Please help! Chicken wound from dog :(

[orpington13]

I heard that you can give them a Baby Aspirin for pain

 

[ChickenChaser9]

I heard that you can give them a Baby Aspirin for pain

Please do not do that. Unless you are a professional animal healer you are not doing her any favors by giving her narcotics meant for creatures twice her size or more...

 

[tamaraly81]

Please do not do that. Unless you are a professional animal healer you are not doing her any favors by giving her narcotics meant for creatures twice her size or more...

I'm not going to, I don't feel comfortable giving her human meds. I was just wondering if there was something out there for chickens that I could get at a farm and fleet store until I can get her to a vet tomorrow

 

[tamaraly81]

PLEASE DO NOT USE HUMAN PAINKILLERS ON CHICKENS, you can overdose them. Nothing with painkillers in it. I cant stress that enough. If you know how to keep her wounds clean that is a plus, do that. She may very well keep pecking at the wound, that is a behavior chickens do instinctually and you will likely need to cover it so she cannot see anything red and raw back there. If there are no deep punctures she stands a reasonable chance of recovery as long as she has full range of motion with her neck and has no serious (broken) legs. As to having a blue looking comb, I am not sure about that as a symptom but close observation is necessary to spot any trouble developing or any changes in her status.

Thank you! She can walk (with a limp), stand up and she appears to be able to move her head just fine. I won't give her any human pain killers, I was just wondering if there's something out there for chickens. Poor girl. She survived a hawk attack, I sure hope she survives this.

 

[ChickenChaser9]

Here is a thread you may find relevant: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/39324/pain-relief-for-chickens

Safest would be use Rimadyl (generic is Novox) as it is used by avian vets and chicken sanctuaries. 12.5 mg daily for a 5lb bird.

The limp may get better over time, I have a Jersey Giant that has a bit of a 'gangsta walk' now but she healed very well after a dog got ahold of her. Her mobility sounds good so unless she gets an infection I'd say your prognosis is pretty good. She has an appetite and is drinking water yes?

 

[tamaraly81]

...

Yes she is, she had a couple bites of food and water after I cleaned her up..also some berries. Hasn't eaten much since though.

 

[ChickenChaser9]

Observation is key. She needs to keep eating and drinking water. I do think she stands a good chance at recovery, the wounds do not look pretty but they do not seem to be life threatening.

 

[tamaraly81]

Someone told me not to use peroxide (I posted in an animal group on Facebook before coming here) Is that really something I shouldn't do? I used it the last time she had wounds and she was fine but now I'm second guessing myself. I just want to do everything rite.

 

[ChickenChaser9]

Someone told me not to use peroxide (I posted in an animal group on Facebook before coming here) Is that really something I shouldn't do? I used it the last time she had wounds and she was fine but now I'm second guessing myself. I just want to do everything rite.

Peroxide is not that good to use on humans or anything else. I copied this article from http://www.myhealthwire.com/news/mind-body/553
It is important of course to clean the wounds and this can be accomplished with warm water rinsed over the area.

1) Use hydrogen peroxide to disinfect the wound.
You might think all that bubbling of hydrogen peroxide on your wound is its germ-killing action hard at work. And you'd be right. But that bubbling isn't just killing the bacteria in your cut, it's also killing your body's “fibroblasts,” the cells responsible for repairing the wound.1
It gets worse: [M]ultiple randomized, controlled trials — the best kind of research — show that hydrogen peroxide does not prevent or treat infections in wounds.
So not only will hydrogen peroxide damage your cells, but it's completely useless to begin with!
2) Apply vitamin E to cuts to help them heal faster.
This is a myth that actually has its roots in the medical community. In laboratory research, a type of vitamin E known as “alpha-tocopherol” has been shown to help regulate the expression of a substance called “connective tissue growth factor.” This growth factor is important in, you guessed it, wound repair.
Unfortunately for those doctors who recommend applying a vitamin E ointment to the skin, there has been no evidence that it makes anything better...
[M]ost studies of vitamin E show no improvement whatsoever in the size, thickness, or appearance of scars after using it. Moreover, many people get an itchy rash from using vitamin E.2
3) It's good to remove a bandage and let a cut air out.
This one might make a bit of intuitive sense... It's hard to imagine that a cut or a scrape can properly heal when it's smothered in ointment and a bandage. Some people will take their bandages off at night, others will remove bandaging after a wound stops bleeding.
In this case, intuition is dead wrong. The cells responsible for tissue repair actually work better in a moist environment. A study conducted in the Annals of Plastic Surgery in 1995 found that wet, bandaged wounds healed at least two days more quickly than dry wounds — and led to less infections and better quality of healing.3
However, that doesn't mean you should keep the same bandage on for days at a time. You should change the bandages to cut down on bacterial growth, and that's also a good time to check up on the progression of the healing.
4) Apply antibiotic ointment on an open wound to prevent infections.
Unless your immune system is compromised in some way, or you're very young or very old, you may want to hold off on the antibiotic ointment...
Let me be clear: This has nothing to do with the effectiveness of the ointment. In fact, ointment is quite good at preventing infections and helping cuts heal faster.
However, you should know that the effectiveness of ointment to heal scrapes and cuts is due more to its main ingredient — petroleum jelly — than to its antibiotic properties. A number of studies have found that a simple petroleum jelly ointment performs as effectively or better than ones containing antibiotics4 — and, in many cases, caused less irritation.5
Shelling out extra cash for antibiotic ointment isn't the only downside... Like all other forms of the drug, it can breed an antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection6, which can end up sending you with an unplanned trip to the hospital.

If you enjoyed reading about these medical myths, or simply want to improve your health, I'd recommend Don't Cross Your Eyes...They'll Get Stuck That Way and Don't Swallow Your Gum, both books by Dr. Aaron Carroll and Dr. Rachel Vreeman. They're easy reads and the information is invaluable.
Yours in health,

Ken Swearengen for HealthWire

 

[tamaraly81]

Ok. So how would be the best way to do that, clean with warm water? And how often? I dont want to frighten her and have her flap her wings. What I gathered from that article is to keep a wound wrapped to heal (I don't know what to do about that, I have gauze and I don't know where to start) and no antibiotic ointment or peroxide. I'm going to try and get her to a vet tomorrow if there's one willing to help her. I let her rest all afternoon and I'm getting ready to take care of her wounds now that I have a list of what not to do. Thank you so much for all your help, it's much appreciated.