Deep puncture wound became a nasty hole of gunk.

[Tatuana]

Some idiot dropped a feral cat into my neighborhood apparently. I've been working on trapping it, though. Since the feral is VERY wild he gets into fights a lot. His latest conquests are my cat and my next door neighbor's pet chicken he won at school.

His parents think the chick is just a 'dumb animal that's going to be eaten anyway' so they don't want to pay for a vet. Since I'm kind of the medical guru in the area (My cats get into scraps a lot) I offered to help out how I can.

From what I can gather, a few days ago he found a small scab on his chicken. It wasn't tender to the touch, so he left it alone. A few days later the scab peeled off, revealing a nasty wound. It apparently had about a teaspoon of pus inside it, which burst out with a horrible smell. After cleaning it off he says there was a perfect hole of a cat fang. No swelling, no redness. "Like someone stuck a fang in Jello" type deal, so says he.
Within five hours it had swelled up, was oozing pus, and looked angry. It's been two days and he showed it to me after I mentioned I'm dealing with THE SAME THING on my cat. I gotta tell you, they're the spitting image of each other. Mine is just on a cat's head, not a chicken's side.

I'm okay with shallow wounds on animals, but this thing is DEEP. The cat must've sunk his fang in the entire way. This thing also looks very angry. I've no idea how to treat this on a cat, nevermind a chicken! It's still very swollen, red, oozing pus, and stinks. It's on his flank.
I can *try* to get pictures, but his chicken is not a friendly thing and I value my blood too much to share with a vampire chick.

How on earth do you treat such a deep wound in a chicken? Do I clean it? Tape it over? Leave it open? I have a basic first aid kit on hand for my cats, and I can buy a few cheap things if needed. The government shutdown hit my household hard, but I'd like to see if I can help his chicken if I can. Especially since I'm going to end up doing the same thing with my cat.

 

[Abriana]

Rinse well with a saline solution, and then apply neosporin (without pain relief) and vetericyn. Personally I wouldn't tape it over.

Also he should probably get another bird or two, one will be very lonely. In the meantime have him use a mirror to create a "friend" for the bird.

Good luck!

 

[Tatuana]

I'll see if I can set him up with a mirror. The kid is only 12, and the chicken was from his class. I think his family is just at waiting for it to get big so they can kill it. Doesn't mean it needs to suffer, though.

Should I try to keep the pus draining? It keeps crusting over and filling with pus. Yuck. The smell isn't great either.

And should I clean it often? Or just once or...?

 

[staceyj]

Make sure your cat’s rabies
Vaccine gets boosted.

The feral cat needs to be caught in a trap and picked up by animal control.

*always wear gloves when dealing with injuries caused by feral animal bites.

 

[Abriana]

I'll see if I can set him up with a mirror. The kid is only 12, and the chicken was from his class. I think his family is just at waiting for it to get big so they can kill it. Doesn't mean it needs to suffer, though.

Should I try to keep the pus draining? It keeps crusting over and filling with pus. Yuck. The smell isn't great either.

And should I clean it often? Or just once or...?

Yes, keep draining the pus, and as stacey said, wear gloves while doing it.

Yes, keep cleaning applying neosporin/vetericyn. Maybe three or four times per day.

 

[staceyj]

I'll see if I can set him up with a mirror. The kid is only 12, and the chicken was from his class. I think his family is just at waiting for it to get big so they can kill it. Doesn't mean it needs to suffer, though.

Should I try to keep the pus draining? It keeps crusting over and filling with pus. Yuck. The smell isn't great either.

And should I clean it often? Or just once or...?

If you have a syringe you can flush the hole deeply with a weak betadine solution, before treating win the antibiotic ointment-
Betadine and water - the color of tea, twice daily until the hole fills in from the inside, unless the infection worsens.

 

[staceyj]

@Abriana , I see our posts overlapped.
I wasn’t trying to one up you on the number of times a day the wound should/could be tended to.
More often is always good.
I just usually recommend twice because for most people, it’s all they can fit into their busy schedules and twice daily is much better than not at all!

 

[sourland]

Keep the wound open and draining. You can use a Q tip to do so - applying antibiotic ointment into the wound with the Q tip. It needs to heal from the 'inside - out' or the abscess will return.

 

[TropicalBabies]

I'll see if I can set him up with a mirror. The kid is only 12, and the chicken was from his class. I think his family is just at waiting for it to get big so they can kill it. Doesn't mean it needs to suffer, though.

Should I try to keep the pus draining? It keeps crusting over and filling with pus. Yuck. The smell isn't great either.

And should I clean it often? Or just once or...?

I'd put it on antibiotics asap.
"There are two general types of infection. If the site of the bite is covered by loose skin, a pocket of pus will develop forming an abscess. In areas where the skin is not loose such as on the foot or the tail the infection spreads through the tissues and causes cellulitis."
My cat got last month and it was hideous. All the antibacterial cleaning did not do a thing. I had some people antibiotics on hand, Looked up the animal, weight ratio and he quickly recovered.

 

[MissChick@dee]

Cat saliva is a creature all it’s own. Probably the worst bacterial bite anyone or any animal can get. Do you have access to a syringe?? I would flush it with a 50/50 water/betadine solution (easy to find). I’d flush and keep flushing until the fluid runs clear. With a deep puncture wound it’s easy to get debris into it and I would not want the skin to close/heal at the skin level. It could trap infection down deep. I’d keep it clean and open until it heals from the tissue first. Triple antibiotic ointment would be good. I would not use hydrogen peroxide as it interferes with growing tissue as it heals. Best wishes