My chicken's tail was bitten off, what do I do now?

[Nicholas]

This weekend my chickens were attacked by raccoons. One (Bonnie) was killed and the other's tail (Georgia) was bitten off all together. We are now trying to nurse Georgia back to health. For the first two days she was sluggish, her eyes were completely shut, and she generally didn't look good. Now, 4 days after the attack, she has progressed to being able to jump, eat, drink, and open her eyes. She's also walking around a lot more.

My main concern is her missing tail. I am in no way a doctor or vet so I do not know what I'm doing. If it wasn't for the help of our neighbor who also has chickens, she would not have started to feel better so soon. I'm looking for advise on what to do with the open wound on her backside. We have rinsed it with an iodine solution, applied hydrogen peroxide, and neosporin to get it to heal faster. There were maggots on the wound a couple days ago but they seem to be going away as we apply more neosporin.

Will she make it or are we fighting a lost cause? Is there any advise on what to do with the wound? I suspect it's similar to a human losing a limb, but I wouldn't know what to do with that either.

Thanks in advance.

 

[featherfooted]

No you are not fighting a lost cause. You would not believe how well chickens can heal. One of the chickens at our barn had a horse bite a chunk out of her back close to her tail about the size of your palm. We put her in a stall by herself and cleaned and applied blue lotion on it. We kept as clean as possible. She is now completely recovered and the only way you would know she had been hurt is the feathers at that spot are different than the others. Lets just say as a cochin she no longer has a cushion for a tail the front feathers stick straight up.

 

[Kwartel]

As disgusting as it is, maggots can sometimes be a good thing. They will eat the infected tissue and prevent the wound from becoming septic. Just be sure that you rinse them out if the infection is gone or they can start to eat the healthy tissue.

 

[Nicholas]

Thank you for the replies. I will continue to monitor the situation. Is there anything else I should be doing? Or will it heal itself if I just continue to clean the wound and apply neosporin?

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Nicholas, if you haven't already, you should post this over in the emergencies section. The maggots might not be a good thing (the ones used to clean wounds are typically different). Someone there will tell you how to clean the wound and what to put on it. Sorry about your loss. Good luck with Georgia.

 

[crtrlovr]

You're NOT fighting a lost cause! Chickens can heal amazingly well. Keep it clean, get the maggots OUT of the wound and keep neosporin or some other antibiotic ointment or cream on it (the kind without painkillers in it, as they can be deadly to chickens). Try giving protein treats like cottage cheese or yogurt or the absolute favorite among my chickens -- scrambled eggs! (protein helps the body heal more quickly). She should heal up just fine.

 

[Kwartel]

I was just trying to say that maggots aren't usually a reason to panic. No, they are not the sterile kind approved for use by human medicine, but trying to remove them can often cause more damage than just keeping the wound clean and observing. Many people try to scrub them out of the wound, disrupting the formation of new tissues, and introducing infection all over again. If the bird is literally crawling with them, you can use sterile fluids to remove the bulk of them and tweezers to carefully remove any others. It's your bird though, hopefully it will heal over and have many happy years in your flock.

 

[RedRoosterFarm]

I have a Polish hen with no tail. Only problem I have it poo builds up and if I dont clean her every week or so it can get infected.

 

[melissa41927]

i have a duck that had a serious maggot infestation. i washed her in paramite dog shampoo it killed all of the maggots. i then let her take a bath in bleach water. i gave her a dose of tylan 50 and let her loose. she did amazing. only way to tell she had been wounded is the white feathers that are coming back in. she is a blk duck.

 

[badwolf7914]

I would suggest peroxide and some alcohol. some how one of our cats managed to get a hole in her side. It had a maggot in it. My hubby applied alcohol and went after the maggot with tweezers to kill it. When he had suffocated it with the alcohol it died and what ended up left in her was taken care of by her body. After that he applied peroxide every day and the hole healed just fine. Neosporin is a miracle ointment. It kept me from needing plastic surgery after a fire burnt my face and I look normal too...