muskovi duck has punctured lung from dog attack

[Festerallday]

My female muskovi flew the pen and one of our dogs either bit her or drove her into a stick. Her chest was bleeding bad so I wrapped her in a towel until the bleeding slowed. After cutting away the feathers surrounding the quarter sized hole I rinsed the wound with h2o2 and what I assumed was fat immediatly turned from red to black. I switched to saline and finished cleaning the wound. I found that the now black tissue was coming from a dime sized hole deeper inside the wound. When I lean close I can hear her breathe through the hole and her quacks seem to come from her hole and not her bill.
She was initially very resistant to treatment until I gave her a .6cc injection of penicillinG (she weighs about 5-7 lbs). After the injection to the good breast she passed out for about 2-3 min she woke up and is much more docile now. She struggles when I pick her up still so I wrapped her In an old shirt and put her on a pile of towels. Every 3 hours I give her some pedialite.
My question is this. Considering I cannot afford a trip to the Vet and she seems to be in stable condition, should I leave her and keep the wound clean? Or should I stitch her up and continue with penicillin treatments? If I suture then should I sow the inner part (lung?) first and then the outer flesh after or just stitch up the outside?
Much mahalo from the big island of Hawaii.

 

[PunkinPeep]

Poor girl! I don't know the answer, but i'm just sending good thoughts. I'm so impressed that she's alive at all. She seems to be stable, so you must be doing a good job.

Hope you get some good advice here on what to do next.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

I don't think a puncture wound to the lung will heal on it's own. I don't know....I can't imagine trying to operate on her myself. Good move to get the penicillin in her. I'm also sending good thoughts and hoping someone with more experience picks up on this.

BYE,

...........edited to say BTW

 

[Kansaseq]

Honestly, she needs professional medical help. This doesn't sound like a case where you should try to treat her yourself. If you can't afford a trip to the vet, I would strongly consider euthanasia. Sorry

 

[Festerallday]

Ok 24 hours have gone by and she's eating and drinking on her own. The hole is showing signs of necrosis around the edges and it smells like wound and food, not rot. I'm now wondering if its a hole in her crop and not the lung. It still bleeds a bit but only cause she freakS out when I grab her to inspect the hole.
Her feces has gone from liquid back to slightly solid but with lots of undigested food, making me think its the crop that's damaged.
I will NOT kill this duck as she is healthy and I have sown up farm animals in the past. But I can't find the appropriate anatomy diagrams to tell me what I'm dealing with.
For now ill continue with food water and penicillin. And ill make her an isolation box on stilts just in case she ends up with a permenent hole. But I'm loosing the time window for stitching.
What should I do about this hole?!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Seems to me you pretty much know what your dealing with, if she is eating and drinking and pooping she must be doing pretty good. Most of the time you can google just about anything seems they would have a ducks anatomy for you to view so you'd have a better idea what this is. I am sorry but without pictures we are just giving you a shot in the dark.

 

[Festerallday]

I had a friend tell me that I should clean the wound really good and sow up the outside regardless of what the internal injury is.
Problem now is that the bleeding started again and its starting to smell bad. I found a Vet that will look at her for cheap but cannot get to her, or a store for clot powder, until tomorrow. So I guess ill have to flip a coin as to sow her now or take her to the Vet tomorrow. Sorry I cannot include pix as I'm using my phone internet and know not how to upload. For now ill irrigate, dry, and give her another shot of penicillin.
On a positive note. Our first ever chick hatched from our oven today. We just use a dish of water and the pilotlight. It was very exciting.

 

[tallyho]

Are you talking about closing up the wound by stitching it up? I wouldn't just close up the outside leaving the inside open. With most wounds it is better to let it heal from the inside out. And if it was the lung wouldn't she essentially have a collapsed lung since the the lung works in a closed system?

I think you are right, sounds like the crop and you probably want to close that up somehow so that the crop contents are not contaminating her insides. Of course, I don't know what the wound looks like. And I am no expert at all. There is an older thread about doing crop surgery for impacted crops. It's in the sticky at the top of this forum. If you do the surgery, good luck!

Oh and congrats on the baby. Go over to the "incubating and hatching eggs" forum and tell how you incubated in the OVEN!

best wishes....

 

[Miss Lydia]

How's your girl doing today, let us know what the vet says, we'll be thinking about you both. There is also a duck thread down towards the bottom of this page if you interested.

 

[Festerallday]

I ended up giving her 3 stitches because she opened her lung wound into her crop by kicking around and go her toe into the hole and cut it wider. So 1 stitch in the crop and 2 in the lung. Plus moRe penicillin and a saline rinse. She didn't like it and tried to pull the stitches so I need to get some more old shirts to use as a body bandage. You can see that her right lung is deflated but with the stitches I vagn now see it move again. She's eating much Better now too. How long should I keep her on penicillin? I'm sure that ill have to keep her isolated until her link is up to par.
A total of 3 hatches last niGht. Had to help one because it got swarmed by fireants as soon as it broke its peep hole. So I had to pull off bits of shell as I squished ants without hurting the chick, hard. So now we have 3 production reds crossed with a Rhode island red rooster.