Dog gnawed pullet's thigh

[vtstevens]

Yesterday, our dog gnawed our 17 week old pullets left thigh. There are no visible breaks, but it is very tender to touch, and her thigh and leg were covered in dog spittle. She can barely weight bear on it, and perfers to lie down. She is eating and drinking if it is brought to her. She is my favorite of the flock, the most petite and sweetest. What can I do to save her?

 

[NarutoTn]

is she bleeding anywhere?

 

[vtstevens]

No, no visible bleeding. I am afraid the dog may either have crushed muscle and/or broken delicate new bone.

 

[threehorses]

If she can put weight on it at all, that's a good sign - so take a deep breath. Unfortunately, dog mouths are full of some pretty nasty bacteria so you'll want to get that good and cleaned up. You will also always have to keep the dog away from the bird, now, as he'll have had the taste of the thrill of having done that. Even if they seem innocent and contrite in front of you, they're still dogs by nature (which is why we love them, isn't it) and their instinct and nature will win out over their conscience.

I love my dogs - I wish however I could edit out that part of their nature, no matter how much I adore them. He was just being a dog unfortunately.

In the mean time, this girl needs you to thoroughly go over her - ever inch of her (literally) so that you can find any other puncture wounds. Punctures are easily hidden by the down on chickens. And they don't necessarily bleed enough for you to find them.

You'll want to find each one, clip the feathers just away from them (unless you're gutsy enough to pluck but I always feel that's way too stressful so I use little cuticle scissors and trim the area just enough to keep the wound airy and keep feathers out of them.) Find each area, clean this first time with hydrogen peroxide mixed with some water to make it burn less. You DO want to burn the germs and doing it this once will help do that. if you can use a needle-free syringe to vigorously flush out the wounds, that's the best. Do that twice with hydrogen peroxide/water mixed. Then mix iodine and warm water together til they're the color of iced tea. Use that to again vigorously flush out the wounds. (Putting paper towels or a junk towel under them helps the staining stuff not go everywhere or resoak the bird - doing this in the tub is a great idea, too. Or the bed of a truck.) You'll flush the wounds out about four times. If you use a syringe, do it strong enough to where you'd squirt someone standing 4 feet away from you. That relatively strong 'jet' of solution will knock dirt out.

After you do the iodine, pat the wounds dry with clean paper towels. You won't rinse the iodine out - it will kill germs as it dries. Then you'll pack each puncture with triple-antibiotic (Neosporin, etc). don't use ones with cortisone anything in them, nor with pain killer - those are toxic to birds. Normal neosporin will do. If you have livestock ointments like Corona, nitrofurazone yellow ointment, those will also do. but you want to get deep into the wounds so that the heat of the body continues to melt the antibacterial action into the wound over the hours. It might be the last time you clean them - you certainly will hope it is - so make it good.

Then you just wipe the top of the ointment so that it's not a glob on top of the skin= neaten it up.

If you have any spray-on antiseptic (like alushield, aluspray, furox spray) that dries to a powder, I recommend dotting each puncture. That way the dryness wards off flies. It just takes one fly to lay 300 eggs which in the heat will hatch into maggots within the day, even hours. So I'd really recommend either keeping her inside for 2 days (until those wounds are good and dry at least), or using a spray on top. A great product to have in your chicken med cabinet is screw-worm wound spray. You would use the tiniest bit on top of the wound to repel flies and to kill any emerging larvae.

IF you do get maggots, it's ok. You don't want them there, but they're easy to get rid of - though sometimes it takes 2-3 cleansings as they don't necessarily all hatch at once. But it's not a death sentence.

THen just make sure she's eating and drinking. Put her up where her movement is limited so she doesn't have to use the leg to eat and drink. Keep her up (not necessarily inside, but confined to a smaller place) as long as she's limping so that she doesn't get bullied. she needs all her energy for her body to heal.

If she doesn't eat or drink a lot, then you have to tempt her. Making a damp (not wet unless they really like it) mash of water, a little yogurt, boiled egg yolk, and her pellets (blendered into crumbles) is a treat tempting and healthy healing treat. You could do vitamins/electrolytes in her water particularly if she's shocky IF she'll still drink them, and/or if she's drinking but not eating/drinking as much as usual. Use it straight as directed on the package.

If she's eating and drinking normally, you can use none or a little less if she'll continue to drink. It can help. Alternately (if she's drinking a lot normally) then you could try vitamins like Enfamil PolyViSol (not the iron fortified - I found mine in Walmart's vitamin section) 2-3 drops right in the beak (or on a piece of bread if she'll buy it) once daily for a week and then taper off.

On all wounds, keep them airy and uncovered but protected from flies. If you can't do that, then only lightly wrap them with an emphasis on good air flow. For that, i use the very airy wrap gauze, tiny bits of duct tape (cut into small bandaid sized pieces) to make sure it stays together, and then self-adhesive VetWrap type covering only in one layer. But it's better if you can keep her inside a couple of days at least so you can monitor the wounds. Smell them today so you know what a good fresh healthy wounds smells like. It smells lightly pungent but not bad. You will want that knowledge so that if it goes bad, you will know what REAL bad smells like (as wounds that are very clean and good still don't smell yummy). Your nose and eyes will be very important tools to you. Then watch the wounds daily. She may bruise (black/green for birds - frighteningly enough) but as long as the wounds aren't weeping, stay pretty clean looking, don't swell, and stay pretty warm (Cold means tissue death) and don't smell nasty - then you're better off.

If you want to do systemic antibiotics, I always first recommend that you ask for Baytril from your vet. Most OTC antibiotics aren't wound-specific. Pencillins are used for wounds by vets, however. keep that in mind. The vet treatment is always recommended. but we understand if you can't do that. Let us know if you need the systemic antibiotic help. If you get this wound today and really REALLY clean it with the iodine last-cleanse, hopefully you won't need it.

please feel free to email me or ask here if you have any questions on the above. As if I didn't type a novel already, I'm including something I wrote in case someone else is searching and finds this post and needs wound help.

Please update the post - we're pulling for you and will want to know how she does. best of luck! I wish I were there to help you out.

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WOUND CARE FOR POULTRY by Nathalie Ross

Here's my usual way of doing wounds. It's worked for some pretty extreme wounds, including one 2x1 wound that went all the way down to the silver covering of the spine of one bird.

First, gather materials:
VetWrap or similar self-adhesive wrap.
gauze wrapping type bandages or squares (depending on what you have to bandage)
non-stick pads (depending on what you have to wrap)
antibiotic ointment (neosporin, Swat for horses if you have flies around)
hydrogen peroxide (h202)
iodine
warm water
a needleless syringe - preferably a big one like 30 cc's
suture material if you need it (this ideally should be left to a vet)
a small pair of scissors like cuticle scissors are helpful
large scissors
(duct tape in some cases)
a good safe blood clotter. I prefer Clotisol as it's not poisonous and clots IMMEDIATELY even in high blood situations. You can even use it inside of beaks. It's water based, lasts ages for a small bottle. Seriously - ages. You can pretty much only get it online, but it's a must-have for a cabinet. Once you use it, you won't go back.
q-tips
papertowels
clean clothes that can be stained

DECIDING WHETHER OR NOT TO TREAT BY YOURSELF:
First, an important note. It would be ideal if, as poultry owners faced with an injured bird, that the bird be taken to a qualified veterinarian who can not only dress the wounds, access the damage, but also prescribe the correct antibiotics and follow up as necessary. This, first and foremost, is what I recommend for any wound situation that is more than minor. Please take that to heart.

If instead you decide to treat the wound yourself, here are some basic instructions on how to do so. Note that every wound, every case, is different. Use your common sense and imagination on determining when this protocol must be flexed to fit your situation.

PREPARATION:
First, examine the bird and find all wounds. Use your big and little scissors to trim feathers away from the area. Try to only take as many as could touch the wound, no more - they need feather protection and the feathers won't grow back til next moult. Also be careful, if wing feathers are near, not to cut the living flesh part inside feather quills.

If the wounds are under the wing, sometimes you can simply wrap the wing in a t-shirt to keep whatever touches the wing clean. Baby tshirts would be great for this. Neck part at the top of the wing, fitted with a little duct tape on the cloth (not tight please) and just tie the other end of the tshirt.

Make sure to look very carefully against the skin for puncture wounds. There might not be look, and puncture wounds are tricky and hard to find. Note the location and severity of all wounds.

Cleansing:
Take your syringe and fill with H202 (straight) or h202 slightly diluted with water. Use the syringe to vigously clean the wound area including in the wounds. If the wounds are puncture wounds, use diluted water/h202, not straight. You only use h202 the first time as it tends to burn tissues and keep them from healing if you continue. But it's great for bubbling out bits of dirt from inside the wound. Do this cleansing about three times per wound.

Follow up by rinsing out the h2o2 with a water/iodine mixture made to be just the color of slightly strong iced tea. You want it warm. Fill your same syringe that you used with the h2o2 and flush the wounds rather vigorously.

At this time, if there are any pieces of flesh that need to be removed, remove them. This is where I use a q-tip dipped in a bottle-cap full of clotisol (so you don't contaminate the original bottle).

Doing this on a table that's ok to stain is best. I've done this on my truck's tail gate as I can clean it afterwards. Place a lot of papertowels under the birds for these two cleansing phases to keep the drainoff from going everywhere.

Use another clean papertowel to dry the wound. You want to leave some iodine solution inside the wound - it doesn't have to be skin-dry. Just dry enough for some ointment to stick.

DRESSING:
Once the wound is well cleaned, then you'll want to dress it. I use Neosporin and q-tips most often for this job. If there are flies in the area at all, I will use Neosporin inside the wounds (ointment) and use Swat wound ointment for horses instead. (It has fly repellent that's safe for poultry in it.) I fill punctures with neosporin. If they're deep, I stick the top of the tube into the wound (and throw away the tube after I'm done with everything). Pack it. You usually want air in a wound, but puncture wounds can sometimes heal on top first and leave a pocket inside. The antibiotic ointment (not creme) is a little insurance against too much bacteria and thus abcesses.

If the wound is one that absolutely must be stitched, then pack it with the antibiotic ointment. If you're using a flyproof ointment, wipe the wound and then use the fly-proof on top. Otherwise just wipe slightly so there's a little antibiotic ointment on the important top part of the wound. You don't want to stray too far from just the wound, keep the bird dry.

On closing wounds with sutures. Puncture wounds shouldn't be sutured. Bad bacteria love a place where there's no oxygen. Suturing closes the wound and encourages festering within. As much air as you can get to a wound, the better, except that the interior of punctures should have some antibacterial action going on.

I've had some serious wounds in my flock before. The only time I've sutured was when a very large flap of skin was torn from the front of a neck (read as 3 inches by 10 inch flap). Another recent case involves a possible rather large hole in a crop which, should it leak food, should be sutured. Otherwise try to leave things open. Poultry can regrow an amazing amount of skin back if there's muscle underneath. New skin will granulate and grow in to fill in gaps that would surprise you.

On the areas that are just uncovered, I usually use antibiotic creme (versus ointment) because it's water based. Sometimes I'll just put a thin smear of antibiotic ointment, however, if that's what I have. Or fly-preventative ointment if there are flies in the area.

DRESSING WITH BANDAGES:
If at all possible, try not to cover with bandages. The average bandage keeps air out and moisture in and not in a good way. If you must bandage (a dirt floor area, extreme fly issues, etc) then try to keep the bandage to a minimum and very airy. That's why I'm not a big fan of nonstick bandages. They tend to trap moisture and cause a very warm airless area. But sometimes you have to use them. If so, cover the wound with the bandage. Wrap twice with very gauzey gauze wrap. Then put one layer only of VetWrap over. If you must secure (to keep the bandage from falling, for example) you can use very thin strips of duct tape like you would tape a birthday present. Using as little as possible, but a very strong tape like duct tape, helps let the air in.

Sometimes I've even used just one layer of a very clean paper towel rather than use a non-stick. Afterwards, if you have to remove it, you can soak with warm water and pick the bits out if it sticks. Gauze tends to embed in wound seepage.

Think out of the box when it comes to covering areas that are wounded. With my geese who had multiple puncture and surface wounds on their chest, and a high fly area, I used one white sheet that I formed into a sort of front-bib and tied behind their back. T-shirts are also awesome to cover a bird's body. Buy the appropriate size, slip the neck over their neck, their legs through the arm holes, cut two holes through which you slip their wings. Gather the bottom end (cut so that you don't cover their vent) at the top of their back and duct-tape the cloth to make it stay fitted. T-shirts are very airy, cheap, washable, and absorbent.

SUTURES:
If your bird requires stitches, suture material with thread attached can be found at many feedstores or purchased online ahead of time. The size you want is for dogs and cats. Sutures aren't stitched like a pillow case, but each stitch is its own knot. The semi-circular needles of suture needles are ideal for going into and out of the skin. Note: stitching is not easy - skin is tough, usually the needle is slippery, and it's rather tough to do. Overestimate the amount of suture material you need as you'll make knots and cut off the excess bit sticking up.

MAINTENANCE:
Many wounds, if properly cleaned and dressed and left airy, do not need much maintenance. Oddly, one of the best ways of telling whether or not a wound is doing well is by using your nose. Smell the wound at the time of cleaning. Wounds have a particular almost sweet but not cloyingly sweet smell. Remember the smell. Then smell the wound daily to see if you smell rot. If you do, there's not enough air to the wound and possible infection going on.

Wounds will seep a little - that's natural and the body's way of dealing with wounds. Usually the seepage will be mostly clear and smell of wound. However, if there's any opaqueness to it, or clotted texture, that's infection. Also there will be some natural inflammation as the body tries to bully off the bad bacteria and bring in healing materials to the wound. However excessive inflammation, discoloration (especially black or green), should be noted.

If a wound needs cleaning or examining, take off what bandages you can gently. If they stick to the seepage from the wound, use warm water to soak the bandage parts remaining away from the drainage.

Then examine the wound, determine what needs to be done, and redress from the iodine stage onward.

ANTIBIOTICS:
Many wounds do not require additional antibiotics other than topical (on the skin) antibiotic dressings. However in the case of animal bites that weren't caught immediately, cat bites, and wounds that have been sitting or are particularly deep, it may be a good idea to treat with antibiotics. If you make this decision, please be sure to get one that is appropriate for wounds. The packages at the feedstore are not.

Penicillin G Procaine (Aqueous Pen-G) is commonly found at many feedstores in their fridge section. It's awesome to keep in your own fridge for a rainy day. It's a very thick antibiotic and requires a thicker gauge needle. I would use no thinner than a 22 gauge, preferably something more thick at a length of .75 to 1 inch. At many feedstores, you can buy 3 cc syringes that are together already with needles. These are nice to have on hand as well as that 30 cc syringe that you'll use to flush wounds.

Instructions on how to give an injection are available separately as well as how to treat with antibiotics. If you do choose to use injectable antibiotics, be prepared to go the entire recommended course. Penicillin G Procaine is a concentrated penicillin (they're not all created equally) and only is required to be given every other day. Based on the type of antibiotic you expect to use, buy that many syringes plus two.

HEALING:
Birds in healing mode need help being stabilized, nourished, and hydrated. We all know how delicate birds can be, but it's surprising how resilient they can be at times. However, wounds will often depress a bird or cause them to go into shock. A stressed or shocked bird may not be able to digest foods they're commonly given. For that reason, I recommend only giving easily dissolved feeds when a bird is in the first stages of recovery. Think crumbles, pellets, etc. You don't want to make a drastic change in their diet ever, much less when they're already stressed. If a bird is reluctant to eat, try wetting the pellets/crumbles. You can also add a boiled egg yolk (one per six cups of food) mashed into the crumbles. I like to also give probiotics (yogurt, Fastrack, Probiocs, acidophilus, or whatever I have available) during this time to combat a secondary intestinal disorder from stress and change of way of eating. Yogurt is simple. You can mix 1 tablespoon per two cups of feed.

The added protein in an egg yolk helps the bird to heal. Adding a capsule of vitamin E to that mash (one per 2 cups of mash) also helps healing. If the birds are stressy, or not able to eat normally, I'll use a vitamin/electrolyte mix in their water for the first few days. I never ever use an oral antibiotic for wound treatment. Period.

CONCLUSION:
It's unfortunately common that poultry are victims of predation and wounds. They are delicate and, with their ultra-fast metabolisms, can die readily if they decide to. Remember that an injured bird can often have internal injuries we never see. If you lose them, just remember you tried your best. However you might be surprised, with proper wound-care, how many of these birds recover to absolutely normal lives. Just be patient as healing takes a while. Usually separate the birds, but if they can be near their peers they take heart from it and will do better.

Good luck with your flock, and I hope this information has been helpful.
Nathalie Ross
(Please do not reproduce without permission of the author. The author is not a veterinarian and does not intend to dispense information that at all should replace the advice of a qualified avian vet.)

 

[vtstevens]

Thank you for the prompt wealth of information. I am going to print this out and keep it. I will do everything you said. You are obviously very knowledgeable and I can't thank you enough.

 

[threehorses]

Thank you for your kind words. I worked as a vet tech for a while, but unfortunately most of my knowledge comes from first-hand experience with my own flock - both with veterinary treatment and some times when none was available.

I've spent many a day either crying over a bird, or hunkered over them patching something up, or unfortunately cleaning many a maggot, and it always helped to have my ideas and plan organized so I didn't feel so helpless. So that's what I did - compiled all the vet info, all my personal experience, into one article (so I wouldn't forget anything) that someone will hopefully read and say "I can do this!".

I really am serious - I would love to know how your bird does. If something isn't working, tell us - we'll adjust it and get it to work if we can.

The one thing that always worries me is internal injuries. You can't tell what happened inside. It might be something that will cause her to decline.

But I think dressing everything and then trying to keep the bird happy and safe feeling goes SO far towards helping them live!

Best of luck, and I will nag you if I don't see updates. (wink)

 

[Omran]

Quote:
Threehorses, I really thank you for being with us on the Fourm ( God bless you) I think yourpost has to be sticky, please PMmoderators and see if we can make it sticky, it is a lot of good INfo.

Omran.

 

[allison finch]

Great info, thanks

 

[threehorses]

Awww you all are just too much, seriously.

I think it's just important for us to all stick together and try to help one another. The great thing about this board are the wide range of experiences and great people who are so willing to help - and if they can't really help, they're just so very supportive! You can't beat it really.

I like to think of BYC as being one big team, and I'm just honored to be part of it.

I even bought a hoodie yesterday. I had to laugh about the "university" part as I, too, learn something here every day. I make a point to.

In any case, I'm always just grateful to be of help. Thank you for allowing me to do that.

 

[vtstevens]

Hi, Nathalie!! Camille is doing BETTER !! I did some of the things you said and she is improving rapidly !! I can't thank you enough for all the time and information you gave me. Camille is a beautiful, gentle, soft eyed black Australorp, and she coos like a dove. I am so happy she is going to make it! I wish you all the best in your endeavors, you deserve it. Virginia