Hens skin on neck sliced wide open on fence

[Shezadandy]

Today's change was the first time there was stretchy, sticky stuff when i removed the bandage

Wouldn't worry about the black too much. Given the absence of skin, it's going to take some tissues rebuilding to bring the edges back together, and I think that's what's happening. As long as there's no bad odor or pus looking ooze coming out from it (yellow/green) it's just her cells figuring out how to bridge the gap.

 

[Nija Chick]

This is what I'd do, ( chick Mommy for 30 yrs)
Yes cut feathers off around area carefully. Clean with water or coloidial silver, or hydrogen peroxide.
Yes suture or butterfly stitch the wound mostly closed, leaving a small gap for drainage, coat with bag balm, Neosporin, or other wound salve. no pain meds, as you dont want to OD her accidentally, as she's already in shock. If you can, wrap her neck loosely with medical bandage and a gauze pad, so she doesn't get it dirty. seperate her from the rest of flock for her safety, ideally where they call see her and her them so she is still part of the flock and doesn't get estranged. Hopefully it'll be healed enough in a few days to return her, make sure you check it at least daily or 2x / day to be sure it's staying clean, and there's no infection. Put electrolytes and chick boost in the water to give her a little vitamin boost, give her lots of dark green veggies and bugs if you can so she'll have extra good nutrition. Good luck.

 

[Birdielee]

Well, i have good news! The black hard thing does seem to be a scab, and it is lifting. I peeked under it and there is healthy new white skin! Whoohoo!

No antibiotics today. She had a 6 1/2 day round and no infection, so i think I'll give it a rest unless I see any sign of a problem.

I took her bandage off in the afternoon for a few hours and sprayed her liberally with vetericyn now at around 5 pm. I put a little turmeric/gelatin/vetericyn on her wound and poured a little iodine on the lower half. And bandaged her up.

She wants to live on sunflower seeds. I decided to pretty much let her because she needs to eat to live. She's up to 6.4 lbs today, if my scale is right. Which is great, because she has been dropping and dropping. I tried smashing some corn today to see if she'd eat that, but she wasn't interested.
I mixed cracked corn, layena pellets that i smashed a little, too, oats, barley, and a lot of black oil sunflower seeds with the shells on. She picked out the sunflower seeds, but I'm happy she ate.

 

[Shezadandy]

Well, i have good news! The black hard thing does seem to be a scab, and it is lifting. I peeked under it and there is healthy new white skin! Whoohoo!

No antibiotics today. She had a 6 1/2 day round and no infection, so i think I'll give it a rest unless I see any sign of a problem.

I took her bandage off in the afternoon for a few hours and sprayed her liberally with vetericyn now at around 5 pm. I put a little turmeric/gelatin/vetericyn on her wound and poured a little iodine on the lower half. And bandaged her up.

She wants to live on sunflower seeds. I decided to pretty much let her because she needs to eat to live. She's up to 6.4 lbs today, if my scale is right. Which is great, because she has been dropping and dropping. I tried smashing some corn today to see if she'd eat that, but she wasn't interested.
I mixed cracked corn, layena pellets that i smashed a little, too, oats, barley, and a lot of black oil sunflower seeds with the shells on. She picked out the sunflower seeds, but I'm happy she ate.

Hooray!!! Hopefully her appetite picks up soon- sometimes I think it's the medications that suppress appetite - any time I've been on a "sulfa" drug all I can taste is garlic/onion and my hands seem to reek of the same. Fingers crossed she wants more than sunflower seeds soon, but hey- at least she's got an appetite for something.

 

[micstrachan]

Hooray!!! Hopefully her appetite picks up soon- sometimes I think it's the medications that suppress appetite - any time I've been on a "sulfa" drug all I can taste is garlic/onion and my hands seem to reek of the same. Fingers crossed she wants more than sunflower seeds soon, but hey- at least she's got an appetite for something.

Yes! Antibiotics can do that.
Thanks for the update, @Birdielee !

 

[Birdielee]

I have more good news!
Ellis ate a lot yesterday! She ate almost all of the sunflower seeds and almost all of the cracked corn.

I didn't wind up getting the Kaytee baby bird food. I read the ingredients online and decided i might as well try cracking some of the corn and letting her gorge on sunflower seeds first, and it seems to be working.

Her skin is definitely healing! I feel like she's going to survive this thing. Today she ate, too. I made another batch of the same mix, plus some flax seeds.
I have photos from her bandage change this evening. In the first photo she's filthy. I let her dust bathe. With the bandage off, i think! She got thoroughly vetericyned afterwards. Iodine on the upper area, plus where it ran down to. The left hand side undamaged skin is hard and dark, but doesn'tseem injured. i think it's from the medicines. I put lanolin cream on it to soften it up. The cut itself got triple antibiotic and corona lanolin cream on top, then a cotton tshirt bandage tied on.

 

[Birdielee]

After looking at the photos, I dont think she gets a dust bath tomorrow!

 

[Shezadandy]

After looking at the photos, I dont think she gets a dust bath tomorrow!

Yes, she got her money's worth on that dust bath! =) So glad to hear her appetite is returning. The Kaytee is nice to have around should you ever need to tube feed a chicken because thinned out, it will fit through the little holes in the end of the puppy feeding tube whereas most chicken feeds, even crumbles, even after being soaked and ground up - still clog it. When you've got one eating and drinking on their own, there's not much the Kaytee will add to the equation.

If you've got a syringe of the 35ml or so size, you can make a dilute soapy solution to get the gunk around the edges to come off, using the syringe to target just that area. If you have it on hand the betadine surgical scrub is one way to go- but really- even Dawn dish soap will help - I would do it before addressing the regular wound care so it doesn't undo your treatments. So glad to see healthy looking tissue surfacing!

 

[Birdielee]

Yes, she got her money's worth on that dust bath! =) So glad to hear her appetite is returning. The Kaytee is nice to have around should you ever need to tube feed a chicken because thinned out, it will fit through the little holes in the end of the puppy feeding tube whereas most chicken feeds, even crumbles, even after being soaked and ground up - still clog it. When you've got one eating and drinking on their own, there's not much the Kaytee will add to the equation.

If you've got a syringe of the 35ml or so size, you can make a dilute soapy solution to get the gunk around the edges to come off, using the syringe to target just that area. If you have it on hand the betadine surgical scrub is one way to go- but really- even Dawn dish soap will help - I would do it before addressing the regular wound care so it doesn't undo your treatments. So glad to see healthy looking tissue surfacing!

Thanks. And good to know for the kaytee. As far as scrubbing the gunk aroind the edges, are you talking about the uninjured skin to the left that is stiff? Or do you mean the scabby wound? A chunk of scab fell off, did you see? ! ! !

 

[Birdielee]

She escaped her tshirt bandage last night. She's due for another round of cleaning and vetwrap