Hens skin on neck sliced wide open on fence

[Birdielee]

She ate well again today. I didn't see her drink much, though. She was allowed out of her pen for a while and she ate bugs.

I'm a bit flighty with numbers sometimes. I dosed the antibiotic wrong. I was going to use the 875mg pill but i changed my mind and used the 500 mg pill. And i didn't just split it into 4, like i should have. I split it into 6. So the first dose was pretty low. 85mg ish. I've split the rest now into 3 more doses of almost 140mg each. Hopefully I'll do better with the next pill.

She's not showing signs of infection so far.

 

[Shezadandy]

Haha! Mamabird89, I'll consider your advice!
Isnt that what crazyglue was invented for? And don't surgeons use it? My husband and i use it when we cut our hands. Works really well.
I wouldn't seal it all up. Just tack it closed in more places.

I would keep doing what you're doing - looks like it will heal up well, and would not use glue. The tissues are doing their job, so there's no utility to adding glue.

The moist/dry and so on has to do with what tissues are exposed, how mobile the injured area is, and what the wound itself is "telling you". Because the neck is kind of like our knee in terms of flexion etc., there needs to be some elasticity to the healing tissues. Keeping the antibiotic cream on there keeps flexibility to the scab so it doesn't crack and then allow all the things you're trying to keep out of the wound from gathering under the cracked scab to cause infection. You're also trying to keep the exposed muscle tissue alive (it's supposed to be moist and covered with skin) while the skin works its magic.

Awesome job, keep it up, and the photos!!

 

[Birdielee]

I would keep doing what you're doing - looks like it will heal up well, and would not use glue. The tissues are doing their job, so there's no utility to adding glue.

The moist/dry and so on has to do with what tissues are exposed, how mobile the injured area is, and what the wound itself is "telling you". Because the neck is kind of like our knee in terms of flexion etc., there needs to be some elasticity to the healing tissues. Keeping the antibiotic cream on there keeps flexibility to the scab so it doesn't crack and then allow all the things you're trying to keep out of the wound from gathering under the cracked scab to cause infection. You're also trying to keep the exposed muscle tissue alive (it's supposed to be moist and covered with skin) while the skin works its magic.

Awesome job, keep it up, and the photos!!

How long do you think it might take for the exposed neck muscle to become covered? I feel pretty positive when i consider Ellis's attitude, but when i look at the pics, i feel like "who am I kidding? It looks horrible"

 

[Birdielee]

Thank you, everyone, for all the encouragement and help

 

[Shezadandy]

How long do you think it might take for the exposed neck muscle to become covered? I feel pretty positive when i consider Ellis's attitude, but when i look at the pics, i feel like "who am I kidding? It looks horrible"

I will bet within 2 weeks things will look a lot better. I had one decent size injury with exposed muscle that I didn't find in time to stitch and it patched itself up with nothing more than Vetricyn and Neosporin after the initial betadine cleanout. She's eating and drinking - if you ever feed your hens watermelon, that can help if not drinking enough is a concern.

As far as the water goes, I would stick with giving her plain fresh water to drink. Over time most of mine turn up their beaks at water with stuff in it. However, sprinkle ground up baby aspirin and whatever else on some watermelon and it goes down without a struggle. Or if the coconut oil pill worked...

Biggest piece of advice is don't rush the scabs. I wish I'd taken daily photos of the prolapsed vent situation - it looked like an unwinnable disgusting situation and then one day the last scab let go and voila! Pink healthy tissue.

If there are edges that start to peel away, a little set of curved sewing scissors like these https://www.walmart.com/ip/Fiskars-4-Orange-Curved-Scissors-1-Each/34932916 can make trimming up the edges safer and easier (tips curve out and away from the skin). If there's an obviously dead flap but the scab is still active elsewhere, trimming the margins prior to adding the next dose of ointment can be useful.

This will be one of those odd bits of advice, but use your nose, starting with the next bandage change. You can often smell the onset of infection, if there's something icky started under a scab, for example. Right now everything looks great considering where you were with the original injury.

And of course keep a photo journal of the process! Then you can pull up the original pictures with where you are that day and know you're getting somewhere.

 

[MamaBird89]

Today after her dirt bathing, i cut off her bandage and poured povidone iodine on everything, sprayed it with vetricyn everywhere, smeared triple antibiotic on it, and coated everything with corona multipurpose ointment. I smeared a pad with corona ointment (lanolin plus other ingredients,) then with antibiotic, stuck it on her neck,and wrapped her with vet wrap. I think it might be a little tight. Im going to go out and see whether she needs aspirin or a looser wrap. Something's not quite as good as before.

That is my biggest recommendation! To stop doing everything you're doing except just clean it, and spray with blue kote daily. You mentioned you had tried to suture as good as you could. It needs to heal now and staying wet and covered isn't going to help it. I promise the blue kote will help her so much! That stuffs a miracle. Everytime one of my kids get a cut now they beg me to "Make them purple" like Carole. But I have to let them know they aren't birds Here is my miss Carole after the animal got the back of her neck. It was bad. Poor baby couldn't even clean herself for weeks because she was so sore. How is your baby feeling today? Also, what antibiotics are you giving her? That was a great decision!

 

[Birdielee]

She's taking amoxicillin with clavulanate. Augmentin. In frozen coconut oil. She took her second dose around 12 noon today.
She doesn't seem to be eating or drinking today. She has plain water and arnica, nutridrench water. Isn't interested in any of it. Watermelon, eh?

Maybe she'd eat a little apple.
Her demeanor is still good, but she's talking a lot. She's chipper. I did decide to spray the top area of the wound, by her head with bluekote this time. That was the cleanest, most straightforward area in the first place, and it's not very bandageable.

 

[Birdielee]

That is my biggest recommendation! To stop doing everything you're doing except just clean it, and spray with blue kote daily. You mentioned you had tried to suture as good as you could. It needs to heal now and staying wet and covered isn't going to help it. I promise the blue kote will help her so much! That stuffs a miracle. Everytime one of my kids get a cut now they beg me to "Make them purple" like Carole. But I have to let them know they aren't birds Here is my miss Carole after the animal got the back of her neck. It was bad. Poor baby couldn't even clean herself for weeks because she was so sore. How is your baby feeling today? Also, what antibiotics are you giving her? That was a great decision!

Pretty intense picture. And it healed with bluekote? Good. How did you clean it?

 

[Birdielee]

I will bet within 2 weeks things will look a lot better. I had one decent size injury with exposed muscle that I didn't find in time to stitch and it patched itself up with nothing more than Vetricyn and Neosporin after the initial betadine cleanout. She's eating and drinking - if you ever feed your hens watermelon, that can help if not drinking enough is a concern.

As far as the water goes, I would stick with giving her plain fresh water to drink. Over time most of mine turn up their beaks at water with stuff in it. However, sprinkle ground up baby aspirin and whatever else on some watermelon and it goes down without a struggle. Or if the coconut oil pill worked...

Biggest piece of advice is don't rush the scabs. I wish I'd taken daily photos of the prolapsed vent situation - it looked like an unwinnable disgusting situation and then one day the last scab let go and voila! Pink healthy tissue.

If there are edges that start to peel away, a little set of curved sewing scissors like these https://www.walmart.com/ip/Fiskars-4-Orange-Curved-Scissors-1-Each/34932916 can make trimming up the edges safer and easier (tips curve out and away from the skin). If there's an obviously dead flap but the scab is still active elsewhere, trimming the margins prior to adding the next dose of ointment can be useful.

This will be one of those odd bits of advice, but use your nose, starting with the next bandage change. You can often smell the onset of infection, if there's something icky started under a scab, for example. Right now everything looks great considering where you were with the original injury.

And of course keep a photo journal of the process! Then you can pull up the original pictures with where you are that day and know you're getting somewhere.

Hi! The coconut pills are working, very well. I have curved scissors. The real ones. I didn't take any pics this bandage change. I also used up the tube of triple antibiotic last night. I have to find another around here somewhere. I did find the steristrips, but everything's so greasy now, nothing sticks. I squirted my homemade wound wash on everything, same with iodine, vetrycin. Then i bluekoted her head, then she shook her head and purple and orange went everywhere. I smeared on some lanolin ointment and put on a little piece of towel (same as last 2 bandage changes). The towel patch is smeared with ointment to not stick, and vetrycin is sprayed on it. Wrapped her all up. Last night, i did go out and loosen her bandage
I didn't take photos this time, but i did see that the skin seems to be adhering to the tissue underneath. At least at the edges. I didnt check elsewhere.

 

[Birdielee]

Today she's been whining. Peeping.
She's mostly stood still on her perch in the shade in the run. Peeping.
Ive tried to get her to drink but she hasn't wanted to. A little while ago i went out there and i took her bandage off and put her on the ground. She wanted to go out into the yard and we went into the garden. She ate violet leaves and scratched a little here and there and found a little fun stuff. She would have done a lot more, but Ellis plus garden is more like Ellis minus garden. I brought her back to the hen house after about five minutes and closed the pop door. She started to eat and was more interested in the wetter area (i put some water on the pellets to not stress her throat. ) i poured some more nutridrenched water on the food and tilted the dish, and she ate and drank a bunch. I stood around for a long time so she'd keep eating. I closed her in there, unbandaged, to rest.
I'll let her out for a little while before bedtime, and rebandage her (with my nose!) And give her another antibiotic dose.