Newbie need advice, critter clawed up chicks leg, how to treat it?

[lambykin]

Hi all,
Newbie here, it seems something (a raccoon?) keeps digging & digging I finally makes it's way under our coop & snatched a bird out for its dinner during the wee hours when we're all asleep. We've already lost 3 birds. They are about 3 months old now. We moved our coop several times & hoped this would help, we're in the process of adding some chicken wire under neath as flooring so that these critters can't get in even if they attempt to dig, but last night I heard a lot of commotion & went out to the coop & something was digging to get in, it got scared off but it had already snatched a number of feathers off of one of our black sex links & thismorning when I went to feed them I realized she has some skin on one leg ripped off. It's not dripping blood but definitley had some bleeding at some point. She can stand & walk pretty normally on it, eating fine, drinking water fine, let's me handle her & let me examine her injury without any fuss. Should I put gauze with neosporine on it or let it air out & just keep checking for signs of infection? Should I seperate her from the rest of her flock? I just worry about it possibly infecting.
Thanks so much for any & all advice!

 

[Judy]

The problems with injuries like her leg besides infection are other chickens pecking the wound and flies laying eggs in the wound, which will hatch into maggots. Any basic first aid is fine, wash it with a mild soapy water solution and put some neosporin on it, and keep an eye on it. You can try gauze but she will probably pull it off. When it is necessary to keep a dressing on a chicken, vet wrap or even duct tape (on the feathers) are the sort of thins people use. Lots of folks use BluKote, available in TSC, which turns the wound blue (purple, really) and is an antiseptic. The purple is supposed to stop other chickens from attacking the wound. I've used it successfully on a couple of minor wounds.

Chicken wire will NOT stop a raccoon. You might want to look ar o9und in the Predators and Pests forum. You will likely have to get 1/2" hardware cloth (wire mesh.)