Injured Cornish criss

[Ashmt51]

One of my Cornish crosses got out of her pen and has a pretty bad wound on her head from one of our turkeys pecking at it. I cleaned it out with warm water and put some neospoin in the wound and told my husband we should probably process her tonight when he gets home. My question is (because I’m weird I guess) if the injury happened yesterday is she still safe to eat? Or should I just cull her to put her out of her misery?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Can we see a picture?

 

[iwltfum]

Completely safe to eat.

 

[Ashmt51]

Can we see a picture?

Poor thing just sat there not even trying to get away. I feel so bad for her. I tried to get a good pic but I don’t want to upset her.

 

[Morrigan]

How close to your processing schedule is she? She looks pretty big from your picture, so I would probably go ahead and butcher her right now. Avoid the meat immediately around the wound, which shouldn't be hard as it looks like the injury doesn't go past the neck. Other than that, I would think it perfectly safe to it. I would not hesitate to eat it, at least.

If you are a few weeks out, however, you could try let her heal. Chickens in general, and CX, in particular, are very hardy. I had a group of week old CX chicks attacked by a rat once. Many were bitten, and one had a big, nasty looking bite on its head. Basically a chunk of flesh was removed. I treated with neosporin, killed the rat, and all the chicks healed completely. The one had a visible dent on her head once it healed, but she was otherwise fine.

 

[Ashmt51]

How close to your processing schedule is she? She looks pretty big from your picture, so I would probably go ahead and butcher her right now. Avoid the meat immediately around the wound, which shouldn't be hard as it looks like the injury doesn't go past the neck. Other than that, I would think it perfectly safe to it. I would not hesitate to eat it, at least.

If you are a few weeks out, however, you could try let her heal. Chickens in general, and CX, in particular, are very hardy. I had a group of week old CX chicks attacked by a rat once. Many were bitten, and one had a big, nasty looking bite on its head. Basically a chunk of flesh was removed. I treated with neosporin, killed the rat, and all the chicks healed completely. The one had a visible dent on her head once it healed, but she was otherwise fine.

They are 9 weeks old. We planned on processing a couple this week and the rest next weekend as they are all around the 8-10 pound range already. Thank you for your response