Please help! Hen with giant wound smells like burnt chicken

[Wyorp Rock]

@Wyorp Rock here are the images. Sorry for the delay. It looks like the gash goes downward and there was some dead skin holding in moisture and dirt or maybe pus. I got it cleaned out and removed as much of the dead skin as I felt comfortable removing without jeopardizing actually cutting her live tissue. It is honestly pretty gnarly and looks like it just missed her vent thankfully. But still not sure of severity or if she is out of the woods. She seemed to be getting some strength back already today and even fought me a couple times to get away which I took as a good sign. Having trouble adding images here so will add them in a new comment and tag you

I would saturate that with antibiotic ointment.. it looks dry. I had some hens recently injured by a dog and I kept people antibiotic ointment on them. They healed wonderfully! @Wyorp Rock was so helpful to me! And some others I can’t think of at the moment.
Hope she heals quickly

Sorry, I didn’t read this post… maybe the spray would work best for this.Vetericyn…. I also used that and it was a miracle worker!

NO! Don't be sorry

Actually I agree, with @WhoDatChick
I'd apply triple antibiotic ointment to the wound. The wound is larger than I first thought.
I wonder if a predator got a hold of her, perhaps some of the others had picked at her wound, but once the skin gets a small tear, it can become worse, so it may have been from repeated mating and stretching of the skin too...regardless, you caught it and are now treating her. When most of a wound is hidden under a wing like that, it may be several days before you notice something is off.

Is there still an odor after cleanup? If necessary, swab the wound with your antiseptic a couple of times a day (Povidone Iodine or Chlorhexidine). Then reapply your ointment to help keep it a little moist.

If she's perking up, that's good, but it sounds like she's a bit droopy. I'd give her a little sugar water or electrolytes for a few days. Work on getting her to eat her normal feed, but you may need to entice her with something like egg, fish or meat - which will also give her extra protein to build her back up.

Thank you for the photos. I know it can be difficult to take care of home, animals and whatever else, plus try to get photos, etc.

 

[Celcampbell23]

NO! Don't be sorry

Actually I agree, with @WhoDatChick
I'd apply triple antibiotic ointment to the wound. The wound is larger than I first thought.
I wonder if a predator got a hold of her, perhaps some of the others had picked at her wound, but once the skin gets a small tear, it can become worse, so it may have been from repeated mating and stretching of the skin too...regardless, you caught it and are now treating her. When most of a wound is hidden under a wing like that, it may be several days before you notice something is off.

Is there still an odor after cleanup? If necessary, swab the wound with your antiseptic a couple of times a day (Povidone Iodine or Chlorhexidine). Then reapply your ointment to help keep it a little moist.

If she's perking up, that's good, but it sounds like she's a bit droopy. I'd give her a little sugar water or electrolytes for a few days. Work on getting her to eat her normal feed, but you may need to entice her with something like egg, fish or meat - which will also give her extra protein to build her back up.

Thank you for the photos. I know it can be difficult to take care of home, animals and whatever else, plus try to get photos, etc.

Thank you so much! You’re a life saver! Yes I totally missed this wound and I feel horrible. I check them out everyday but this is perfectly hidden by her wings and she’s one of my shy hens that I can’t catch all the time. My alarm bells didn’t go off until she was limping because of it.

My birds free range during the day so it very well could have been a predator but I tend to lean towards repeated rooster injury as I have TOO many right now thanks to good ole tractor supply “pullets.” I’ve been desperately trying to find homes for a few of my dudes. We haven’t had a predator in quite some time but just last night we found one of my girls killed and missing her head. I immediately thought opossum or raccoon and while we have never had either one of those attack our girls, we trapped the opossum tonight so I know he was the culprit at least for the latter hen. I didn’t originally relate the two instances but could an opossum have done this under the wing in your opinion? It’s been a hard week in the chicken world I put my heart and soul into these babies so it breaks my heart when stuff like this happens.

I didn’t notice the smell as bad after cleaning her but it’s still there if that makes sense. I will go put ointment on it in the morning. Do you think vetricyn spray would work well in conjunction with the ointment or should I continue the iodine? And do you think she needs terramycin ointment or neosporin (without pain relief)?

I will also add electrolytes and poultry cell to everyone’s water tomorrow and give sweet little Wednesday (the hen) some tuna and treats in conjunction with her regular food. Thank you again for such wonderful advice. Everyone on this post has been so kind and respectful and helpful and I am so grateful! It is so nice to not feel “alone” when scary things are happening!

 

[Celcampbell23]

I would saturate that with antibiotic ointment.. it looks dry. I had some hens recently injured by a dog and I kept people antibiotic ointment on them. They healed wonderfully! @Wyorp Rock was so helpful to me! And some others I can’t think of at the moment.
Hope she heals quickly

Thank you so so much! I am going to go add some ointment first thing in the morning. I will do vetricyn spray first! I also have iodine that I may use instead depending on what @Wyorp Rock recommends! Thank you again

 

[Celcampbell23]

I've had worse injuries and larger amounts of missing flesh from a raccoon attack be able to heal with the right care. I used LA 200 (Oxytetracycline) injection. I cleaned it well with warm antibacterial dawn & water. After patting dry I sprayed with Blu Kote and then spread Triple Antibiotic ointment liberally (literally globs) on the wounds. The hens injured in the attack were kept inside in a galvanized tank in my mudroom. The did not have much room to run around or be re injured. Keep it clean and re-apply ointment.

One was stripped of ALL her skin on the entire left side of her body and down the complete outside of her leg. It was meat, bare chicken meat!! One had a gaping hole where her neck met her body. You could see inside her! Another had all the skin stripped from her back and large gash wounds under wing an on back. I took a while, but they all healed and are now black with the flock.

The raccoon was able to fold back the vent on the side of the chicken house and go inside. I lost a few in the attack as well.

Give her time and care and should heal from this!

Thank you so much! It’s so comforting to know hens can pull through such horrific things. They’re so resilient! The worst I’ve had so far is a failed hawk attack that almost ripped a baby chicks wing off, a failed fox attack that left puncture wounds in a hen and a make shift surgery to replace a chick’s intestines after it hatched with the yolk attached. This injury takes the cake though

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Oh no! Sorry to hear you lost one to an attack.
Possum can be pretty rough, so can Raccoon - hard to know which did the deed.
Here's why. I set up a game cam around my property, just to see what's going on.
For me and where I live, there seems to be a pattern to the predators on the trails.
Usually I see Raccoon, then Possum, then Red Fox, then if one is around Coyote - all in one night, following and smelling after one another. Sometimes it's Possum, Raccoon, Fox, Coyote. It can be interesting to watch. I recommend at least one game cam, you will start to figure out where the critters enter and leave as well, but I have quite a few trails from Deer in the woods too, so all of these are used.

Anyway! I'm rambling. Use whatever ointment you have on hand. I'm buy generic triple antibiotic ointment or Bacitracin and it seems to work just fine. Vetericyn spray is supposed to be very good and a lot of folks swear by it, I've just never used it.

 

[WhoDatChick]

Thank you so so much! I am going to go add some ointment first thing in the morning. I will do vetricyn spray first! I also have iodine that I may use instead depending on what @Wyorp Rock recommends! Thank you again

You’re welcome! I would spray with vetricyn and then triple antibiotic… lots of it!
I wish I knew how to post my thread here.. I made one in September when a dog attacked my flock it could be very helpful and encouraging as my three injured survivors were very bad off and I even missed a wound that was not treated until well after the other wounds were almost healed prolonging their confinement Maybe @Wyorp Rock knows how to do that