chicken wounded, any advise?

[sydney13]

Yesterday my chickens were heading into bed when a hawk swopped down and attacked my jersey giant. Luckily my goose was there and went after the hawk and because of her frantic honking I came running out. I have the chicken inside now and she seems to be doing pretty good. She has 2 wounds both on the same side. One of them is just a scrape but the other one pretty deep along her thigh. A ton of her feathers fell out so a very large part of her body is bare. I squirted hydrogen peroxide in and around the wound with a needle less syringe. Then I squirted diluted iodine in and around the wound and then covered it with neosporin. Ive don't have it bandaged because I want it to air out, so she is living inside away from the other chickens.
So far she is acting totally normal which I am very pleased about. I was mostly worried that she would go into shock, but she is acting the exact opposite. She seems to be enjoying herself getting to be in the house and have treats and is not showing any signs of pain. She is eating and drinking a lot as usual and I have ben mixing in hard boiled egg yolk in with her feed.
Is their anything else you recommend I do? Do you think that she is going to recover and if so, how long before she can go back with the other hens?

 

[CMV]

I think she will be absolutely fine. Great work! You dealt with the immediate problems, so the rest is up to her. She should be able to go back pretty quickly as long as the wound is not readily visible. Chickens will pick at anything unusual, so I generally use Blukote to disguise the wounds. Once the wound is hidden, then she should be able to be re-introduced. I don't like to separate birds for long because they don't do well in isolation, it messes with the pecking order, and sometimes isolated birds aren't allowed back into the flock after a while. Keep an eye on the wound for signs of infection- redness, swelling, hot spots, an increase in oozing, etc. Maybe up her protein intake to aid in healing.

Good luck. And again- good work!

 

[sydney13]

This is a picture of the large wound

and this is the smaller one

Their are some bandages on it, I had bandages on it at first but them cut them out. I think that the wound is pretty deep. It doesn't go straight in, it goes at an angle so I dont think her intestines or anything were punctured. I was wondering, should I keep putting the neosporing in it or should I let it dry off? As you can see there is a lot of yellow puss on it. I have read that clear puss is normal but what about yellow, is that a sign of infection or is that also normal?

 

[CMV]

I switch over to Blukote after a few days because the Neosporin keeps a wound too wet. Blukote has alcohol in it, so the wound dries out a bit, but it burns like heck going on, so expect some struggle from the patient. I think the yellow you are seeing is not pus, but adipose tissue (AKA fat). The wound looks good. I'm not seeing anything that would scream "Infection!" to me. The surrounding skin is not deep red and wound doesn't look angry at all. As long as she avoided any internal injuries and an infection doesn't settle in, she should be okay. The only thing I might do differently is to cut back her feathers a bit more to keep them out of the wounds. Other than that- she looks well.

 

[oldchickenlady]

One of my hens acquired a gaping hole on her back, don't know how she got it, but I washed it out and sprayed it with Vetericyn (a spray on medicine for wounds, cuts, etc on horses and livestock). Then I made a chicken saddle out of an old knit shirt of mine. I found the design on this website. It is real easy to make and no sewing involved. It is basically a rectangle shape with a hole on each side to slip over the wings and another hole for the tail to go through. I put the chicken saddle on her to keep the other hens from pecking at it. I did keep her isolated for a couple of days but she didn't eat well, so I put her back with the other hens. Initially, I would take her off the roost at night and check her out, clean and respray with the Vetericyn every couple of days, then gradually extended the time between treatments. I also put Neosporin on her but it was so sticky it made the dirt stick to it even more, so after I put her back with the other girls I stopped doing that. The first few days I also put a big square of gauze on it and then wrapped vet wrap around it to hold in place. Vet wrap is a sticky but stretchy kind of wrap. That worked well as long as she was in the dog crate, but stopped doing that too, when she went back outside. I just checked her for the first time in about 5 days and I can hardly find the place. I am leaving the chicken saddle on her until the feathers are almost grown back so the other hens dont peck at it. Your girl will probably be fine with a little care.

 

[sydney13]

Thanks for the quick responses, they were vey helpful

I am thinking of putting her on some penicillin g procaine to prevent infection and following the dosage instructions on this page
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=352701
Is this all right in my chickens case?

 

[CMV]

I don't generally use antibiotics unless there is a need for them. If you feel it is necessary then use the antibiotics. Make sure you follow up with a course of probiotics once the penicillin is done. A couple tablespoons of yogurt each day for a week or two should help repopulate the gut with bugs. Some organic ACV in her water should also help.