Hen Pecked Rooster - hole in side, surrounding skin black

[NC_Chick0403]

Help, we have a rooster that has been hen pecked where feathers are missing under his wing and there is a hole in his underside. We can hear noises coming from the hole the skin, can see what looks like intestines, and the flesh surrounding is black and crackly. Some of the other skin on his leg where they pecked out his feathers has a green tinge to it (but the other healthy skin leg also has green tinge but much lighter). He also has black spots on his comb which I assume is comb scab due to the pecking.

He is alert, eating, drinking, pooping, and does not appear to be unusually hot.

Unfortunately this happened on Monday and we did not began treating until Thursday. We have treated the surrounding are with Red Oil yesterday and gave him antibiotics today as well as treated with a little bit of hydrogen peroxide.

We don't want him to suffer and are unsure if infection (gangrene) has already set in. Can anyone make any suggestions as to whether we should euthanize or attempt to treat. It does not seem apparent that the hole will close on it's own and I'm not confident we would be able to stitch. If treatment is recommended, please provide suggestions.

Thanks
NC_chick0403

 

[Omran]

Quote:
I don't know much about treatments, but I would put him by himself for a while.

 

[emys]

No more peroxide - it kills good and bad cells. Use neosporin (without pain killer).

I'm not an expert - so if someone corrects me listen to them, but, I have had to stitch up a hen before. Your guy sounds like he should get stitched together - this isn't as bad as it sounds. If you lay him on his side and put a blanket over his head he will probably not even flinch. It will be worse for you than for him - so just don't think about it. Boil your needle ahead of time, use regular clean thread (of a color you can find easily to take out later) and aim to only go through nice pink flesh - try to get the nice pink stuff touching on each side -pucker the black stuff out in the middle - it will fall off anyway. Unless he is picking at it, I wouldn't cover after stitching.

I don't think he is already infected, or he wouldn't be eating and drinking normally.

 

[NC_Chick0403]

Thanks, we have him isolated him from the rest of the flock and have him under a heat lamp in the pen as it is very cold here. We have also put up a barrier to the newly introduced chickens to the flock of existing.

 

[NC_Chick0403]

emys, unfortunately there isn't any nice pink flesh surrounding the hole to be able to stitch.

I will avoid peroxide going forward. Would A&D ointment help or should I get neosporin without pain medicine.

Would saline solution help?

 

[emys]

Saline is good for washing , but won't keep it moist. Sorry, I'm not sure what the other ointment is that you mention.

The problem you have is that the more time it is open the longer you risk infection and with the dead flesh already all around it, I worry about closing that gunk in there with bandages.

Where are our experts??

You are pretty sure about not being able to pull it closed? Maybe the best thing then would be trim off as much dead flesh as possible, coat with neospirin and cover the whole thing?

 

[emys]

He has waited this long. Can you post pictures tomorrow morning?

 

[emys]

Is he still eating and drinking this morning?

Any of our experts awake this morning to give some advice here?

 

[NC_Chick0403]

He is still eating and drinking, showing curiosity and appears to be doing okay considering,

 

[NC_Chick0403]

will try to get pics up today