Chicken neck attack!! Help!

[FlyingNunFarm]

I thought the steri strips might be less stressful on mom.

 

[KentuckyRooster]

I am glad to see you are going to stitch this.

You can use fishing line. Heavy weight. I have personally used it. Suturing a wound needs to be done with individual sutures, cut it apart each time- do not do it like you would on fabric. Tight, small and cut them close to the skin but so you can see each one.

Every single day the area you have sutured will need cleaning and bandaging it is a good idea. This wound has been open a lot longer than is ideal unfortunately. That means the skin on the edges could die- ideally we want to suture immediately. It is her only chance however and it needs to be done. Sutures need to remain for 10 to 14 days. Leave a small open area at the very bottom for draining is a good idea. If while you are working on her, you notice dead tissue, trim it away before closing that area. It will hurt and may bleed. Try not to think about it. Live tissue will heal, dead tissue will rot.

Get her on antibiotics. Keep her on them for the duration of the sutures staying in. I don't care if the penicillin bottle says only 4 days. It lies. Use it the entire time, it won't hurt her. Her body is on overdrive right now and full of every bacterium imaginable. Now we are about to seal them in there. It has to be done, but she needs every possible boost to fight infections.

When you stitch her use a towel to restrain her and cover her eyes with a cloth. They usually are pretty still. If you have trouble with it emotionally try to remember you are doing this to help this animal and it is her only shot.

 

[NancyNurseCxMama]

Retired ICU nurse here and I see some wonderful advice on this thread!
Thoughts---you might want to look for nylon sewing thread for suturing purposes. It won't get wet like cotton thread and it seems to me that it would be less likely to harbor bacteria.
A curved (upholstery) needle would be good but I would look for the finest one available to reduce the size of the punctures.
If the wound edges are dry there is a good chance that they will not adhere to each other and will not heal. You might have to trim those edges back to fresh pink tissue before suturing to have them join together and eventually heal.
ITA with the penrose drain suggestion---there may definitely be an issue with fluid buildup if the wound is completely closed and there is no place for serous fluid to go. This could cause issues with pressure buildup on her organs and increased chance of infection. Do you notice fluid drainage from the area---either clear yellow, bloody, or pinkish?
No straight peroxide---we stopped doing that decades ago, going either to half peroxide and half saline or just saline. Straight peroxide actually destroys delicate healing tissue.
Open wounds can be packed with wet saline dressings, as mentioned previously. These sometimes do dry out a bit between dressing changes and should be thoroughly moistened before removing them as new healing tissue could be injured otherwise.
Sterile saline is ridiculously expensive.
Here is a recipe for saline that can be used safely to clean wounds and moisten wet dressings---keep it in the fridge:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17108769
You are doing a wonderful job---I hope your girl does well!

 

[HennyPennyCO]

I am following this thread with bated breath. Good luck - be strong. It's great advice you're getting.
Rather reminds me of the time I had a horse with a large abscess on her chest. And it was Saturday night, -10F, and the vet couldn't come out.

 

[Anabariful]

Thank you everyone for the advice, responses, and hugs. <3 My husband and I obviously aren't vets and this was our first (serious) injury and first stitching experience. :S

We did the best we could and I know it's not perfect and she should have probably been properly clean & stitched up immediately upon me finding her.

That being said... she did much better than expected. We were easily able to pluck the feathers around the wound except for a few. Deep cleaning was a bit tougher because I honestly couldn't tell what was dried blood, feather bits, dirt, or peeling skin. :/ Again, we did our absolute best to clean as much as we could without injuring her already delicate skin. At one point, I was trying to pluck a feather on the wound's border, and her skin began to tear. Plucking was probably the hardest part. We packed her with neosporin, stitched her up, then covered the outside stitches with more neosporin. Tomorrow I will be heading to TSC for the blue kote (sp?) and the penicillin injections.

Here's hoping she pulls through. She got a clean shirt over her stitches so they could air dry a bit as she was pecking at herself.

 

[Anabariful]

 

[Anabariful]

I can take better pictures of the stitches in the morning. She started panting heavily as if she was hot or very stressed from the surgery so I didn't want to upset her too much and put her to bed. She's eating some and resting now.

 

[Ravynscroft]

I can take better pictures of the stitches in the morning. She started panting heavily as if she was hot or very stressed from the surgery so I didn't want to upset her too much and put her to bed. She's eating some and resting now.

You've done well...

Rest is up to her...

 

[NancyNurseCxMama]

We are all rooting for you and your girl!!
A little tip on the Neosporin---a light coating is enough as too much can macerate the skin. Also, if possible, use the brand-name Neosporin, not generic triple antibiotic. The difference is in the base in which the antibiotics are mixed. Generics are usually plain petrolatum while the brand-name Neosporin has a base that is a blend of olive oil, cocoa butter, and Vitamin E (and also petrolatum but not as much as the generics). All those things aid healing.
I have worked with plastic surgeons (trauma surgeons, not nose-job guys) who insist on the brand-name only for that reason.

 

[chicken4prez]

Oh my I will be praying for her! She's such a cutie.