Tips on undercarriage wound maintenance and healing

[Sunshine Flock]

I thought I'd start a separate discussion for this from my coyote thread.

My rooster has a wound on his belly. I didn't discover it until a few days after a coyote attack. It's centered and a few inches north of his vent. At first I thought the green was bruising, but now that I've flushed it with a saline solution and trimmed back loads of feathers, I can see a shallow gash, and a few smaller ones.

I'm pretty sure I'm not seeing signs of an infection. No red or excess heat or swelling. But the green-tan coloring of the wound is concerning. I'm honestly not sure what I'm looking at. For now I can't provide photos, sorry.

The treatment I'm using is Manuka honey. It dripped into that region, so it did receive a bit of medicine. But now I'm treating it properly with a full coating. I left him belly up for a few minutes right after applying the honey to give it some airing time. He fell asleep and seemed relaxed.

But I can't keep him on his back, of course, especially considering his serious wounds up top.

How do you treat an undercarriage wound? Is there more I can do or anything I should be aware of so I don't encourage an infection?

Thank you.

 

[azygous]

The single most effective thing you can do to prevent infection from a wound in poultry, given their dirty lifestyle, is daily (even twice daily) cleansing.

The second most important thing to do in wound care is not to allow the wound to dry out. Keep it moist with whatever antibiotic dressing you choose, as you've been doing.

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/yikes-large-wound-on-hen.1141144/page-12#post-19075753

This is a thread I started on treating a wound on my hen.
I didn't use honey on her because of the location. I thought it would just run off.

It may give you ideas on how to cover his wounds.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

Thank you so much!

I appreciate the linked thread, and it never occurred to me that a wound should not be allowed to dry out. This is so good to know.

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

Thank you so much!

I appreciate the linked thread, and it never occurred to me that a wound should not be allowed to dry out. This is so good to know.

It's a balance. I just responded to another poster in that thread and showed pictures of what the wound looked like when I used one treatment over the other.

It's not scientific how I did it. I was honestly making it up as I went. Worked really well for me though. She's still out there b*tchin and complaining and pushing everyone around. LOL