Hen went missing & thought dead, came home with bad injury!

[Brahma_Mama]

I have a Cornish Cross hen, named Big Bertha. I saved her and three others (all roosters), from being slaughtered, after we received them and were told they were straight run white leghorns. She is right at 6 months old.

She went missing this past Sunday and after an exhaustive search, thought her dead. She hid well on our two acres, because it's completely fenced in and she cannot fly, even a little bit, to get in or out. She strolled up, with much fanfare from the rest of the flock, about an hour ago, looking thin and haggard.

After my initial shock at seeing her alive, I gave her meal works and looked her over as she greedily gobbled everything up. She has a horrible tear on the right side of her back and a rather largish piece of herskin is hanging down.

Normally I would pull it back into place with a couple of stitches, but this injury must've happened the day she went missing. I can't see any way to cover that wound with her own skin! The flap looks nasty, but it has good blood flow, as w silenced by the pink. Its swollen and black with dirt and scabbing.

I tried giving her a warm bath and helped her to soak the areas, to see if they would clean up, but there's little difference in the flap's appearance. I applied hydrogen peroxide, toweled he as dry as she would allow and now she's working on fluffing her feathers back out and s⁴eems to be in fairly good spirits, except she clearly is not talking to me, after that bath! Has her nose buried in the corner of the bathroom.

I'm attaching photos, if possible. I know how to care for most of my chicken injuries (I'm an RN so wound care is something that I do regularly), but I don't want to cut that flap of skin off because I KNOW it'll hurt her a lot! What can I do?!

Honestly, it looks like a breeding injury to me and not an animal attack. I didn't put a saddle on her because she's always been able to outrun the one rooster that has survived to the ripe old age of 6 months. I guess he got to her and he's a big, big boy.

The left-side injury appears to be healing fairly well,after getting it cleaned up and the right side has some good granulation tissue so that's trying to heal as well. My main concern is that flap of hanging skin.

 

[Brahma_Mama]

I have a Cornish Cross hen, named Big Bertha. I saved her and three others (all roosters), from being slaughtered, after we received them and were told they were straight run white leghorns. She is right at 6 months old.

She went missing this past Sunday and after an exhaustive search, thought her dead. She hid well on our two acres, because it's completely fenced in and she cannot fly, even a little bit, to get in or out. She strolled up, with much fanfare from the rest of the flock, about an hour ago, looking thin and haggard.

After my initial shock at seeing her alive, I gave her meal works and looked her over as she greedily gobbled everything up. She has a horrible tear on the right side of her back and a rather largish piece of herskin is hanging down.

Normally I would pull it back into place with a couple of stitches, but this injury must've happened the day she went missing. I can't see any way to cover that wound with her own skin! The flap looks nasty, but it has good blood flow, as w silenced by the pink. Its swollen and black with dirt and scabbing.

I tried giving her a warm bath and helped her to soak the areas, to see if they would clean up, but there's little difference in the flap's appearance. I applied hydrogen peroxide, toweled he as dry as she would allow and now she's working on fluffing her feathers back out and s⁴eems to be in fairly good spirits, except she clearly is not talking to me, after that bath! Has her nose buried in the corner of the bathroom.

I'm attaching photos, if possible. I know how to care for most of my chicken injuries (I'm an RN so wound care is something that I do regularly), but I don't want to cut that flap of skin off because I KNOW it'll hurt her a lot! What can I do?!

Honestly, it looks like a breeding injury to me and not an animal attack. I didn't put a saddle on her because she's always been able to outrun the one rooster that has survived to the ripe old age of 6 months. I guess he got to her and he's a big, big boy.

The left-side injury appears to be healing fairly well,after getting it cleaned up and the right side has some good granulation tissue so that's trying to heal as well. My main concern is that flap of hanging skin.

I can't get photos to load

 

[Xouie]

After you clean the skin flap area, could you bind it with VetRap? I’m no expert, but that would be what I’d try while watching for replies from chicken experts.

 

[JadeFarms]

Please either butcher or separate the roo. He is too much for them. I keep a Cornish X, she’s 8 months. She can barely handle normal a normal Roo. I’m not great with how to handle injuries. But you did good washing it off. Maybe add some antibiotics and make sure she eats and drinks. Don’t put her with the others until she’s healed. And again, please remove the rooster.

 

[Ebony Rose]

I always put photo on my desktop first. Click the photo icon (the one just to the right of the linked chain (insert link), and to the left of the rectangle/triangle (media) icons at the top of the text input portion of the forum chat. Then it's a simple matter of drag and drop to insert the photo.
It's my understanding that her skin is hanging, and there isn't enough of it (shrinkage or outright loss) to stitch it. Are you able to stitch it to at least one side of the wound to reduce the size of the open wound? If so, I'd do that, then spritz the whole wound with blu-kote (any color except red). I would not apply a dressing to it, the air is good for chicken healing.
I have seen my birds recover from some terrible, awful wounds; Things that in human terms would kill us. Scalping, nearly skinned from predators, breeding wounds etc. As long as she's not infected, she'll likely recover. Speaking of infection... Because of the severity of her injury, have you considered getting some antibiotics onboard? It's been my experience that prophylactically treating for infection is safer/healthier for your birds than waiting for evidence of infection.

 

[Brahma_Mama]

I have a Cornish Cross hen, named Big Bertha. I saved her and three others (all roosters), from being slaughtered, after we received them and were told they were straight run white leghorns. She is right at 6 months old.

She went missing this past Sunday and after an exhaustive search, thought her dead. She hid well on our two acres, because it's completely fenced in and she cannot fly, even a little bit, to get in or out. She strolled up, with much fanfare from the rest of the flock, about an hour ago, looking thin and haggard.

After my initial shock at seeing her alive, I gave her meal works and looked her over as she greedily gobbled everything up. She has a horrible tear on the right side of her back and a rather largish piece of herskin is hanging down.

Normally I would pull it back into place with a couple of stitches, but this injury must've happened the day she went missing. I can't see any way to cover that wound with her own skin! The flap looks nasty, but it has good blood flow, as w silenced by the pink. Its swollen and black with dirt and scabbing.

I tried giving her a warm bath and helped her to soak the areas, to see if they would clean up, but there's little difference in the flap's appearance. I applied hydrogen peroxide, toweled he as dry as she would allow and now she's working on fluffing her feathers back out and s⁴eems to be in fairly good spirits, except she clearly is not talking to me, after that bath! Has her nose buried in the corner of the bathroom.

I'm attaching photos, if possible. I know how to care for most of my chicken injuries (I'm an RN so wound care is something that I do regularly), but I don't want to cut that flap of skin off because I KNOW it'll hurt her a lot! What can I do?!

Honestly, it looks like a breeding injury to me and not an animal attack. I didn't put a saddle on her because she's always been able to outrun the one rooster that has survived to the ripe old age of 6 months. I guess he got to her and he's a big, big boy.

The left-side injury appears to be healing fairly well,after getting it cleaned up and the right side has some good granulation tissue so that's trying to heal as well. My main concern is that flap of hanging skin.

I can't get photos to load

 

[Brahma_Mama]

After you clean the skin flap area, could you bind it with VetRap? I’m no expert, but that would be what I’d try while watching for replies from chicken experts.

How would I clean it without causing her severe pain? It's thickened and covered in scab. If I could get it to clean up well, I think I could, though. Any ideas?

 

[FarmerGirl101]

Hydrogen Peroxide is going to be your best bet. Although it might hurt her it will be the best thing as you can flush out the wound

 

[Brahma_Mama]

I have a Cornish Cross hen, named Big Bertha. I saved her and three others (all roosters), from being slaughtered, after we received them and were told they were straight run white leghorns. She is right at 6 months old.

She went missing this past Sunday and after an exhaustive search, thought her dead. She hid well on our two acres, because it's completely fenced in and she cannot fly, even a little bit, to get in or out. She strolled up, with much fanfare from the rest of the flock, about an hour ago, looking thin and haggard.

After my initial shock at seeing her alive, I gave her meal works and looked her over as she greedily gobbled everything up. She has a horrible tear on the right side of her back and a rather largish piece of herskin is hanging down.

Normally I would pull it back into place with a couple of stitches, but this injury must've happened the day she went missing. I can't see any way to cover that wound with her own skin! The flap looks nasty, but it has good blood flow, as w silenced by the pink. Its swollen and black with dirt and scabbing.

I tried giving her a warm bath and helped her to soak the areas, to see if they would clean up, but there's little difference in the flap's appearance. I applied hydrogen peroxide, toweled he as dry as she would allow and now she's working on fluffing her feathers back out and s⁴eems to be in fairly good spirits, except she clearly is not talking to me, after that bath! Has her nose buried in the corner of the bathroom.

I'm attaching photos, if possible. I know how to care for most of my chicken injuries (I'm an RN so wound care is something that I do regularly), but I don't want to cut that flap of skin off because I KNOW it'll hurt her a lot! What can I do?!

Honestly, it looks like a breeding injury to me and not an animal attack. I didn't put a saddle on her because she's always been able to outrun the one rooster that has survived to the ripe old age of 6 months. I guess he got to her and he's a big, big boy.

The left-side injury appears to be healing fairly well,after getting it cleaned up and the right side has some good granulation tissue so that's trying to heal as well. My main concern is that flap of hanging skin.

I can't get photos to load

Hydrogen Peroxide is going to be your best bet. Although it might hurt her it will be the best thing as you can flush out the wound

Thank you. I will give it a shot this morning. If I can't get it straightened out at home, I'm gonna run her up to my vet, Monday morning. She said shed see her. Thank goodness!