Dog Attack - Need First Aid Advice

[AllCoop'dUp]

Well...it's been a month since my hen got injured. She has managed to hang in there and all the wounds have pretty much healed up..here comes the however.... However..the bone is still exposed on the upper wing. Will the flesh eventually grow back around it?

 

[Kasia]

I'm sorry to hear that she was hurt. But to answer your question, no, the flesh will not grow over the bone, so it's vital that it's kept clean. Do not use Peroxide, it kills healthy tissue as well, and you mentioned you used Betadine. Did you use it full strength? According to my avian vet, you need to dilute the betadine 1 part betadine and 10 parts water. Were you able to get all the maggots out?

I've had a lot of experience with such wounds and first of all, don't panic.

The skin will die off, and yes, the smell can be pretty awful. I will tell you about my experiences with such wounds as trained by my wonderful avian vet.

Two years ago we got an Americauna hen (we run a bird rescue) that was hit by a car and left on the side of the road for 4 days until someone noticed she was moving. She smelled dead. She had a badly broken leg and a nasty gash in her side, some skin missing, and she had maggots.

It was a Saturday and my vet was closed till Monday, but he does email me back when I send him a question. I was told not to use peroxide, as it destroys healthy tissue as well. He told me to mix 1 part batadine or iodine to 10 parts warm water, and wash the wound out with a little pressure. I used a turkey baster to squirt the water on her wound and squirt out the maggots. Then with tweezers I got all the maggots out. I used surgican scizzors to cut away the black skin, being careful not to cut any dying skin because as long as it had a blood supply, it would bleed and lead to infection. He then told me to use unpasteurized honey on the wound. Honey is antibacterial, it has natural antibiotics and it promotes healing. So twice a day I woul clean her up with the betadine solution and then pack the wound with honey and gauze. That's it. When the skin became black, I had to do a little bit of debridement as well. I had her on antibiotics to take care of any infection she might have gotten while sitting out in the elements for 4 days.

Phoenix has been with us for 2 years now, and the only thing wrong with her is she walks with a limp due to the broken leg. She has never seen the vet.

The skin will not grow back, but the tissue underneath will grow a thick coating that will act like skin. However that area won't grow any feathers.

Since Phoenix, we have gotten several skinned ducks and a couple more chickens and each one of them is fine, not one of them ever saw a vet. They have a very resiliant little body and heal up very nicely.

 

[pgpoultry]

7 weeks ago my big Dark Brahma boy was severely bitten by a fox trying to protect his hens (6 killed).

I stitched together the areas under his wings which were badly ripped and had enough skin to cover the underlying areas. The rest I just kept clean with daily washes.

He has made a full recovery (but only started crowing at his usual volume about 3 weeks ago)

sandie

 

[AllCoop'dUp]

Quote:
Yes, the Batadine was dulited. I have a deep kitchen prep sink in my greenhouse with spray nozzle I used and gently washed it out. I got all the maggots out with tweezers and the feathers are growing back around it. The bone is a nice pink color and I've been keeping "Cut Heal" on it and spraying with Vetericyn and Kote. I could kick myself for not attempting to sew the flesh back around the bone when this happen, but it was my first doctoring event and was a bit freaked out about the whole thing. She wants desperately to get back in with her coop mates, but I've been really concerned about my rooster tearing open the thin skin on her back and doing more damage to her wing. She will be unable to fly up onto the roost. I was going to make her an apron with shoulder pads. I'm wondering if I should give her to someone without any roosters. Poor girl hasn't returned to laying any eggs since this happened. I've been rotating her girlfriends into the "hospital" pen with her that have gone broody to break them and also have a younger roo in with her that is only 6 weeks old. He's pretty harmless. I just want to do what's best for her.

 

[Kasia]

She won't start laying again until she's feeling like her old self again. Poor baby.

When we got Phoenix, I too used tweezers to get the maggots out. I had a plastic cup with rubbing alcohol in it to kill them and you know it didn't kill them! So I got a cup of bleach, still didn't kill them. I asked my vet about it and he said that he has tried to drown the maggots in formaldehyde (sp) and THAT didn't kill them either.

Have you tried using honey yet? My vet got me started on using honey for severe wounds. As long as it's unpasturized. Honey has a natural antibiotic in it and promotes healing. Is there any way you could take a photo of her wing and post it here? I had a duck that had one wing scraped all the way to the bone and she healed just fine and was released and comes to my yard daily for feedings. So you never know, she could heal enough to be able to go back to her flock.

With Phoenix, she smelled so bad, I didn't bring her inside when we started to clean her up and get the maggots out. We set up a table out in the backyard and I used a turkey baster to squirt the betadine solution into the wound.

 

[AllCoop'dUp]

Sorry...pics are that great. The bone is exposed in 2 different places. If I apply the honey, won't she just eat it off?

 

[Kasia]

Yes, if you apply the honey, chances are she will try to eat it. Honey is bad for chickens. So it's best to wrap it up so that she can't pick at it. If you can't wrap her wing, then just use betadine or iodine diluted 1 part betadine or iodine to 10 parts water.

 

[Surge]

I have heard the honey trick does work in some cases.