Deep gash on hen's back -- is it healing ok or is an antibiotic needed? (Graphic pics)

[TropicalChickies]

I have used the 30 - 50 mg/kg orally four times a day with good results. You may need to clean the wound again, if pus regenerates (the white cheesy stuff was pus), until the antibiotics start to work.

How long (how many days) would you recommend keeping her on the cephalaxine?

I'm planning to follow up with probiotics as soon as the course of antibiotics is over. She's going to be a mama and I don't want her to get sour crop from the antibiotics disturbing the gut flora.

I gave the wound another good cleaning today and I'm keeping it filled with antibiotic ointment to prevent it from scabbing over again. The inflammation has gone down a lot, and she doesn't smell anymore. No stiffness in the leg or wing. I think she will recover fine, but the wound will take a long time to completely heal. It looks like the skin basically has to regenerate from the inside out.

 

[azygous]

That's good that the infection is under control. The wound heals from the outer edges toward the center, the center being the very last to close up. That thick ridge at the outer edge is called granulation. That is where new cell are being generated, and it smoothes out as healing progresses.

 

[coach723]

Cephalexin is usually given for 7 - 14 days. If it's healing up on it's own and the bad smell is gone, you may not need it. And, yes, cephalexin can disrupt the gut flora. When using it I keep a close eye on droppings, if they start looking abnormal, I usually lower the dose.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Cephalexin is usually given for 7 - 14 days. If it's healing up on it's own and the bad smell is gone, you may not need it. And, yes, cephalexin can disrupt the gut flora. When using it I keep a close eye on droppings, if they start looking abnormal, I usually lower the dose.

Thanks. I've been keeping an eye on the droppings -- it's harder to tell of course if they aren't normal because she is broody and broody poop is always different from normal.

I'm lifting her off her nest 3x day: -----very briefly at 6am to eat breakfast, and get her dose.
-- at midday for about 15-20 minutes for a wound cleaning and reapplication of antibiotic ointment, a dose, food if she wants it
--very briefly at 6pm for another dose and food if she wants it.

I leave water next to her in the nest and she does take sips throughout the day, but she's not drinking excessively. Also I'm giving her damp food -- chopped boiled egg, tuna, or dampened feed mash (grower formula for protein).

She poops each time she comes off, not as big or foul smelling as a usual broody poop because it's 3x a day. I am noticing that the color is a bit greenish (dark brownish green, not bright green) and the urates are a little mushy, but still formed.The poop is definitely on the softer side, but I wouldn't say it's excessively runny. The greenish color I don't like, but I'm assuming this is from the antibiotic.

I'm also smelling her beak and checking her crop in the mornings. No problems there yet.

Today will be the 4th day of cephalaxine. If I think I'll finish up a 7 day course because I've read that stopping the antibiotics early just encourages resistance should I ever need to use them again. And then get her on probiotics right away.

 

[coach723]

Sounds like she's doing well. Sometimes greenish in the droppings is from bile if they aren't eating normally. As a broody who is only eating sporadically, might be all that is. Typically a sick dropping will be more yellow or yellow green.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Hi BYC friends,

Here's some updates on Dusty's condition and another worry I have now. Is there a chance that some infection could have somehow passed to the eggs she was sitting on? Here is what happened:

I cleaned Dusty's wound daily and treated her with cephalaxine. After two days, the infection (white pus and bad smell) in the wound had completely gone away and the inflammation subsided. I stopped the cephalaxine after 5 days because it didn't look like she needed more and her droppings were getting a bit loose. I gave her probiotics for a week and she seemed fine. Very dedicated to sitting on her eggs

Her poop firmed back up, but still with a greenish color. She ate less food the closer she got to day 21 of her sit, but that's normal for her.

Her hatch started on Day 20 (November 1). It was messy and staggered. She is a good broody who got her last clutch hatched quickly, so I think the staggered hatch was due to extreme weather variability we are experiencing right now. We're on the equator and the rainy season is off to a hot, humid, stormy, thundery start with a lot of fluctuations and I think that affected the developing chicks.

She had four eggs in her clutch. One chick emerged early. It seemed healthy and strong. On day 21, another egg began moving. The other two eggs looked like duds, but didn't smell, so I left them.

Well, the second live egg pipped yesterday late morning on Day 22, and the second chick emerged at about 10 hours later at 8pm last night.

(I hate staggered hatches. Anything and everything can go wrong. I usually don't let hens set at this time of year because I've learned that the drier months are more successful for clean, quick hatches. But I wanted to take advantage of Dusty's broodiness to let her isolate without depression so her wound could heal.)


So (sigh), yesterday at some point in the afternoon, the poor first chick died. The chick was very vigorous, showed no signs of drooping or lethargy. It was active and curious, drank water, and ate a bit of feed after it's first 24 hours. The first poop I saw it pass was liquidy, but then solid after it ate it's first feed. I'm thinking perhaps it had some infection -- or, more likely, Dusty accidentally killed it by treading on it.

I had checked on them yesterday around noon. I was really concerned that Dusty hadn't been able to get up to poop in a whole day, but the pip in the egg was enlarged and I didn't want to do anything to disturb the hatching.

When I returned to check on the situation at 4pm, I found that Dusty just could not hold her poop anymore. She had pooped in her nest, then moved her three eggs about a foot away from the mess. The poor 2 day old chick was lying dead in between Dusty and the mess of poop.


So she either killed it by treading on it in all the stress of pooping and trying to move her eggs. Or the chick was overcome by some sickness and died. But given that the chick seemed fine at midday and was dead four hours later, the first cause seems more likely.

I've never had a sick chick or problem with coccidiosis. All my chicks are hatched by broodies and in small clutches on clean sand bedding.

The second hatched chick appears healthy as well. I tossed the two other eggs today, one had some brown spots, and Dusty's already sat for 23 days now. I guess all I can do is hope that there isn't some bacterial infection being passed from Dusty to the chicks. It would be sad for her to lose both.

Any thoughts or advice? Thank you in advance for reading.

 

[coach723]

It's not coccidiosis, they were too young for that to be an issue yet. Bacteria is possible, if the umbilicus was not closed yet and was exposed to bacteria at that point. Those kind of infections spread rapidly in the chicks abdomen. I've had broody hatches not go well in the heat and humidity of summer also, there are so many variables that can happen, it can impact their development in ways we can't see. So it could have been that, or bacteria, it's very hard to know for sure.

 

[TropicalChickies]

It's not coccidiosis, they were too young for that to be an issue yet. Bacteria is possible, if the umbilicus was not closed yet and was exposed to bacteria at that point. Those kind of infections spread rapidly in the chicks abdomen. I've had broody hatches not go well in the heat and humidity of summer also, there are so many variables that can happen, it can impact their development in ways we can't see. So it could have been that, or bacteria, it's very hard to know for sure.

Thank you. I think it's more likely the chick got trampled on. It's been a hard time for Dusty. I'll be keeping a close eye on the newly hatched chick. It's fine so far this morning at 14 hours old.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Hi folks,

The deep gash under Dusty's wing is now healing well. The skin where it was torn has regenerated and the center puncture is no longer scabbing over and looks like healthy new tissue has formed. I still check her and give it a gentle cleaning every second or third day --- especially now that she is teaching her chick how to dustbath

Her lone survivor chick from a badly staggered hatch (I cite the issues in the former post) is now 11 days old and is so far healthy and robust. I wasn't really concerned about getting a bunch of chicks right now -- it's too close to the tropical rainy season here to have broods ideally. My main goal was for Dusty to be able to be a mum so the two roosters wouldn't mount her for a good long time to let her wound heal.

Dusty is an incredible forager taking excellent care of her chick and it is already growing big on all the bugs she shows the little one how to catch and eat.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Good mama, dusty! You've done a wonderful job with her.