Help! Guinea hen seriously injured

[Phoebetv28]

She is definitely flapping around and fighting me when I wash the wound. I hate stressing her but glad to hear that it’s a good sign she’s got the strength.

I read on other posts that Silver Sulfadiazine Cream is better to use than Neosporin—would you suggest that or Vaseline is still better?

Planning on trying to get a vet to consult me over the phone tomorrow!

 

[Eggcessive]

I do like plain Neosporin/triple antibiotic ointment, or Polysporin ointment for deep wounds used twice a day after cleaning. You can also use MediHoney or manuka honey. You can make saline at home by adding 2 tsp of salt to 1 liter or quart of water. Use a spray bottle or dab it on to clean the wound twice a day. Some use chlorhexidene or Hibiclens for wound care. Keep her away from flies, and separated until she heals. Watch for a bad odor or pus/purulent drainage. Do you have any pictures of the wound? Sorry , I just looked back and saw them. Not too bad. It can take several weeks for a large wound to fill in and heal. If she is fighting, that is a good sign. How is she eating and drinking? You can wrap her in a towel to handle her with more ease, or get another to help you. Let us know how she gets along.

 

[Eggcessive]

Silver sulfadiazine (sulfodene) cream is used in deep burns, and requires a vet prescription. You could ask the vet about it.

 

[Phoebetv28]

I do like plain Neosporin/triple antibiotic ointment, or Polysporin ointment for deep wounds used twice a day after cleaning. You can also use MediHoney or manuka honey. You can make saline at home by adding 2 tsp of salt to 1 liter or quart of water. Use a spray bottle or dab it on to clean the wound twice a day. Some use chlorhexidene or Hibiclens for wound care. Keep her away from flies, and separated until she heals. Watch for a bad odor or pus/purulent drainage. Do you have any pictures of the wound? Sorry , I just looked back and saw them. Not too bad. It can take several weeks for a large wound to fill in and heal. If she is fighting, that is a good sign. How is she eating and drinking? You can wrap her in a towel to handle her with more ease, or get another to help you. Let us know how she gets along.

Update: she seems in decent spirits still: fighting me, drinking and eating, laying eggs, calling for her friends in her guinea voice. It takes me and my boyfriend both to hold her down with a towel to wash the wound. The wound doesn’t seem to be infected but a lot of fat and bone are still exposed and I noticed that there are some bare, plucked spots on her side that look a bit swollen (but can’t tell if it’s just how her body looks without the feathers! No pus or inflammation)

I have been really struggling to find a vet, will make more calls today. I have been washing the wound with saline 2x a day, spraying veterycin 2x a day, and put some neosporin on the more shallow parts of the wound. I also found some “silver honey” which has Manuka honey in it so started using that this morning.

I’ll post some more pictures tonight. So far so good, I just have to not think about that bone too much

 

[fowltemptress]

I'd stick with the vaseline

She is definitely flapping around and fighting me when I wash the wound. I hate stressing her but glad to hear that it’s a good sign she’s got the strength.

I read on other posts that Silver Sulfadiazine Cream is better to use than Neosporin—would you suggest that or Vaseline is still better?

Planning on trying to get a vet to consult me over the phone tomorrow!

I've only seen silver Sulfadiazine used on burn wounds. Sorry I can't help with that. Personally, I'd stick with the vaseline, but that's because it's what I know. For insight into where I'm drawing from, we used to use triple antibiotic ointments (neosporin) in the labs, but never for large wounds, and years ago switched from neosporin to plain Petroleum jelly because it's better for promoting healing and didn't trigger the dermatalogical issues we we'd sometimes get with neosporin. The antibiotic ointment was still used for minor wounds, but those animals were not expected to get handled daily.

You say you've put neosporin on the shallower bits of the wound, but have you been putting vaseline on the deeper parts and over the bone? It's important to keep the wound moist while it's healing.

 

[Phoebetv28]

I'd stick with the vaseline


I've only seen silver Sulfadiazine used on burn wounds. Sorry I can't help with that. Personally, I'd stick with the vaseline, but that's because it's what I know. For insight into where I'm drawing from, we used to use triple antibiotic ointments (neosporin) in the labs, but never for large wounds, and years ago switched from neosporin to plain Petroleum jelly because it's better for promoting healing and didn't trigger the dermatalogical issues we we'd sometimes get with neosporin. The antibiotic ointment was still used for minor wounds, but those animals were not expected to get handled daily.

You say you've put neosporin on the shallower bits of the wound, but have you been putting vaseline on the deeper parts and over the bone? It's important to keep the wound moist while it's healing.

I was putting vaseline on the bone and deeper parts, also washing twice a day with saline and now I’ve been putting silver honey on it. Does the silver honey do more or less the same job as Vaseline or should I keep going with the Vaseline too? Right now I’m cleaning the wound twice a day with saline and then vetercyn, then in the morning I put vaseline on the deep parts and Neosporin on the shallow parts and at night silver honey.

The one thing I have noticed is that the wound is more extensive than I first thought, it goes all the way under her wing and I can’t get to it by cutting away feathers. So I’ve just been kind of making sure to flush what I can with saline and let the silver honey kind of drip under there, because I can’t get in there to put Vaseline on it. Do you think that’s ok?

I also noticed this morning that there is a greenish discoloration under her skin next to a gash (still the more shallow part of the wound). Attaching a photo here. Does this look like infection? So far no pus (that I can see) or bad odor and she continues to lay, make her guinea sounds, and is eating a ton.

 

[Phoebetv28]

UPDATE! Ack..is this infected?

So it’s been one week since the attack, for the most part her wound definitely seems better with no odor, pus or sign of infection. BUT I just noticed this morning that one of the more minor wounds at the base of her tail is turning green…it looks like there’s pus in there but I can’t tell and not sure how much to mess with it. What should I do? Attaching photo here. Any advice would be very welcome! We’ve gotten this far and I really don’t want to lose her to infection after all of this.