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
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
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 
