Please Help, Major Wound on my Hen

[HenJo]

Hi I'm new in this forum, I signed up because I need someone's help.
Two of my hens were attacked on Thursday afternoon. I'm thinking it was a raccoon and it took one chicken and the other one has 2 chunks of skin missing from her thigh and she is now limping. She is eating and drinking. In her water I put antibiotics that I got where I bought her when she was a chick. I need to what I need to do to heal the wound, my dad is already considering killing her but I think she can make, she is the only surviving chicken out of four I bought. Two of my brown were killed by a raccoon and a hawk and my black one was killed by raccoon too. Another question, is it possible that the wounds on my chicken to start to stink?
Thank You!

 

[Fudgie]

they will only stink if there is infection. Get it washed up immediately and put betadine iodine on them. Do you have a picture to post it might help in determining what to do next.

and

You will be hooked like the rest of us in no time!

 

[rooster-red]

You need to seperate her from the flock, put her in a cat/dog crate and put her in a warm, dark place to prevent going into shock.

Clean her wounds with saline solution, then dress them with an antibiotic ointment (do not use anything that has an ingredient ending in "caine")

make sure she eats and drinks, use a dropper to give water with a little aspirin dissolved in it for pain.

 

[horsejody]

Don't over do the aspirin. Dissolve 5 regular aspirins (not ibuprophen or tylenol - aspirin only) in one gallon of water.

 

[HenJo]

Thanks for the reply

How can I make the saline solution?

 

[kinnip]

If it's infected, the best thing to use is penicillin. Not all antibiotics are for the same type of infection. You can buy Penn G at your local feed store along with some needles and syringes. I just bought a bottle and five syringes and needles for $25. Give her 1/4 cc in the breast muscle every other day, seven times total. You need to give her a break in between shots, so there isn't a build up in the tissue. When you inject it, be sure to pull back on the plunger. If blood comes up, you're in a vein and need to find another location. Pull out the needle, expel the blood and start again. It's a lot easier if someone holds her, but it can be done solo.
The Penn G does have procaine in it. As stated, things with "caine" are usually not recommended for chickens. Procaine Penn G, however, is approved for use in chickens. I think the withdrawal time is 5 days for eggs.

 

[kinnip]

Quote:
Heat roughly 8 oz. of water and stir in 1 tsp. of salt to dissolve. I put mine in one of those squeezy condiment containers you can get at Wal-Mart. I just squeeze it with medium force into the wound. If there's a flap of flesh, you'll want to pull it back and get the saline all up in there.

 

[Cetawin]

Clean the wounds with a sterile saline soulation (1 tsp salt to 1 quart of water, boil it on stove for a few minutes and let cool to room temperature), dry it thoroughly with clean cloth/towel and apply antibiotic ointment like neosporin and wrap with gauze if possible. Make sure nothing you put on her has any of "caines" in it for pain relief. The "caines" are lethal to them. No peroxide either.

Just keep the wound clean and the ointment on it and give her the antibiotics in her water.

Unless it becomes infected, she should be alright and there is no need to cull her. If she can walk on her own, eat and drink on own, she should recover.

 

[HenJo]

Here are pictures of her injury. I could 1 out of 2 of the injury. The other injury has feather covering it... do I need to clip the feathers off as well?

 

[kinnip]

It's hard to see, but it looks like it has a shade of yellow to it. Is it fat or infection? Infection will ooze when you press on it. If it's infection, she needs penicillin. If the feathers appear to be sticking to the wound, or drawing dirt into it, then I would carefully trim them. She needs to be somewhere safe, warm and dry (away from other birds).