- Aug 29, 2013
- 3
- 0
- 7
My daughter discovered that our hen, Djinn, was injured. It seems bad. Her skin is layed open from her mid back in a Y-shaped cut down her thigh and side. A flap of skin was layed open and still attached. The muscle is in tact, but approximately 2" of muscle was exposed.
She apparently wasn't feeling all that bad because she obviously decided to take a dust bath and got all kinds of dirt and dust in the wound. I did the best I could with water, a Q-tip, and a washcloth to clean out the would, but I just can't get it all clean.
I decided to try to stich it up, so I rubbed some tripple antibiotic cream on the would and commenced to put about 6 stiches in, each about 1/2" apart thinking that it would drain if it got infected.
After 3 days, there's no sign of infection, but the would is still filthy and the cream seems to be attracting the dirt. So last night, I got a toothbrush and water and cleaned her up again and set out to stitch her up better. By the way, I'm encourage by how well she's thriving. I thought she'd get docile, but nope, Djinn's still running from me and foraging as usual.
I noticed that the edges of the skin had dried up and looked like bacon. I wasn't sure if I should remove this or not, so where it seemed to be falling off, I removed it. Where it wasn't I left it. Again, I can see dirt in the wound, but I just can't get it all out! This time I put the stiches closer together and used nylon fishing line. I sewed the skin back toghethre tight except at the bottom where I left it open a bit for drainage. If there was dried skin tried to sew behind it. Then I put more antibiotic on her. I'm hoping that her immune system will do the rest. Hopefully she'll heal up.
I don't know anything about suturing, in fact, I can't believe that I was able to do it without passing out, but I did it, TWICE! Should I have removed the dead skin? Will I have to remove the stitches later?
She apparently wasn't feeling all that bad because she obviously decided to take a dust bath and got all kinds of dirt and dust in the wound. I did the best I could with water, a Q-tip, and a washcloth to clean out the would, but I just can't get it all clean.
I decided to try to stich it up, so I rubbed some tripple antibiotic cream on the would and commenced to put about 6 stiches in, each about 1/2" apart thinking that it would drain if it got infected.
After 3 days, there's no sign of infection, but the would is still filthy and the cream seems to be attracting the dirt. So last night, I got a toothbrush and water and cleaned her up again and set out to stitch her up better. By the way, I'm encourage by how well she's thriving. I thought she'd get docile, but nope, Djinn's still running from me and foraging as usual.
I noticed that the edges of the skin had dried up and looked like bacon. I wasn't sure if I should remove this or not, so where it seemed to be falling off, I removed it. Where it wasn't I left it. Again, I can see dirt in the wound, but I just can't get it all out! This time I put the stiches closer together and used nylon fishing line. I sewed the skin back toghethre tight except at the bottom where I left it open a bit for drainage. If there was dried skin tried to sew behind it. Then I put more antibiotic on her. I'm hoping that her immune system will do the rest. Hopefully she'll heal up.
I don't know anything about suturing, in fact, I can't believe that I was able to do it without passing out, but I did it, TWICE! Should I have removed the dead skin? Will I have to remove the stitches later?
