Hole in back of neck- will it close? vet says cull *update*

[PinkHairGirl]

I have a chicken that has a hole in her neck. The kids noticed it on Friday under the feathers, she is walking and eating and so far okay but today seems to be limping a bit.
I don't know how it happened, we have a dog and they free range and if he had wanted to eat them he would have by now, but I did see this particularly greedy chicken once trying to get food out of his bowl while he was eating and he snapped at her. I wonder if he bite her as a warning once or if she just hurt it doing something else.

Anyway I have been cleaning it and putting Bactroban ointment in it ( was all I had at home) but it seems to be very deep, like a deep crater you can see into her if that makes sense. I took a photo on Friday but I think it is a bit bigger than this now.

What options do I have?
Will it heal? and what can I do to help it heal faster?
She has just just started to lay so I would like to save her but I am not sure it can close if it is so big and open.
Do I cull her and can we eat a chicken that has had a wound?
Do I try find a vet to help ( seems like a lot of money but the kids are quite attached to her and not sure they would eat her anyway)

wound when we discovered it on Friday, not sure how old it was



wound today - sorry it is dirty she sand bathed

 

[Judy]

Wow, I'm not sure what i would do about that. In humans the solution would be to remove the edges of the wound, because they are scar tissue by now and won't knit together. Then probably either partly close it to get closure started, or just let it granulate (form scar tissue) across the wound. This would involve dressing changes for a long time -- but a dressing on a chicken of course is a nightmare. I guess I'd just leave it alone and hope it eventually closed, especially with the kids already attached to her. An ointment like Bactroban won't hurt, as long as you don't use one with a "caine" drug in it (cetacaine, benzocaine, etc.) It would probably be cheaper to buy an antiseptic product from the feed store than keep buying tubes of ointment -- there are lots of wound ointments and sprays, for any animal. Chickens surprise people with what they can heal, all the time.

Most people on here wouldn't take her to a vet -- yes, it would no doubt be expensive, if you could find one -- I wouldn't, even if one were around. I already know the two I use won't treat a chicken. But that's a personal choice for you.

Personally, I wouldn't eat her, but I don't know that it would be unsafe. And we do eat some of our chickens.

 

[gmolly]

are you sure the other chickens didn't peck her or a rooster ? i have had roosters an hens do this to each other . i would cage her up an make sure it clean (wound) atleast a couple days so it can rest an heal .

 

[gmolly]

looked at your pics ,i more than sure it hen pecking ,ISOLATE her or they will peck her until she dies , they peck huge holes ,i had one that you could see her insides ,took over a month isolated before it healed , an it will heal ,i know hole looks bad but she will make it if you ISOLATE HER RIGHT AWAY. good luck

 

[SteveBaz]

One of a couple things, she was injured or it was an abscess type or medical condition. I would clean it up real good and isolate her in a very small carry like a small dog or cat carry box or make a little hospital in the basement.

I would sew it closed with a couple of stitches or super glue it together. Either way it must be closed for it to heal. If you are to super glue or sew either way you must remove the feathers around the wound. Don’t worry they will grow back. Be careful not to glue your fingers to the chicken!! LOL then take for awhile Neosporin to keep the infection away. Then BLU-COTE it’s a anti germ agent and heal solution that will not allow anything in it while it heals. Chickens are tuff if she made it this far she will be OK most likely.

You will need;
Sugar water, Organic apple cider vinegar, Vitamin water, some wound cleaning supplies like wipe pads, syringe to wash away stuff . Also Neosporin, Blu-Cote.

 

[Judy]

i agree, I missed that you haven't separated her, the others will peck it even if they weren't the original cause -- which they might well have been.

 

[PinkHairGirl]

Thanks everyone hubby did take her to the vet who was all doom and gloom. Not a livestock vet but it is all we have around here

The vet said that it was necrotic and would just get bigger, that it would never heal. Recommended that we cull her. Can we sew a necrotic wound together?

I would love to give her the benefit of the doubt so if people have had chickens with wounds like this healing then I am game to try. Can we sew or glue a necrotic wound?

Will isolate her in a box so she can't get sand in it and clean it up well. Maybe make her a small place in the garage.

I don't think it was the other chickens, we only have 3 and one is on eggs and the other is very timid and they free range around me all the time, I have never seen them peck each other at all.

 

[PinkHairGirl]

You will need;
Sugar water, Organic apple cider vinegar, Vitamin water, some wound cleaning supplies like wipe pads, syringe to wash away stuff . Also Neosporin, Blu-Cote.


okay sorry to sound dumb but what do I do with what?

We cleaned it with antiseptic liquid and water, then poured some Apple cider vinegar over - was not sure if this is what I was supposed to do with the ACV *blush*
we cut off the feathers around it and cleaned as much as we could, the edges look terrible, not sure if we can stick them together. I did not have super glue tonight but will get some tomorrow if we need it. We then sprayed the whole thing with that purple Necrospray stuff.

What sort of vitamins do I need to put in the water, do I use human vitamins or special chicken one?

 

[JakRat]

YIKES! That is a crazy hole. Well I am no expert but you might want to send a message to the poster who suggested cutting away the scar tissue then sewing back together the hole so that it can close over. I had a little hole to deal with on my girl, but I saw the peck happen and got blu kote on it right away. She certainly does look cool with those purple feathers! The thing I am concerned about its that her body cavity is exposed, but if she has lasted this long who knows what else she may be able to endure.

ACV is for vitamins, also I found recently that chickens love V8 so that could help to.

It looks like there is pus too so you need to put her on anti biotics so that that infection doesnt spread.

Your vet may be right, but it never hurts to try to save them. Most vets can put a hen down so that you dont have to.

 

[JakRat]

low sodium V8 mixed with water... I just found out that chickens cant have too much sodium.