HELP!!!! Hole in her head 4 mth old hen

[Chickengal505]

ing and BUMPING myself for the third time

 

[nuts4chickens]

I had the very same thing happen today. Dont know what really happened but I have a hen with a very large hole on top of her head with her skull showing. It is a very deep wound. The wound was also extremely dirty, full of dirt and rock hard dry blood. I am thinking it's aggressive rooster damage? Not sure. But anyway... this is what I did today:

First I irrigated the wound with saline to try to soften up the scab and wash out the dirt. The saline really wasnt doing a whole lot because it was so crusted over. So I used peroxide to soften the scab, and carefully picked away all the debris with sterilized tweezers. I washed out with peroxide a second time after I had removed all the dirt and debris. I dont plan to continue using peroxide because it will actually keep the healthy tissue from scabbing over, which is what I want it to do now that it is clean.

After I had the wound cleaned out well, I irrigated it one more time with saline. With a sterile 4x4, I blotted the wound dry and then followed it with a betadine rinse, and cleaned the surrounding skin with a betadine soaked q-tip. After doing this, I filled the wound with neosporin. I plan on getting an antibiotic to get her started on tomorrow to combat any infection that may try to set up shop.

I am going to keep her separated from the flock until it is healed because I dont want her getting picked at, or getting dirt in it. I will be offering her some fresh veggies from the garden along with some nutri-drench, boiled eggs, and her layer crumble.

Her wound is not covered by any skin at this point, and the hole, like I said, extends to the skull. I dont know how she will do, but I am going to try my best.

What did you do, and how is your hen doing now?