Removing Dead Tissue--Help!

[saraventiera]

Hey chicken tenders, one of my favorite chickens has a necrotic wound under her wing that they vet wanted $1k to surgically debride. I can't afford that, so I left with antibiotics and anti inflammatories, and I'm going to try to clean it up myself. Has anyone ever dealt with dead tissue before? She's still eating, drinking, laying and seems to have life force. I've become pretty good at managing wounds on my horses who love to injure themselves but have never dealt with dead tissue. Anyone have any advice? Right now I'm rinsing it with saline spray, then betadine, then packing it with honey. Today, I started bandaging it (as best I could) to keep her from messing with it and to keep the honey in place. My neighbor, who's an anesthesiologist, is going to give me some silver sulfadiazine cream tomorrow, which she says should help slough it off. I'm really, really hoping I can help her pull through!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Welcome To BYC

Can you please post photos of the wounds?

 

[saraventiera]

Welcome To BYC

Can you please post photos of the wounds?

Hey chicken tenders, one of my favorite chickens has a necrotic wound under her wing that they vet wanted $1k to surgically debride. I can't afford that, so I left with antibiotics and anti inflammatories, and I'm going to try to clean it up myself. Has anyone ever dealt with dead tissue before? She's still eating, drinking, laying and seems to have life force. I've become pretty good at managing wounds on my horses who love to injure themselves but have never dealt with dead tissue. Anyone have any advice? Right now I'm rinsing it with saline spray, then betadine, then packing it with honey. Today, I started bandaging it (as best I could) to keep her from messing with it and to keep the honey in place. My neighbor, who's an anesthesiologist, is going to give me some silver sulfadiazine cream tomorrow, which she says should help slough it off. I'm really, really hoping I can help her pull through!

Hey chicken tenders, one of my favorite chickens has a necrotic wound under her wing that they vet wanted $1k to surgically debride. I can't afford that, so I left with antibiotics and anti inflammatories, and I'm going to try to clean it up myself. Has anyone ever dealt with dead tissue before? She's still eating, drinking, laying and seems to have life force. I've become pretty good at managing wounds on my horses who love to injure themselves but have never dealt with dead tissue. Anyone have any advice? Right now I'm rinsing it with saline spray, then betadine, then packing it with honey. Today, I started bandaging it (as best I could) to keep her from messing with it and to keep the honey in place. My neighbor, who's an anesthesiologist, is going to give me some silver sulfadiazine cream tomorrow, which she says should help slough it off. I'm really, really hoping I can help her pull through!

 

[saraventiera]

Welcome To BYC

Can you please post photos of the wounds?

I just did! I managed to scrape off some of the dead tissue. I guess it's softened from being bandaged with the honey

 

[Eggcessive]

Can you trim some of the feathers away from the wound? It may not require too much debridement. I was expecting a much larger wound. Most times dressings will not stay on chickens or they will get them off. A wet to dry saline gauze dressing is a fairly easy way to debride a wound, if you could get one to stay on. You apply warm wet saline to a gauze pad, such as a 4x4 or appropriate size, then let it dry on the wound. Then remove it when dry, and you may need to use a little warm saline to help loosen it, to get it off. I worked with some burns years ago, and the silvadene cream your neighbor is getting is very good to use. It won’t require a dressing. Spur injuries like this are fairly common. I can’t believe what that vet was going to charge for helping you.

 

[saraventiera]

Can you trim some of the feathers away from the wound? It may not require too much debridement. I was expecting a much larger wound. Most times dressings will not stay on chickens or they will get them off. A wet to dry saline gauze dressing is a fairly easy way to debride a wound, if you could get one to stay on. You apply warm wet saline to a gauze pad, such as a 4x4 or appropriate size, then let it dry on the wound. Then remove it when dry, and you may need to use a little warm saline to help loosen it, to get it off. I worked with some burns years ago, and the silvadene cream your neighbor is getting is very good to use. It won’t require a dressing. Spur injuries like this are fairly common. I can’t believe what that vet was going to charge for helping you.

This might sound like a dumb question considering we're talking serious wound care. But how should I trim the feathers? I'm reticent to pull them out because I don't want to cause any more pain. Also, do I need to wrap the gauze while it dries? Do I use regular salt or is Epsom salt better for this? I somehow managed to vet wrap the bandage over honey last night and it stayed until this morning. And does it look like a spur injury to you? The vet said he didn't think so, but I live in an area with a lot of predators and keep a very close eye on them. (Sadly, I've lost a bunch.) Plus, I've been leaving them in their predator-safe area for the most part lately, so I really didn't think anything could have gotten to her.

And, yes, as much as I love my girls, $1k seems like an insane amount of money to spend on a chicken. I get where the cost came from, but I was more annoyed they were very vague and not very helpful in answering my questions on how to take care of the dead tissue myself. At least, I got her some antibiotics and anti-inflammatories though.

 

[saraventiera]

Can you trim some of the feathers away from the wound? It may not require too much debridement. I was expecting a much larger wound. Most times dressings will not stay on chickens or they will get them off. A wet to dry saline gauze dressing is a fairly easy way to debride a wound, if you could get one to stay on. You apply warm wet saline to a gauze pad, such as a 4x4 or appropriate size, then let it dry on the wound. Then remove it when dry, and you may need to use a little warm saline to help loosen it, to get it off. I worked with some burns years ago, and the silvadene cream your neighbor is getting is very good to use. It won’t require a dressing. Spur injuries like this are fairly common. I can’t believe what that vet was going to charge for helping you.

Also, do I need to do something about my roo's spurs to prevent this from happening again. They are very long and intimidating.

 

[Eggcessive]

Spurs should be trimmed with dog nail clippers if they are long and sharp, then dulled with a file. You would only need to to trim away any feathers that are getting into the clean wound, such as the bit at the bottom of the picture and the little ones, that can contaminate the wound.

Normal saline can be made by adding 2 tsp of table salt to a quart or liter of water in a sauce pan. A smaller amount is 1/2 tsp salt per 8 ounce cup of water. Bring it to a boil, then turn to a low simmer for 15 minutes. Then place it in a clean jar. But actually with a dirty wound like this, you could just dissolve the same amount of salt in clean water water and use it.

Vet wrap might work at keeping it on, and Kerlix, a gauge wrap also is used for holding a dressing on. There also is elastic netting that can be cut to sip over the wound around the body. But you may just want to go with the silvadene cream, and use it instead, which would be much more simple.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

This might sound like a dumb question considering we're talking serious wound care. But how should I trim the feathers? I'm reticent to pull them out because I don't want to cause any more pain. Also, do I need to wrap the gauze while it dries? Do I use regular salt or is Epsom salt better for this? I somehow managed to vet wrap the bandage over honey last night and it stayed until this morning. And does it look like a spur injury to you? The vet said he didn't think so, but I live in an area with a lot of predators and keep a very close eye on them. (Sadly, I've lost a bunch.) Plus, I've been leaving them in their predator-safe area for the most part lately, so I really didn't think anything could have gotten to her.

And, yes, as much as I love my girls, $1k seems like an insane amount of money to spend on a chicken. I get where the cost came from, but I was more annoyed they were very vague and not very helpful in answering my questions on how to take care of the dead tissue myself. At least, I got her some antibiotics and anti-inflammatories though.

You can trim the feathers by cutting them close to the base with scissors

 

[colwalke]

We're dealing with the same thing here. Years ago, one of our Favorelle hens got a wing bit off by a sled dog causing her to not be able to roost properly. Poor hygiene over the winter caused a great deal of skin below her vent to become necrotic. We've slowly been cutting it away, which she doesn't seem to notice. Bactine spray + warm scrub each day. No meds at this point. She doesn't appear to have discomfort but this is by far the grossest wound we've come across.