Chicken mauled by possum in the night

[AustinTXMJS]

Hello everyone, I am new to chicken keeping and would like to share what happened to me last night/this morning.
I have five five-month old Barnevelder pullets living in a coop in my backyard. I live in an urban area and have been having a great time raising these chickens from day old chicks. So far so good- no eggs yet, no problems until today.
At 4:30 in the morning I heard terrible screeches coming from the henhouse. I went out to investigate, fearing the worst. I had a pissed-off opossum in my run and one very agitated hen, with the rest on the roost watching everything unfold. I let the opossum out because I was more worried about the poor hen. I grabbed her and wrapped her in an old towel took her inside for triage in my bathtub.
Most of her tail is gone, and she has a good size bloody hole on her back with a chunk of flesh missing (think... the size of the opening of a normal coffee mug, I guess) and a chunk of skin ripped off her left "drumstick" with some muscle exposed. Her beak was bloodied as well, and it looks like the very tip of the top mandible was cracked off in the commotion. I didn't know what to do about his so I left it. I did my best to trim away the feathers and completely flayed skin from each wound, leaving a big flap to cover her back. I rinsed all the wounds out with a mix of warm water and antibiotic cream. The chicken was exhausted at this point, allowing me to manhandle the poor thing to get at her wounds better. I patted the wounds dry with sterile gauze and put her in a plastic tote to sleep with some bedding and a chick waterer.
Tonight, I went to Tractor Supply and grabbed some Blu-kote spray and electrolyte powder. The wound on her back seems to have dried very nicely, and looks like the flap of skin has mostly covered it. I sprayed it with blu-kote and it agitated her a fair bit. She wanted nothing to do with me spraying her leg, so I did my best and figured it wasn't worth stressing her out over it.
She seems fairly weak. Mostly sleeps all the time and makes no noise. I have her in my kitchen (two-bedroom apartment, no real "mud room" to speak of) and she perked up when I boiled some pasta for (my) dinner. I boiled an egg to mash and give her tomorrow morning to see if she'll eat.

To detail my chicken coop area, I have a very sturdy henhouse made of cedar with hardware cloth "sides" because of this Texas heat. Nothing is getting in there. I believe the opossum got in by crawling in the run I knocked together from pallet wood, and got in the henhouse though the unlatched door. Lesson learned, I latched the door tonight. And set out a opossum trap.

I am not sure if I am doing wound care correctly. Any advice would be appreciated, thank you!

 

[roosterhavoc]

About the only time I’d recommend antibiotics is when a bird is attacked by an animal especially opossums. They have a ton of bacteria in their mouths.
You may want to get an injectable antibiotic from tractor supply.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

You're doing a good job and learning.
For wounds like that, I like to first flush with saline solution. Then treat with betadine.
An eye type triple antibiotic ointment after that. Eye type melts at body temperature and will seep deep into the wound.

 

[micstrachan]

I am so sorry about your hen. It sounds like you are doing a great job. Can you post photos of the wounds?
She is likely traumatized, stressed, in shock and exhausted. Rest is good. If your house is air conditioned, make sure she has enough warmth, which will be critical right now. Fluids will be more important than food. Do you have poultry vitamins & electrolytes you can add to her water? Will she drinking her own? Is she pooping ok? If her system is movi g ok, aprotein treat like scrambled egg or tunafish (or even tiny bites of steak, if she’ll take it) might be good for tissue repair.
Maybe tomorrow after she has rested, part her feathers and look her all over for hidden wounds that may need to be cleaned. An antibiotic might be a good idea if the wound is huge. I think people tend to use Tylosin in these cases, but I may be mistaken.
If she were mine, I would probably clean wounds with a chlorhexidine solution and treat with antibiotic ointment. It may depend on how deep the wound is.
We’ll all be rooting for her. Please keep us posted. The good news is, we have seen some pretty serious predator attack injuries result in full recovery, so she stands a very good chance of you take good care of her.

 

[Kathy Golla]

i would tend to agree with roosterhavoc and Michelle, if you can get some antibiotic it would stave off infection.
Use something besides the blu-kote--blu-kote is an antiseptic and burns like the dickens on open wounds. You can use it on an existing good scab.
This flap...keep an eye on it, if it is not live tissue it will die anyway. At some point you may have to cut that off.
Keep that wound clean (flush it) with saline or diluted chlorhexidine or Hibiclens. Avoid hydrogen peroxide. I like Vetricyn spray 2xs/day. A nice coat of antibiotic ointment is good (without pain reliever). Be careful if you use antibiotic ointment not to rub it off and disturb the scab.
You can give her 1.3 ml of children's liquid ibuprofen up to three times a day by syringe orally for pain. Be sure to get it down the very right side of (her) mouth or at the tip of her beak to avoid aspirating..you have to avoid the hole in the middle of her throat thats her airhole. Relieving her pain will help her heal, drink and eat.
Her beak, she will be fine...I know it probably looks bad.
You may want to post a picture tomorrow if you can get it, esp about this flap.
In the meantime, you are on the absolute right path.
Keep her warm and quiet to recover. Make sure she has water available. Some people put electrolytes in the water, but you need to make sure she is drinking and electrolytes can keep some hens from drinking as they dont love the taste (some). You could provide her with both if you like. Regarding eating, offer her her favorite treat, chopped egg, wet mash, just to get food in her...water is more important, but food = energy.
Hens have amazing amazing healing abilities. As Michelle said, we have seen WAY worse come through just fine with good care.
Give some thought to getting her some antibiotics to get her over the hump. Probably the only thing that might be a concern is infection from that critters teeth.
Im very sorry this has happened to you...but usually its like Murphys Law, you have to have this stuff happen to you to learn. Look at it as you didnt lose your flock and this henny hen will pull through fine.

 

[AustinTXMJS]

An update, everyone!
Overnight, she seems to be doing a little better. She's standing alert and gave me a few cursory peeps when I entered the kitchen this morning. I cut up and mashed some egg yolk, and added the electrolyte to her water.
When I went to TSC, they didn't have the broad-spectrum penicillin or Tylan I wanted in stock, only specific antibiotics for certain bacterial genera. I wasn't sure if this is what I wanted... so I didn't buy.
I am going to be cleaning her wounds again today after work. Thank you everyone for the advice!

 

[roosterhavoc]

An update, everyone!
Overnight, she seems to be doing a little better. She's standing alert and gave me a few cursory peeps when I entered the kitchen this morning. I cut up and mashed some egg yolk, and added the electrolyte to her water.
When I went to TSC, they didn't have the broad-spectrum penicillin or Tylan I wanted in stock, only specific antibiotics for certain bacterial genera. I wasn't sure if this is what I wanted... so I didn't buy.
I am going to be cleaning her wounds again today after work. Thank you everyone for the advice!

They didn’t have La-200? Might not need it anyway if she’s doing good. Good luck

 

[AustinTXMJS]

They didn’t have La-200? Might not need it anyway if she’s doing good. Good luck

I couldn't believe the poor state the medication section was... it was pretty empty. Maybe I went before a restock, or it could've just been my local TSC. There is a local farm/feed store that specializes in large livestock care, I may stop there if I get out of work on time today.
Otherwise, I work in a laboratory and have experience mixing antibiotics myself. I'm hesitant to do that, though.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Many types of antibiotics are no longer allowed to be sold over the counter. Most feed stores shelves look the same.
It was necessary because so many people have been either prophylactically administering them or misdiagnosing which has been leading to superbugs and rendering some meds used for human health ineffective.

 

[AustinTXMJS]

I came home this evening and irrigated her wounds again with saline, rubbed some antibiotic cream on them, and injected 6mg (3mg/kg dose) ampicillin salts dissolved in molecular grade water into her breast. She was very feisty during all of this, but took the injection very well.
My partner and I went out for something to eat and drink after to calm my slightly frayed nerves... when I came home, she was drinking, preening, and shuffling wood shavings around her tote to make a nest. Seems as if she's rallying. I mixed up enough ampicillin to last me until Monday. Let's hope this isn't a fluke!

I took some pictures of her wound- one from yesterday morning when I was triaging her, and one from this afternoon when I was irrigating it. The wounds seems to be closing up well and aren't weeping or oozy.

Keep in mind the second picture is post blu-kote. To be completely honest, I can't see anything besides the crystal violet stain in that one.