Are you in the medical field?Good grief, I never got notifications for this! I’ve been wondering for days why you haven’t posted lol.
SHE LOOKS AMAZING! I’ll try to answer what you asked but I’m sure I’ll forget something.
I don’t think skin grafts will work at all in this case. You need a rich blood supply for that to take and in this case it’s just not there. The fact that her nub looks like an overdone hotwing is good for an ugly but functional limb, but it means no skin would hold.
The black isn’t super concerning, probably just blood and dead skin. Don’t try and remove it, it will slough off as it heals. That’s what the sugar and honey is for, to make that process smoother and less painful. The more moist a wound like this stays, the faster it will granulate in good tissue, and the less stiff and “rippable” it will be. The key is to make sure it is sterile, and that’s why sugar wraps are so good. They resist bacteria while drawing away icky drainage and not drying out the wound. And yes, it is very messy! We usually put it directly onto a bandage that’s a little moistened with saline and then wrap or pack it into a wound. Then you can wrap and bandage as normal. You can be quite generous with the sugar coating, don’t be scared to mound it on.
I really wouldn’t use hydrogen peroxide. More and more studies are showing it has very little benefits like we used to think. The foaming effect really isn’t that good at drawing much out (and makes people think the wound is cleaner than it is), it hinders skin growth, and it hurts like hell. I am a proud saline and betadine devotee.
As for your second hen, I’m a little late, but yes, all dirt needs to be cleaned out at that initial cleaning, which will require a bit of scrubbing. That last picture looks really good, maybe a little too inflamed around the edges so just watch that. Too late now, but I wouldn’t have sutured it anyway. Only once did I take a needle to my hens, and it was a perfect slice of skin that could’ve passed for a skin graft. It was extremely clean and blood supply was perfect. I still left a small hole and watched it carefully for filling up with fluid.
Hydrotherapy is another very useful method for wound management of very tight and dry wounds like these with very little skin to work with. Basically just keep running water on it to soften it up before flushing with whatever you’re using, packing, and then wrapping. There’s a science to it, but that’s the gist of it lol.
