it is too thick. The visible open wounds are completely missing skin.

So here is what I did. I bought some saline. It came in a bottle labeled nasal spray. I checked with the pharmacist and it is the same as normal saline.

I got a dressing my husband uses for skin tears. It is a prescription and is petroleum based. Sounds odd, but works great for him. I used this where skin was completely missing, putting it into and over the wounds.

I also got a pain reducing analgesic cream, and spread it over the caked bloody neck. Not sure if it helps, but should at least soften the blood over time.

Furthermore, I bought a 3" wide roll of gauze, some paper and plastic tape. After treating the neck, and placing the petroleum dressings in the wounds as mentioned above, I wrapped her neck all around, with the gauze.

In addition, I got some self adhering ace type wrap, which I used to wrap around her wings, so she was more immobile.

After restraining her with the ace wrap, I put her on my lap, on a towel. I had all the things I needed laid out. I squirted the saline on her neck, to try and clean the caked blood. I cut off some of her blood caked feathers and treated her as I mentioned above.

I make sure I use enough tape to keep the dressing on and still allow her to bend her neck some. The paper tape is more flexible. I do not put it around her neck. Instead, I place it the long way, over end of the gauze (from top to bottom). Then I use 1/4" plastic tape across the back of the neck, to help hold the paper tape in place.

Finally, I started antibiotics, putting it in the water for all the hens, since I cannot separate them.

So far, this has worked very well. It has only been two days, but so far, things look good. She is eating and drinking and the wounds are not infected.

I just thought I would pass this on, as it can be hard to know what to do when a bird is injured and it seems to be working for me, so maybe it will help someone else.

By the way, her name is Lacey and she is one of my favorite EE hens.

 

[Wisher1000]

I thought I would share what I am doing for a hen who I believe was attacked by a hawk, which I also believe was chased away by our dog.

Anyway, she seems fine, other than she is missing skin on the back of her neck. The blood was dried by the time I noticed her and is just a solid mess. I cannot wash it off as it is too thick. The visible open wounds are completely missing skin.

So here is what I did. I bought some saline. It came in a bottle labeled nasal spray. I checked with the pharmacist and it is the same as normal saline.

I got a dressing my husband uses for skin tears. It is a prescription and is petroleum based. Sounds odd, but works great for him. I used this where skin was completely missing, putting it into and over the wounds.

I also got a pain reducing analgesic cream, and spread it over the caked bloody neck. Not sure if it helps, but should at least soften the blood over time.

Furthermore, I bought a 3" wide roll of gauze, some paper and plastic tape. After treating the neck, and placing the petroleum dressings in the wounds as mentioned above, I wrapped her neck all around, with the gauze.

In addition, I got some self adhering ace type wrap, which I used to wrap around her wings, so she was more immobile.

After restraining her with the ace wrap, I put her on my lap, on a towel. I had all the things I needed laid out. I squirted the saline on her neck, to try and clean the caked blood. I cut off some of her blood caked feathers and treated her as I mentioned above.

I make sure I use enough tape to keep the dressing on and still allow her to bend her neck some. The paper tape is more flexible. I do not put it around her neck. Instead, I place it the long way, over end of the gauze (from top to bottom). Then I use 1/4" plastic tape across the back of the neck, to help hold the paper tape in place.

Finally, I started antibiotics, putting it in the water for all the hens, since I cannot separate them.

So far, this has worked very well. It has only been two days, but so far, things look good. She is eating and drinking and the wounds are not infected.

I just thought I would pass this on, as it can be hard to know what to do when a bird is injured and it seems to be working for me, so maybe it will help someone else.

By the way, her name is Lacey and she is one of my favorite EE hens.

It sounds like you did a great job except for the pain reliever cream. I have always heard that you should not use anything with pain reliever in it on birds. I'm not sure why, maybe some one will post with a reason. If it's been two days and she is fine, it may not be a problem, but I wouldn't put anymore on the wound until you have researched it a bit. Birds have an amazing ability to heal, I think she will recover just fine with your compasionate care.

 

[mychickenbrood]

Thank-you. Yes, in reading several posts I did see that members caution against the analgesic in ointments, so I am going to use plain antibiotic from now on. I would also like to know why.

Also, I realize that not everyone has access to the type of wound dressing I do, since I have a prescription, but maybe others can get it from their vet? I am going to try that too, so I don't have to use my husband's. He has plenty, but still...

The blood is so caked that I cannot see how much damage is under it. I think I am going to warm the saline today and see if more will come off without pulling on it and doing more damage. Also, I figure it is a sort of dressing of its own.

If anyone has any other comments, I really would appreciate them. Eventhough my method seems to be working great right now, I welcome any information and ideas, as I am really new to treating poultry. I just like the way I was able to dress her neck, so thought I would pass it on. The dressing stays on really well and I only change it once per day.

I wanted to use steri strips, but I would have to pluck feathers first and that doesn't seem like a good idea...?

 

[mychickenbrood]

I want to do an update. This hen is doing very well. She is even getting new feathers on her upper neck! I did not expect this hen to survive and am delighted she is. She still sticks close to the coop, partly, I think, because if I am not dilegent about keeping anti peck on her new skin, she gets pecked by the rooster. Otherwise, she is great! I'm posting a picture with her dressing on, which I kept on for two or three weeks.