Favorite EE had wing ripped off by predator. Recommendations to prevent infection?

[AngBantamLuv]

I'm not sure you do appreciate my concern if you think "helpful" is twisting a limb off of an animal...

So leaving somethjng that is dangling there is the solution?? Its already ripped off.. she needs to get the dead tissue off.. and hope you never have to be in an accident where you need someone to take drastic measures, like deciding where to tie off a limb for a future stump to save your life. And yea ive been trained in that. But death and suffering is better to you.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

So leaving somethjng that is dangling there is the solution?? Its already ripped off.. she needs to get the dead tissue off.. and hope you never have to be in an accident where you need someone to take drastic measures, like deciding where to tie off a limb for a future stump to save your life. And yea ive been trained in that. But death and suffering is better to you.

This situation has already been taken care of by moderators, no worries.

 

[Geena]

Although I appreciate your concern for the techniques that have been suggested, The techniques are ones that would ultimately help an otherwise "dead" animal. Please put your feelings aside and refrain from commenting so that I can filter through the helpful comments more easily for the sake of my chicken. Thank you

There are plenty of things worse than death, especially for animals, as they seldom have any choice in what does or does not happen to them.

 

[m1chelle1]

How is your hen doing girl?

She is doing well enough. We continue to trim dead tissue away, sanitize the wound and bandage and wrap a couple times a day. She is back to being energetic and loves to be outside with her flock. My husband and I are trying to figure out the best way to deal with the bone. We know it has to happen sooner rather than later. She has a strong desire to live and resume normal life, and that is the obvious way forward for her at this time, despite concerns for her wellbeing. I’ll have to get some updated pictures of the wound today

I had a dog rip the wing off of one of my roosters last August. There was about an inch of bone remaining. There was also several shards of bone stuck into the surrounding muscle. I flushed it out with a saline solution then I used a scalpel to remove the remaining bone and severed muscle. Then I flushed it out again and stitched it shut. That was unnecessary though the bird pulled the stitches out the next day. A large black scab formed over the entire injury and it took 4 months to heal.
Here he was last August-
View attachment 2796041
View attachment 2796043
Here is everything I removed from him.
View attachment 2796044

Here it is stitched up. View attachment 2796045
And here he is that December. To bad I did not take any pictures in between. I didn't have to medicate him at all, birds immune systems seem to be a lot stronger than humans and mammals. It was lat in the summer when the injury happened but there was still flies. I put him in a crate with a fan pointing right at him to keep any flies away. It seems like the nervous system gets overloaded on birds when they get an injury like this. I don't actually know but they just have no reaction to the cuts and stitching on the spot where the main injury is. But then will have reactions if you go poking around on the other side of their body. If I had to guess I would say their nervous system gets overloaded when something like this happens and they just don't feel pain in that area until a day or two afterwards. I have noticed they have reactions when I would try to look at their injury and how it was healing.
We had a duck get her wing broken by a fox and we amputated the entire thing, during the surgery she just stood on the table we didn't even need to hold her. We put a dish with water and some food in it in front of her and she started to play in it and eat the pellets as we were cutting her wing off. She didnt flinch the entire time. At the end of it we accidentally cut a small blood vessel that was deeper inside the injury and she did have a reaction to that. That duck made a full recovery too but we made the mistake of leaving some of the bone in her and so it didnt heal and we had to go back and open it up and remove it a few days later.
I'm not sure what I would do in your situation or how the bird is acting but if that bone stays in there with a sharp edge and you can't get skin to regrow over it then it probably won't heal. With the duck we left about an inch in her but we smoothed

 

[m1chelle1]

You can hide someone’s comments. If I were you I’d hide this persons..... it’ll clean up the thread for you. I feel bad enough for continuing to converse with them, but I strongly disagree with their opinion Your girl clearly wants to be with her flock and it’s motivated to live as much as you are motivated to help her. I think you have to go to their profile to hide them. Imagine if every time an injured person is unconscious (as in can’t give consent like an animal cannot give consent) we just kill them because we “don’t want to leave them in pain.” Smh.

As for waiting for her to recover further, I would not. Recovery will reach a point where it probably won’t progress and I feel this would just be extending that recovery period. She is clearly not in shock now if she is active with her flock. I can’t honestly suggest the best way for trimming bone. However from butchering chickens I do know that cutting out the joints has been much easier than cutting through bone, at least when my only tool is a boning knife. I am sure there are more effective tools for cutting through bone.

Yeah, ending her suffering was never an option, because she has clearly displayed the will to live from the moment I found her. I am sure that what I’m doing to treat her, and whatever I choose will not cause my bird undue pain and suffering. I really appreciate you cleaning up this thread for me

 

[m1chelle1]

I had a dog rip the wing off of one of my roosters last August. There was about an inch of bone remaining. There was also several shards of bone stuck into the surrounding muscle. I flushed it out with a saline solution then I used a scalpel to remove the remaining bone and severed muscle. Then I flushed it out again and stitched it shut. That was unnecessary though the bird pulled the stitches out the next day. A large black scab formed over the entire injury and it took 4 months to heal.
Here he was last August-
View attachment 2796041
View attachment 2796043
Here is everything I removed from him.
View attachment 2796044

Here it is stitched up. View attachment 2796045
And here he is that December. To bad I did not take any pictures in between. I didn't have to medicate him at all, birds immune systems seem to be a lot stronger than humans and mammals. It was lat in the summer when the injury happened but there was still flies. I put him in a crate with a fan pointing right at him to keep any flies away. It seems like the nervous system gets overloaded on birds when they get an injury like this. I don't actually know but they just have no reaction to the cuts and stitching on the spot where the main injury is. But then will have reactions if you go poking around on the other side of their body. If I had to guess I would say their nervous system gets overloaded when something like this happens and they just don't feel pain in that area until a day or two afterwards. I have noticed they have reactions when I would try to look at their injury and how it was healing.
We had a duck get her wing broken by a fox and we amputated the entire thing, during the surgery she just stood on the table we didn't even need to hold her. We put a dish with water and some food in it in front of her and she started to play in it and eat the pellets as we were cutting her wing off. She didnt flinch the entire time. At the end of it we accidentally cut a small blood vessel that was deeper inside the injury and she did have a reaction to that. That duck made a full recovery too but we made the mistake of leaving some of the bone in her and so it didnt heal and we had to go back and open it up and remove it a few days later.
I'm not sure what I would do in your situation or how the bird is acting but if that bone stays in there with a sharp edge and you can't get skin to regrow over it then it probably won't heal. With the duck we left about an inch in her but we smoothed it down so it had no sharp edge.

Thank you so much for this detailed response! This may be an option as well. I’ll have to discuss with my husband and see. I’ve been trimming off necrotic flesh every day because she has made it know to me that she wants it removed, and has gladly let me do it, without a fight. Her nub looks good so far, I have blue kote on it now, since that worked for someone else in this situation.

 

[m1chelle1]

There are plenty of things worse than death, especially for animals, as they seldom have any choice in what does or does not happen to them.

Thank you for your concern. What’s being done for her is not worse than death.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Yeah, ending her suffering was never an option, because she has clearly displayed the will to live from the moment I found her. I am sure that what I’m doing to treat her, and whatever I choose will not cause my bird undue pain and suffering. I really appreciate you cleaning up this thread for me

I really did nothing. In fact one of the mods deleted a post of mine for “trolling”. I’m not even sure which one.

Thank you so much for this detailed response! This may be an option as well. I’ll have to discuss with my husband and see. I’ve been trimming off necrotic flesh every day because she has made it know to me that she wants it removed, and has gladly let me do it, without a fight. Her nub looks good so far, I have blue kote on it now, since that worked for someone else in this situation.

I’ve had to do various minor wound treatments and I’m convinced that on a small level they know we are there to help. Glad to know she is still doing well.

Did you say she was on amoxicillin in an earlier three? If you ever have a hard time finding any, I buy Baytril 2.5% from allbirdproducts.com because it is available without a prescription. I bought it for the purpose of treating Bumblefoot because it’s for gram positive bacteria strains, but at last it’s another resource available if you couldn’t find anything else.

Please do keep us up to date on your girl. I hate you’re both in this situation.

 

[m1chelle1]

bird is fully back to her normal self. Showing no signs of suffering, other than slight discomfort at dressing change time. Flesh on bottom is growing up past some of the dying flesh on top. Thinking the nub is looking pretty good so far

 

[humblehillsfarm]

View attachment 2797058
View attachment 2797058View attachment 2797060View attachment 2797059
bird is fully back to her normal self. Showing no signs of suffering, other than slight discomfort at dressing change time. Flesh on bottom is growing up past some of the dying flesh on top. Thinking the nub is looking pretty good so far

She definitely looks perky! Chickens are so amazing. I imagine it’ll take some time to fully heal. You’re doing a good job chicken mama.