Face Wound With Possible Open Sinus - How To Treat?

[Captain Cluck]

I can't find this in the forum, so I am asking -

I have a 2 year old crested black Swedish duck hen that was attacked by a raccoon on Friday night. We had given her up for dead when she showed up Saturday evening crusted with dirt and muck and looking rather discombobulated. (We board our chickens and ducks at a farm in the woods because code enforcement caught up with my wild ways and outlaw poultry and made me move them.) She looked like she had been coated with saliva, dragged through dirt, leaves and mud, left out to dry and then staggered home like a drunken sailor (which may be what happened since she was not in the pen at all during the day after the attack).

I took her home, gave her a warm bath (no soap - just water in the tub and ran the shower over her on gentle spray) wrapped her in a towel and put her on a clean towel in a Rubbermaid tub in a dark quiet room with a cup of water and a bowl of warmed frozen peas.(I forgot to bring home feed for her)

I added Poly-visol (no iron), 1 heaped teaspoon of sugar, Bach's Rescue Remedy, and 2 tablets of Ledum Palustre (wild rosemary homeopathic for bites and wound healing) to the water. She dabbles her bill in the water, and I believe she is drinking, because the rescue remedy is working. She is much calmer than when I brought her home. She will eat peas (her favorite food) if I smash them and hold them close for her to grab. I will be giving her mash (wet food) as well as the peas from now on.
I don't have any antibiotic ointment of antibiotics of any sort. I am even out of vitamin c, but at least I am using the Ledum.

When I did a quick check of her, I found a gash across her face from between her eyes going down the right side of her face between her bill and right eye. It looks like it went down to the bone, and her right eye gets a little foam in the corner every so often. Her breathing is loud, too. I don't know if her sinus is open or exposed on that side, but I do want to take care of the wound properly. I haven't done a more thorough exam, because I am still getting the muck unglued from her feathers.I have been giving her a warm bath daily since I brought her home. She starts to preen, but it seems to hurt to use her neck so she stops and she is favoring her right leg.

She seems to be picking up - she is wagging her tail, and quacks a little at me, and is eating and drinking a little, but mostly sleeping.

How do I treat her head wound? Do I treat it? What do I use? I don't want to drown her or cause infection, but she needs to be cleaned up better.

Treating her head wound is my main concern. I can follow directions from this board for the rest.

Thanks for any advice you can give me.

Edited to add: Also, another sign she is perking up is she is snuggling against my shoulder like she used to do as a duckling, instead of running away screaming 'murder'.

 

[Captain Cluck]

UPDATE: Lucy the lucky duck is much improved. Her wound is still open, but she is eating and drinking. When I put her in a lukewarm bath today, she tried to swim but is still favoring her right leg. She also is attempting to preen and tried to wash her face.

I have been lifting her head gently and stretching her neck straight up 2x daily trying to get the vertebra back into place (I am not a chiropractor, but would gladly accept the name of a good one for birds). She seems to feel better for a short while after I stretch her neck.

Her poops have been black, grainy and more like mud than poop. Today they had bright mint green color in the black, so she is digesting the garden peas. She is refusing everything else, so garden peas for dinner it is.

I still need advice as to what to do for her head wound. so far, I have left it alone except to splash bath water over her head and face to keep her nares/nostrils clean.
She is still getting a slimy foam from the corner of her right eye, and now her neck feels hot where she holds it against her back in the resting position.
What do I do?

 

[Captain Cluck]

*crickets chirping*




Is no one responding because they think she's a goner? Or is it because no one knows what to do?
It's OK if you think she's a goner. I can take it. Our silkie hen, Hope, was a 'goner', too, after a dog attack. But she's happily enthroned in the dining room, ruling the house from her crate. She is crippled because I didn't know anything about muscle therapy to keep her leg from atrophying. I want to try to keep that from happening to Lucy.

Does anyone know about neck and leg injuries? How to keep them from atrophying and crippling my duck?

I could really use some advice, please.

I guess I'll keep doing what I'm doing.



5/11/12

Lucy is still eating and drinking and active, but her right leg is slightly swollen and warm. The foamy discharge from her eyes is smelling funky, so I am taking the advice of a friend who studied veterinary medicine before switching to human medicine, and has been through similar incidents and I am putting Lucy on oral Duramycin 800mg/gal water. I will withdraw the other treatments since they take a while to work and the infection is beginning to ramp up.

I may have to trim a lot of feathers to find any other wounds, but I have bought her some baby t-shirts to wear until her molt if I need to remove too many.

5/15/2012

Just in case anyone is following Lucy's progress, she is now eating layer pellets without complaint and drinking the Duramycin water. She will probably be on the Duramycin for another week.

She bathes once a day (actually dunking her head and preening as much as she can reach) and allows me to dry her feathers with a hair dryer. Her right leg is still warm to the touch, but cooler than it was. She still favors it, as well as her neck, but she is more willing to stretch her neck for things she wants. I found a bump that looks like a scab on her leg and tried to remove it, but it didn't come off. Either it's not a scab, or I wasn't aggressive enough.

She has had a few streaks of bloody mucous in her droppings, but I didn't feel anything like an egg or lump in her abdomen when I felt around (yes, I reached under the feathers and gently squeezed her belly and pressed on it)
Her eyes are still foamy and weepy, but the odor has gone away - she almost smelled a little like betadine solution. That may have been because I put straight betadine on her head wound, and Then I found out it should have been diluted or I should have used saline. *sigh*

She seems happy and except for the lameness, is almost back to her old self. I know I could still lose her, but every little improvement is a big plus for me.

 

[Captain Cluck]

The Saga of Lucy continues:

I have been treating her for nearly a month now. She has perked up considerably. She is molting (most likely from living in a dim room with winter light levels for the past 4 weeks) but has not laid any eggs in the time she has been home. I am increasing her light to summer levels, and will offer her some crushed pepper soon.

Most of her wounds have healed. Her face still has a gash running down it. I have trimmed away as many feathers as I can, and trimmed away dead skin and I repack it with antibiotic ointment about 3 X week to keep it from infection. She was on Duramycin for 2 weeks, and antibiotic ointment on her head woulds, Ichthammol on her leg wound, and Betadine in her bath water. I did start with Bite homeopathic, Rescue Remedy, Poly-visol without iron, and Vet Rx, but discontinued that when I put her on the Duramycin.

She gets baths nearly every day, unless I need to be gone from the house. She now splashes and uses her injured leg to swim. I fill a Rubbermaid tub about 2/3 full of lukewarm water and let her splash around in that in the bathtub. I add Betadine to the water to help keep the nasties at bay. I wash out both tubs with bleach after her bath just in case her leg wound has MRSA (it is a white lump that looks like pus, and I don't know what to expect and do not want to spread staph infections around).

I have been putting Ichthammol on her leg wound and wrapping it with bath tissue and painter's tape. She doesn't pick at it, and the wound is now a little white lump with a little scab in the center. I am waiting for it to burst or fall off. I don't know what to expect, so I keep re-applying the ointment and wrapping with fresh bandage.

Lucy is eating, drinking, pooping, preening and playing in her water mug with great abandon. Today, she decided to play with anything that she came across. She hasn't done that since the attack a month ago. She hisses at the dog when it gets too close, and ignores the cats. She loves to be held with her feet in my hands or wrapped in a towel, does not like having her legs and head examined, cleaned or treated, but will be still and tolerate it while she complains. She now believes that she should be walking into her day crate rather than being carried to it after her bath, but with 2 dogs and 4 cats lurking about, I feel better about carrying her. I think it is time to transition her to a permanent crate in the living room next to Hope, our crippled silkie hen.
I am also looking for a diaper harness for her so I can walk her outdoors, or let her loose in the house when the predators are locked in another room. I noticed that Indoor Ducks dot com is not in business any longer. Where else can I get a duck diaper harness?

I am not supposed to have poultry here unless their 'enclosure' is 100 feet from the nearest neighbor's home, but the nearest neighbors do not care. The ones just within that distance are the complainers, so if she is a leashed pet living in a cage indoors, I think I can squeak by, since her enclosure is in the house, and she only goes outdoors confined to a leash or a carrier. (It's sad that a dog has more freedom than a duck).

I don't know if I have done the correct things in caring for Lucy, but I did get some good advice from my local friends. No one ever responded to this thread. I'm not sure why, but whatever. We have survived, and healed, and I still think BYC is a great place to go for poultry advice, and the people here are great.

Thanks for reading.