HELP PLEASE My Hen has an egg size rip/hole in her back

[dlhunicorn]

...might not be a bad idea just be sure you dont make it too long as you do not want her to become chilled ... it would be a handy place to do the saline rinse... I would place in a cardboard box after on a towel and blow dry (again to ensure she doesnt get chilled) then apply the chlorhexidine and triple antibiotic.
Spoil er rotten

 

[ruth]

I have sewn up many hens whose whole back was open and exposed - skin ripped by roosters. I used regular needle and thread. All did well and feathers grew back and all are alive and healthy today. I did finally buy chicken saddles for the them to wear but that's another story.

My vet did finally give me a box of sterile pre-threaded needle with dissolvable sutures and you may be able to get one from your vet because I now use those and it makes it sooooo much faster and easier.

But, using needle and thread:

First clean with Betadine and wash wound well.

Apply stitches to reattach skin.

Clean again with Betadine. Then apply Neosporin to wound. I also spray with Furall, it's purchased at feed store. It's a yellow antibacterial spray that helps the wound dry and repels flies and prevents others from pecking at wound. But I then also isolate the wounded bird till healed. On the worse of the worse I've recleaned the second day but on most I just let it start to heal and dry. I don't cover the wound. On some that were so ripped up I didn't think they would survive, I gave 1 cc of Pen G after surgery and another for the next couple of days but I've found that none of them ever got any infection and all healed just fine without the shots. I add Terramycin to their water while isolated that first week.

I normally operate on them alone and they just lay calmly till I'm done and then get up and eat a treat. Trick is to cover their head so they can't see and lay them on their side. You can wrap them in a towel if you are only needing to operate on their head, neck or feet and they will lay calmly and can't flap and move around.

***

In your case, as posted by others, clean the wound as well as possible and get all scabs and infection off wound before stitching.

 

[christmaschicken]

OM Goodness I don't know about the stiches!

Anyone?

Don't they need to be numbed? will it not hurt her?

 

[katrinag]

You can order sutures from ebay and other livestock catalogs like Jeffer's Pets. If you cover there head with a towel it puts them in a trance so to speak. I am not sure if they feel it or not. I know many people on this site that have stitched there birds.

 

[ruth]

Here's a link to another thread on which I posted pics of the huge rip, the stitches, procedure and the hen eating scrambled eggs off my kitchen floor seconds later and finally the healed and refeathered back.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=129651&p=2

 

[sunnydt]

I have successfully stitched up my hens before with a needle and thread. You dont take them out. They heal up really well like that. They dont really even feel it.