Should I Tie Up a Chicken?/Oxytetracyclene

[KrisHoracek]

"Tangy," my Americauna, had an encounter early yesterday morning with a raccoon. My husband managed to scare it before it could do more damage than it did. It turned out that it tore open the thigh skin badly, and there are two tooth-sized cuts to the muscle. I trimmed the feathers, irrigated it with sterile saline, and smeared on Polysporin. Then I stitched together the skin (about a 3" gash) with a sewing needle and dental floss soaked in vodka, and smeared with Polysporin again. Later that day I applied Blu-Kote on the advice of someone from this forum. I'm keeping her in a dog crate with pellet food, grubs, and water, and she is both eating and drinking, but her tail is droopy and she limped badly when I took her out to see how she'd do. Before I did the procedure, actually, she had flown over the fence with the other chickens to forage, and was only limping a little, but when I looked at her wound I knew she wouldn't make it without stitches.

My concerns/questions:

1) I can't decide whether to give her Oxytetracyclene in her water. My friend who helped me stitch her says yes, people on this forum say no.

2) Her beak is blue, which tells me she is pecking at the Blu Kote (or maybe just grooming her feathers?). Is this bad? Should I tie her up with a cloth to protect and immobilize her?


*** I have spread a good bit of Cayenne pepper around the yard to deter the raccoon, but I'm also going to call Animal Control.

 

[emmaellis111]

Go to the vets as see if they will give you and antibiotic for her. If not i would just watch her.if she's eating and drinking i wouldn't worry to much. As long as the wound doesn't get infected and kept clean I wouldn't panic to much x