Graphic Pics- Wing Amputation Advise?

[Raptorchick]

Hello..
Today has been quite the trial-error day, but so far my chick Raptor seems to be stable. She's a gold laced wyandotte x rhode island red cross, and has so much spunk. She's my favorite, hand raised, but hatched under my hen March 30th. My coop has four layers of fencing, the innermost is quarter-inch hardware cloth, then chicken-wire, then chain-link, then some wider holed wire fence (due to me "reviving" an old-coop on the property). I believed it was secure but now realize I have much to do. I found raptor somehow trapped between the hardware cloth and chicken wire, with the left wing hand bone, elbow joint, and ulna/radius bare, hardly even bleeding. I believe an animal ate it last night after she got stuck; I can't think of any other reason her wing would dissappear overnight. I don't have the money to go to a vet; my first reaction was to put her down. But she was talking up a storm, and when I set her down, she ran for the water and food. I can't put down a pet that still wants to live, unless the circumstances would leave it in unreasonable pain. So... my next option was amputation. I took her inside, settled her into a nice sterile warm bath, and cleaned the wounded area with hurt-free antibacterial BandAide wash. I used my cats toenail clippers to cut the bone back to the elbow joint. The muscles and tendons have no connection to the joint, except for connective tissue to the ulna and radius, so i tied them to the joint. I also tied around the joint and veins to stem the bleeding (which was very slight) and covered it with Stop Bleed hemostatic powder, then bandaged and "packed" it with a cotton ball swathed in bacitracin ointment. The entire area is trimmed of feathers and cleaned, and I covered it with sterile gauze and bacitracin ointment, then stabilized the whole thing by wrapping her with self-adhesive veterinary wrap. She was eating and drinking (and talking!) before and after this whole ordeal, but I still put an all natural eating/drinking stimulant in her food and water. I have her eating medicated chick starter feed, which she was eating before all of this also, I mix it with regular poultry feed/scratch. I also put an electrolyte mix for livestock in her water. I'm not sure how much blood she lost, so I hope that helps. She is currently in a pet carrier on a towel. My questions are... should I raise the temperature of the room for her/would that help with healing or killing germs, and what temperature? I ordered colloidal silver drops, if she suvives the next day, should I add this to the electrolytes or stop the electrolytes? And lastly... I cant tell right now where skin ends and bone begins. Im fairly sure the elbow joint is bone, and I tied the muscles to it, but I'm not sure if those muscles and connective tisues will reattach or just die off. Should I wait to see if it will heal, or remove them? She has wing feather sheaths and skin on the top part of the wing, and clearly is in pain when I handle the muscles, the artery is still there (I tied it to the joint), so I'm feeling like I should let that be and keep an eye out for infection, I plan to call my vet first thing tomorrow just to see if they can advise me. Has anyone else ever experienced this, and the chicken lived? Any advise at all is greatly appreciated... right now I am at work but I'll be back in 2 hours if anyone has further questions...
PS, I trimmed the bone shortee than in the picture, it is 5mm from the joint and filed so that there are no sharp edges. This is also from before I tied around the joint. I'll take a more current pic tomorrow when I change her bandages...

Thank you all,
Raptorchick

 

[Raptorchick]

Quick update She's still doing great, for a couple of days she had trouble keeping her balance but as of this morning she is scratching around like her old self, my heart is so happy. I didnt know about the -ocaine toxicity, thank you for that! The pain relief/disinfecting ointment I was using had something ocaine in it, I got rid of it xp I figured out that she won't pick at it as much if I use skin colored wrap, I can sleep better now Thanks again for your help!

 

[rebrascora]

Hi
It must have taken a lot of courage on your part to amputate, so well done. As @emmyn74 suggested, I too would have taken it off at the joint as bone cannot heal over like flesh does so leaving part of the bone protruding will be an entry point for infection in the future and bandaging her for the rest of her life is not going to be a realistic option. I think you might be best to get a scalpel and take it off when you change the bandage. Perhaps heat the blade to cauterise it as you cut through the sinews and blood vessels. Maybe ask the vet about that.
I think she has a good chance of survival since she is eating and drinking and not in obvious shock. You might want to cut the scratch out or reduce it, not just for her but the whole flock. I may be wrong but it sounds like you are being quite generous with it and it really should just be used as an occasional treat and severely rationed. It can lead to serious health issues if fed in any quantity. I would buy some liver or other animal offal and give her little slivers of it raw. Liver is full of good nutrients and iron which will help her replace any lost blood. Remember that she will need access to grit in her hospital cage if you are feeding anything other than crumbles/pellets.

The chances are a creature reached through the wire to grab her. She is very lucky to have survived and I think prognosis is good if you can prevent infection. Best of luck with her.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I believe highly you are holding your own as well as anyone ever could pat yourself on the back heavily keep up the great work... do watch that there are no openings where the bone may protrude infection will start there if their is one

 

[Raptorchick]

Thank you for your help, truly! She now has grit, liver is a great idea, I'll look into that. She is seriously pooping and drinking and eating up a storm, I've removed the eating/drinking stimulant, it just isn't necessary. But she did seem to enjoy the smell lol.
This is her from today, she's much perkier, when I removed the dressings she started trying to preen herself over the wingsite, which makes me think it might be itchy from healing. I held my hand over it and she preened my hand instead. I found a disinfecting and numbing gel at my local pet store that has a red/yellow tinge to it, which is why her little nub looks a tad yellow. She's also getting a Band-Aide hurt-free antiseptic shower to that side each morning (the bottle shape allows me to squirt it behind the wing and around her "armpit"), and I'm also spraying it down with Dermoplast First Aide spray (mostly for the pain relief). Then I apply bacitracin ointment and gauze around the wing and hip/side area. I'm not sure if mentioned in an earlier post, but at first I gave her 10mg of crushed aspirin in her water, then after reconsidering, I removed the aspirin due to it being a blood thinner. She seems to be just fine without it.

Also, I attempted to wrap down both of her wings, because she falls over and flaps the other one so much I'm afraid it'll also get injured, but that did NOT work out, she flapped until the whole thing came off over her head. So, the best way to wrap that I've yet found is just over the gauze of the wound and under the other wing, like a body wrap.
Again, thanks for the advise!! I'll post updates as we go....

 

[Tesumph]

Wow, awesome job! Kudos to you for giving it a shot. I’m not sure if you’re still looking for answers to your questions so if not, ignore this.

For germ control the temperature of the room would actually be lowered. That’s why hospitals are always frigid. A higher temp might make her feel better but wouldn’t help or hinder much either way.

Colloidal silver is worthless, imho. I’ve read enough scientific articles (from people who arent trying to sell it to me) to have decided it’s at best snake oil, and at worst potentially harmful. But to each their own.

I’m super curious what you meant when you kept saying “tie?” Did you use some sort of thread to “sew” pieces together or did you literally make a loop and knot everything to the bone? And what did you use to do it?
I’m sure you’re already aware, but if not, this wound is at huge risk for bone and blood infection. Watch that exposed bone for any sort of softness or discoloration.. it needs to come off fully if it starts rotting. Keep an eye out for black spider veins coming from the wound too. I sincerely hope neither happens because both are virtually a death sentence in this case. If it heals and the bone is still exposed, it needs to be covered somehow.
That being said, the last picture looked REALLY good! Nice granulation coming in. You might want to look into sugar wrapping for the remainder of her healing, it would really help the exposed muscle. Flesh will only die and slough off if it has no blood supply, and due to the ripped nature of the wound (and depending on what you mean by “tied”), that will almost definitely happen as it heals. Again, a sugar wrap would help with granulating in new tissue and avoiding the massive skin loss that can happen when it starts to die. The tricky part is avoiding infection, but you already know that.

Anyways, keep us updated! This is, indeed, fascinating! Plus, who knows who you’re helping out in the future with similar problems. Thanks for the photos

 

[Raptorchick]

Here he is, Mr.gentleroo
I tried to get a decent pic of the nub, but his feathers cover it now lol )

I hoped for sooo long that he was a girl, reading back over this thread makes me giggle We super owe you guys, I cant thank you enough for all your help

 

[Raptorchick]

Thank you for the response. I know, she might be better off by putting her down, but she is eating and drinking and peeping at me. We will see how it looks tomorrow. The bone is cut basically to the joint, it is shorter than in the picture. I'll pick up some vitamin booster asap, and also powdered aspirin...

 

[rebrascora]

Pleased to hear she (although I think it might actually be a he) is continuing to do well and is perky. I'm not familiar with the products you are mentioning but do be aware that anything with an active ingredient that is an ......ocaine (lidocaine etc) can be toxic to chickens even applied topically.
Fingers crossed it continues to improve. You are doing a great job!

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Wow. I'm impressed with the progress. I mean in the first pic, you could obviously tell that she was in pain. But, the last pic you posted her eyes are wide open.
It will be interesting to see her progress.
Good job patching her up!