How to clean blood off head

[Kredd]

Hello all, one of my girls has a cut on her comb. It bled a lot before I noticed it and got it stopped. She has dried blood all around one of her eyes and down her neck. I have her isolated but am worried about how to clean her up. How should I get her face and neck feathers cleaned up without hurting her eye?

 

[Eggcessive]

Do you have any pictures? You could use water and a cloth or a little mild soap and water. Vetericyn or chlorhexidene is good as well. I would not worry too much about the feathers since it will wear off. Once she is cleaned up, and separated for the night, you might try her out free ranging with the others to make sure they don’t peck at it. Do you know if she was being picked on, injured on something sharp, or was hurt by another chicken?

 

[ackie]

I would start with a warm wash cloth.

 

[GreedySeedFeedy]

I agree with jwehl. A cup of warm, clean water and a clean wash cloth. Get it wet, and then use it to get the dried blood wet. Go back and forth between the cup and the bird with the wash cloth. Dab, don't wipe! If it's cold out where you are, bring her inside until she dries. Wet feathers can cause your bird to freeze surprisingly fast.

 

[ackie]

Dab, don't wipe!

In my recent injury, I got very little off when I dabbed and I was taking off scabs when I wiped, so I just left the dried blood on him. He had a plethora of injuries though so I didnt know what was scab and what was dried blood & it was days later. If you know where the injury is, itll be easier.

 

[Trisseh]

No chlorhexidine near eyes (can cause pretty severe irritation or even corneal damage), use dilute iodine or other mild soap. Be careful not to disturb the clot or it’ll just start bleeding again.

 

[Shezadandy]

Hello all, one of my girls has a cut on her comb. It bled a lot before I noticed it and got it stopped. She has dried blood all around one of her eyes and down her neck. I have her isolated but am worried about how to clean her up. How should I get her face and neck feathers cleaned up without hurting her eye?

My tried and true method is a WARM mug of water and a pile of Qtips. For the ones I've had to clean up for assorted reasons, that's been the easiest way on the hen and on me- I take them into the kitchen for the higher countertop, by the sink and I start at the top and work my way down. They don't seem to mind the Qtip reaching in nearly as much as washcloths- or really- hands.

If you have a 1cc syringe, that can come in very handy too because you can fill those repeatedly with water to very accurately moisten the caked on blood without worrying about ears and nostrils ... and then once most of the blood is broken up, it can be used to "rinse".

That's how you can do the cleanup and be gentle about the eye.

**edited to add: Just plain water. If you need to do wound treatment, do it after the cleanup.