Mauled chicken - broken wing bone, skin gone muscle exposed

[My Chicken Friends]

What are you 'spraying' with?
Some updated pics of wounds might help those with experience offer additional advice.

Thank you. She did so much better today. Balancing, fully standing. Lifts herself after falling over. Walked around basement. Stood alongside her chicken friend. ( which I brought in to keep her socialized.) I’m using vetrimycin. I think that’s what it is called. It washes out the wounds nicely. Then I spray the cotton cloth and wrap her up. She was a beautiful black australorp. Now she looks so scrawny after trimming her down to keep her clean. Thank you for your kind response.

 

[My Chicken Friends]

How is your hen this afternoon? Is she able to stand or use her legs yet? How is the injured wing?

Thank you for your question. Today Retta is standing and walking around. She looses balance and sometimes falls, but can now get back up. She walked around near her chicken friend (Charcoal) A female calm blue americauna. She much prefers being unwrapped but it will take sometime I guess before I can leave it off. I wish I knew about how long this takes. I’m glad she is eating and drinking well.

 

[aart]

I’m using vetrimycin. I think that’s what it is called.

Vetericyn?
Not a bad choice, but an antibiotic ointment would be better.
Good advice here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...e-muscle-exposed.1339107/page-2#post-21921667

 

[My Chicken Friends]

Flesh and skin wounds heal MUCH faster in birds and have a much rosier outlook than a comparable wound on a human. I've literally seen birds thoroughly scalped on more than one occasion (different birds, not the same one more than once), and they've recovered quite nicely without stitches, usually a sufficient scab in a few days, and full recovery within a couple weeks or so. I've had hens gored by overzealous lovers, with the underlying flesh exposed upwards of two inches, and healed quite nicely. Wounds that would be exceptionally troublesome in human terms tend to be pretty much 'small potatoes' to poultry. I'd keep her wound clean, and keep it moist as birds heal differently than we humans do... human wounds prefer to be dry... BIRD wounds prefer to be moist for proper healing. I'd give her the benefit of the doubt and amputate only if complications arise and it becomes clear that the wing itself threatens her life.

 

[My Chicken Friends]

Vetericyn?
Not a bad choice, but an antibiotic ointment would be better.
Good advice here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...e-muscle-exposed.1339107/page-2#post-21921667

I started with antibiotic ointment but it seemed to make wound gooey and green. It seems to respond better to the spray, and yes you are correct. Vetericyn. Thank you. I do hope she won’t hate me for confining the wings while she heals.

 

[My Chicken Friends]

i dont think you would have to amputate tho. Chickens are pretty hardy birds so i would just keep doing what your doing and spray some centrigen on the wound

Thank you. I do hope that the spray continues to do so well. I don’t think I can do an amputation. Not unless Ive seen how it’s done. I would hate to damage her more. Her screaming would break me.

 

[My Chicken Friends]

The flesh has to close over the bone, either by taping, tying, packing or stitching or whatever, if it is open she will or may have already had too many infections. Eventually she may or will already die as the infections overwhelm her system.

This is sad to hear. She seems to be doing so well today. Yes, my concern is she could get underlying condition because her wounds are so deep. The exposed bone and muscle really worries me the most. I will continue to wrap her. She is eating, drinking, and pottying ok. Maybe she will be a miracle chicken.

 

[My Chicken Friends]

This is hard to give instructions on care due to wounds in various places, and with bone exposed on the wing. Some people do remove wings if they are shattered or bone is exposed, but that is best done by a vet due to the risk of bone infections. There are some threads we can show you if needed. A figure 8 wing wrap can be done to just hold the wing up and to the body, without having to wrap her legs. I would leave her legs alone, other than to lift her up and help her try to use them more. If they are weak already, binding them might cause more problems.

Usually with most wounds initial disinfection with chlorhexidene (hibiclens) and water, or Betadine is important, especially if bone is exposed. Vetericyn may also be used. Then use some plain Neosporin or Triple Antibiotic Ointment on the wounds twice a day. In a video below they use raw or manuka honey with a small gauze pad.

Here is some info on wrapping the wing with a figure 8 or X wrap, then wrap a strip of vet wrap around the wing and body along with a couple of videos by the same persone wrapping a crow’s wing, and pictures:
https://lafeber.com/vet/external-coaptation-birds-bandages-splints/

Vetricyn is exactly what I’ve been using and seems to work better than the ointment. I’m no longer confining the legs now that she can stand and stabilize herself. Keeping her friend with her has been beneficial. Both walk around the basement after each cleaning, and rewrapping. She seems to be happy which maybe promoting a better healing. due to her injuries being up to the shoulder, I’ve maintained wrapping her wing to her body. Fingers crossed

 

[glassdragonfly]

Sounds like she's doing good!

 

[GodofPecking]

This is sad to hear. She seems to be doing so well today. Yes, my concern is she could get underlying condition because her wounds are so deep. The exposed bone and muscle really worries me the most. I will continue to wrap her. She is eating, drinking, and pottying ok. Maybe she will be a miracle chicken.

I do hope she'll be a miracle chicken, or, as I like to call them, and I had one which sustained fatal wounds in a dog attack, ZOMBIE chickens. Yep, I don't have her now, I gave her away some time after she healed up. She had a strip of flesh hanging off her at the time as well as everything else, and later once healed, she still had it, I guess it was alive, or undead ?

Apparently moist is in vogue, but sprays, ointments, all of that stuff is OUT. according to some stuff I read somewhere :

There are two main components to moist wound healing: 1) Do not use disinfectants over the wound and 2) Keep the wound moist. The first component, not using disinfectants, makes sense because disinfectants such as iodine, sodium hypochlorite and hydrogen peroxide are toxic to cells and should never be applied over a wound surface. We don't want to kill cells; we want to encourage them to live and proliferate.

The second component refers to the fact that lacerations, abrasions, crush injuries and burns heal faster and with less scarring when treatment involves promoting a moist wound bed.
​

and then there was some other stuff on a page that was titled "Moist Wound Healing: The New Standard of Care" which was whatever, more of the same. I never use chemicals or disinfectants myself, I wash wounds with drinking water to remove dirt if it is there, then bind it together and immobilize it. Everything I've come across that constitutes "a product" is pretty outright detrimental or pointless or column A+B.

The only exception is for things like ulcers on the surface, or wounds like that, shallow but large, I dab honey on, leave it on a few minutes and pour drinking water over it. This cleans a wound better than an hour in the shower does.