Chicken filleted her side under wing

[MissChick@dee]

Let her rest for tonight. Shock/Stress can be enough to push her over the edge. Of course keep her isolated. Electrolytes in her water would be good. Tomorrow get your doctoring supplies ready before you begin the more effectively and swiftly you work the less stress. Trim away as many feathers you can around the wound (then take a pic) I like to use betadine (easy to find) it doesn’t sting and is a great antibacterial. I like to use a spray bottle (on appropriate force) to flush the wound. I like to use self adhesive wrap (since it’s on her side) to hold the clean skin in place (leave the wings out) while it begins to heal. Eventually you’ll be able to do body soaks but not right now. Once the skin begins to adhere to the flesh I would leave it in wrapped (3-4days). She’ll need some TLC and monitoring. Chickens can bounce back from some pretty nasty wounds. This is my advice. Keep us posted we’d like to know how she’s doing. Best wishes

 

[BellePoule]

Even if the skin is hanging? I put a bandage on to try to keep the skin from dragging on the ground, and her from
Picking at herself.

I'd bandage it to keep the skin in place since it's hanging so it'll grow back together. If it was just a hole, I'd suggest leaving it open. One of my pullets had a dog bite on her neck with a quarter sized chunk of skin missing, and it grew back together. Took 2 weeks of her being in the house, but she healed up nicely and is back with the flock.

 

[HeidiN]

Thank you all for your helpful comments. She is resting and I will revisit wound care in the morning. She seems pretty chill, so I think she’ll be ok, as long as she doesn’t get infection.

 

[CannedMonster]

One of my pullets was injured recently and it was an open wound on her abdomen about 3” in diameter.
I’m not positive how the chunk of skin was torn but it may have been our dog or a sharp piece of metal.
I was quite horrified and sure she wouldn’t survive it.
She healing very well.
I just sprayed it with Veterycin twice a day.
I kept her separated from the flock for a week until it scabbed over completely.
Because of the location of the injury, it’s hidden by her other feathers and the flock doesn’t see it to peck at it.
They can survive shocking injuries so don’t be too worried or discouraged.
Wrapping it so the skin stayed in place was smart.
The only time you wouldn’t want to do that is if the skin is dead, with no viable tissue.

 

[chickendreams24]

I really like gentle iodine for cleaning wounds. Walmart has it as do most feed stores. Of course it will be cheaper from a feed store usually.

Sterile saline also works well for flushing.

Personally we have had our best luck with just plain old Neosporin. Do not get the stuff with pain relief.

If you've never experienced chicken pus it becomes mostly solid and generally whitish in color. If she develops any of it you will need to debride the wound down to healthy tissue. Yes it will likely bleed when that happens. Chicken pus does not get absorbed the way the human body deals with pus.

I would say absolutely keep her body wrapped to keep the skin in place. You will probably need to trim feathers out of the way to help the area stay clean. Do not clip them down to the skin as you may need to pull them later if they don't molt naturally. Personally I've never had to do that.

Vet wrap and gauze is the best bet I would say to wrap her. Making sure the gauze does not stick. If you're having a problem with that oinment can be applied to the gauze as well.

I too would only keep her wrapped long enough for the skin to reattach but keep a close eye on the skin to make sure it doesn't become black and necrotic. If the would begins to smell that is infection! Agreed keep her wings free or she will likely just pull the wrap off. She may try anyway.

Be sure to keep her in a very clean environment and be aware that if the skin doesn't fully close and you let her out to dust bathe the wound will likely pack with whatever she is dustbathing in. Been there done than. We had a hen with a side injury caused by either a cockeral or a predator. Skin folded down into the injury. She was of course moved into the porch for medical care. She wouldn't tolerate a wrap but began to dust bathe in her clean bedding as she began to feel better. I used a hose to gently spray out all the stuff she packed her wound with.

Oh and if you ever need to debride a wound especially pus we like to irrigate with peroxide (if badly infected for the first cleaning), saline, iodine for the final cleaning after everything has been removed. Wet q-tips(with whatever solution you're using) can be gently worked under the pus and used to help get it out, just be sure it all comes out. If you leave any behind it can close over it and continue to fester.

On the same hen that dust bathed as mentioned above she also ended up with an infection. Not a horrible one and she has recovered just fine. However I did have to pull pus out of the wound. In that instance since I knew the hose worked to clean out the shavings. I used the hose to irrigate the wound and it loosened the pus which came out in almost one whole solid pocket looking shape. It was a deep would that extended under the skin a ways. There was one dime sized piece that didn't come out with the initial large chunk and I had to reach in and grab it. Q-tips, tweezers, all can be wonderful assets in caring for your flock. Interestingly this is only the second life threatening injury we've had that I can think of along the side of the bird. We've had a few minor cuts and scrapes and broken blood feathers. A couple sliced toes. A rat attack that became infected up and down the leg of a juvenile. The pus was removed in that instance and the juvenile healed but the rats had severed a tendon and we chose to cull the cockeral as his quality of life was questionable. The other big injury we had was a mink attack that almost took the life of one of our birds. Now a beautiful old english game bantam/sebright mix rooster he almost didn't survive. He had lost a lot of blood and his head looked like hamburger. He somehow managed to escape the mink and clotted. I got him over his shock and he improved rapidly but stayed in until the wounds were fully healed.

One coincidence the hen that had the side injury was also our first big injury, a couple years ago. Unfortunately she hid it so well the first time as it was under her wing that it became badly infected before we found it. Wound cleaning and care and a round of antibiotics later her name is Hope and she's a special bird. While the surface wound was small that time 1-2 inches it extended forward towards her chest 3-3.5 inches under the skin.

Chickens can survive some amazing things.

 

[HeidiN]

This is how it looks this morning. I flushed it with wound spray, tried to get as many feathers out as possible without totally ripping it open. Squirted povidone-iodine on the open wounds then I wrapped the leg wound separately from the side and now she is unbalanced, and tipping over. So pitiful.

 

[Eggcessive]

Since she is unbalanced with a dressing on, I would place her in a dog crate with food and water for several days. An old towel, puppy pad, or paper towel sheets may be good for bedding. Use some plain Neosporin or Triple Antibiotic Ointment on the wounds and leave it open to air. Make sure that flies cannot get to her and lay maggot larvae. There is muscle and fat tissue visible, so if you notice any pus or a bad odor, I would clean it daily with saline or Vetericyn spray, before applying ointment. Look for spurs on any of your chickens because as said by others this type of wound can happen from sharp spurs, and hens can have them more rarely. A hawk or other predator could also have injured her.

 

[Shadrach]

Just happened to notice this. I've got a similar problem.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/is-it-better-to-let-them-die.1268732/page-8#post-20431627
Betadine and water mix 50/50 for cleaning. Don't use hydrogen peroxide, it seals the small blood vessels and stops the skin joining.
If you're confident you can stitch it; I'm learning,I get quite a few of these injuries from hawk attacks.
I'm not keen on the bandaging, it encourages putrid skin if at all moist.
The wound needs to dry and get air.
Forgot to mention a seam of super glue can help hold the skin together.

 

[HeidiN]

After flushing the wound again and trimming more feathers, hoping we could put a couple sutures in, we decided the skin is no longer stretchy enough to close the gap. I flushed it with iodine again and left it open for an hour, and the skin has now sagged down more. I packed it with raw, organic honey and bandaged it back up, I think it needs support for now.
Now that I have a better look at the extent of the injury, I think it must have been a hawk attack. I really hope she makes it, but don’t want her to suffer. She is eating, just unsteady in her feet as the top of her leg is also sliced open. No muscle tissue has been affected, thankfully.

 

[Loona]

One of my young hens at one time had an entire flap of skin hanging off one of her sides. The rooster did it with his spur. I took her to the vet, thought she could stitch it up, but no, she said she'd cut the skin off and I'd periodically bring her back to have the edges 'etched' for new growth. 200 bucks each time 4 or 5 times. Um...no.

I came here and got advice and was told chickens do heal very well and 'grow new skin' but you have to keep it clean. The only good thing that came out of the vet visit, was that she gave me some Chlorhexadine solution 2%. Mix with water till you get a light sky blue color. Use this to keep the wound clean.
She said DO NOT use betadyne or hydrogen peroxide. It will hinder the healing process and can cause necrosis.

After bringing her home I was really befuddled about the flap of skin. I mean it was 'still alive' and viable. Why didn't she stitch it for me! She said she worried about infection and the skin dying regardless.

I got some advice here, and was given confidence of how resilient chickens are to wound healing. So I got out a little plastic bottle - hygiene bottle with spray tip - mixed up the Chlorhexidine solution. And, I'm sorry but I had to find the smallest sewing needle and just do something about this flap of skin. I knew I could not sew it all the way around but one area NEEDED a stitch or two. She did give me some Metacam too. So I gave her Metacam and an hour later put some stitches to an area that allowed this flap of skin to hang on to something. I used dental floss!! She hardly even winced when I did this, thankfully.

As the days went on, I routinely cleaned the wound. Paper towels and squirt bottle. I made sure all the dirt was out. I would use a tiny 1ml syringe to suck out any excess solution down in the corner where I stitched it. All that skin survived and did reattach but that flap eventually did dry up, turned black and died off. I did have to cut it where it dried out. But don't cut off any live skin. As the days passed, a scab appeared initially and that scab eventually turned into skin! I was literally amazed how well it did heal up and I'm pretty sure the diluted Chlorhexidine solution is the best stuff to assist in healing and avoid irritation. No peroxide, no betadine, and no epsom salt.

Here is the thread of mine when Sweet Pea's skin ripped off. If you don't have Chlorhexidine on hand, buy some ASAP on Amazon, or see if a farm store has it. Maybe a local vet can sell you some?

Best wishes to your hen