Need Help Found y hen with a whole in her side

[BigRedRoo]

What about putting some vet bond skin glue to hold it closed? wish I could stitch it back together

 

[CMV]

It's way too late for that. You need to stitch or glue wounds within the first 8 hours of when they happen. You wait any longer than that and you are going to stitch an infection into the wound. You could try using some butterflies or steri-strips to hold the skin in place, but absolutely do not glue or stitch it into place.

 

[BigRedRoo]

Glad I asked, didnt think about traping in infection! The skin looks clean this morning and a white filmy haz has formed over the skin, everything looks wet is this normal healing?

 

[CMV]

Depends on how wet it is- wet is fine, but dripping with thick secretions is not. Right now you should be seeing serrous (clear-ish yellow) or serosanguinous (blood-tinged, clear-ish yellow) fluid flooding to site. These fluids contain mostly white blood cells which are hard at work cleaning out damaged cells and eating up bits of bacteria and dirt. This clear fluid will help to form a scab over the injury, while also doing its magic to clean out debris and any potential infection. If this fluid should turn thick and yellow, then an infection has taken hold and you will need to be more aggressive in treatment.

I'm going to add a link to a recent post where a bird was scalped. An old BYCer had some advice about how to deal with infections that I have never used myself. The advice makes sense and I intend to try it out on my next big wound, but Beekissed swore by it and it worked in this particular case. It may be something to keep in mind for your girl if standard treatment doesn't work. The post start to gets interesting at about #34. There are also some pics of a clear infection. This will show you exactly what you don't want to see.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/863681/hawk-attack-should-we-just-put-her-down/30

 

[BigRedRoo]

Looks like infection has begun. Im off to get some injectable penicillin. And talk with the vet about treatment

 

[BigRedRoo]

So now were medicating with liquid pen and The vet said to apply hunny to the open wound. Gonna try the pen and hunny for 5 days. Looks like Mamma is gonna be on a sweet home brewed diet of scrambled egg and yogurt for bed time snack.

 

[CMV]

She will think she has died and gone to Heaven. Lucky girl.