Wound Care Help Please

[Chickery Chick]

1st photo is day one after soaking and drying it out.
2nd photo is day 3 after putting triple antibiotic on it.
I recently discovered one of my hens with a huge hole under her vet with flystike.
I soaked her 20 min to get the maggots out in epsom salt, gently rubbed with wash cloth, dumped pan out and did it again to make sure all the maggots were gone. I gave her 1 cc of Gentocin (which I just happen to have extra of) put her in my house with a heatlamp. I noticed black edges appearing around her skin and not sure if this is scabbing or what. One person said soak all the time another says dry out. I'm confused. So I just went with my gut and put triple antibiotic on it. She can not go outside because the flies will just lay more eggs on her. She seems healthy but the hole is so big. Skin around hole pink but with black edges. I guess I'm gong to soak her again, but not with epson salt as I read that can damage new skin cells, and try to rub the black off then put her under heat lamp and reapply triple antibiotic and continue 1cc each day of gentocin just under the skin at the back of her neck. If anyone has a suggesting for what I should or should not do I'd be happy. I do not have the silver product or powder stuff. I just have to do the best with basic care and over the counter stuff at Wal-Mart. We live in the boondocks with no special places to get applications for chicken wounds.

 

[Judy]

The black stuff is necrotic, or dead, tissue and needs to be removed. The yellowish stuff toward the middle of the wound is probably also necrotic tissue. It is going to take a while for that to heal, if it ever does. You can try Saline wet to dry dressings if you wish, to see if they will pull the necrotic tissue off. If you can keep a dressing on her, that is. You moisten a gauze pad with saline, then put a dry one over it. Change at least twice a day. Or simply snip the black tissue away. If you don't cut live tissue, she won't feel it -- but you'll have to cut a tiny bit of live tissue to get all the necrotic stuff off.

Neosporin or another antibiotic ointment is probably as good as anything, considering what is available to you. Just be sure you never use any that has a "caine" drug in it, such as cetacaine, benzocaine, etc.

If you happen to know someone with horses, they will probably have some products that would heal it better. There are also products available for horses that prevent fly strike.

http://www.ehow.com/how_8029316_make-homemade-normal-saline-solution.html

 

[Chickery Chick]

Thank for explaining that the black stuff needed come off. I cut most of it off. I see now why a razor blade works better, where I read this in another thread. She took it like a trooper even though some spots were bleeding. She ate well after I was done, then I gave her another cc of Genticon and put tripple antibiotic on. I don't give her much chance. It such a large wound. She does not seem disstressed or ill, so until I think she is suffering I will continue treatments. Likely I will be reporting that she was put down, but thanks so much for your input anyway. I've learned a lot from the experience and will pay closer attention to my other hens when their bottoms get dirty and give them a bath. The flies have been worse this year than I've ever seen.

 

[MarcoPollo]

Ouch! Since she is still eating, and you are also able to inject antibiotics, she may get better. It is always a learning experience with these feathered friends. Good luck to you both.

 

[Chickery Chick]

Well she is still eating and acting normal July 31st. Likes dog kibble. lol
She is one tough hen, even if she does not make it.
I can't believe she is still alive, eating normal, drinking, and seems content.
I called my Vet, and like 99% of them, they don't know anything about chickens.
It must be a foul subject for them lol
Anyway, when I told them what happened and asked for antibiotics for my chicken, they didn't even want to see her and just told me to go to Orcheliens and get Tetracycline Hydrochloride Duramycin-10. Yes, it is an antibiotic, but from what I read it is not usually used for wounds.
If anyone one has in-put, good or bad to use this on chickens for large wound please share.
Well I went ahead and figured out the dosage.....I think. 1/4 tsp for 1/4 gal of water.

A friend at work has horses and gave me a bottle of Vetericyn, wound & skin care spray. He swore by it!
Again, if anyone knows anything about this product being any good, Vetericyn please share.
So I gave her a warm soapy bath, towel dried, gave Tetracycline mixer water, which she drank from, sprayed her wound with Vetericyn, administered my last available shot of Genticon, she ate a hand full of dog kibble, which she loves and put her to bed.
Poo's look good, acting normal.

If anyone has input on Vetericyn wound spray or Tetracycline used for wounds for chickens please share.
I do have 3 cc of penicillin shot mixture in the fridge, but it was given to me 6 weeks ago from the Vet, for a dog that I did not use, and I fear it may not be any good anymore???
One thread here said this was the ideal injection I should give her(Penicillin). I can use it if any of you advise it and if so, do you think it is still usable after 6wks in fridge and how much and how often. I only have 3cc of this. I do have oral penicillin, amoxi and Cephalexin for alternative antibiotics but not sure how much or even safe for chickens. I have this on hand for my dogs. I've got 250mg and 500mg capsules of each and can break down in water or food etc. If Amoxi or Cephalexin is safe for chickens and recommended for this purpose. I'd appreciate any ratio's for #mg/cc to 1gal of water etc.

UPDATE DAY 17. , Aug 15 below. Vetericyn did the trick and healed the wound nicely and scabbed over without infection. But the Tetracycline did not. Not a strong enough antibiotic. She was full of fluids. We took her to the Vet and they pealed the scab off. See picture below, and had to make cuts on wound to drain the fluids. I sure wish I could have taken a picture before the cuts were made it looked fantastic. But now we are battling internal infection(fluids). They must have drained at least a cup from her cavity. In a later thread here, I noted she was was blowing up in the rear area and I had no idea why. I guess this is why. She sure churked up in just two days on penicillin injections, even with all those fluids in her cavity. She is way not out of the woods, in fact the prognosis is not good, but we'll keep fighting the battle so long as she does too.






Above is the scab. I know gross, but I had no idea it was a scab and would just peal off like that. Just thought I'd post for others who might not know this is what it does, like I did not know.

 

[chooks4life]

Vetirycin is one of the most-often recommended things on these forums. I don't know personally because I use natural treatments or at least non-pharmaceutical and non-antibiotic, but that's not to disagree with your choice nor condemn anyone, and I wish you all the best with the chook. A lot of folks here swear by Vetirycin, enough for me who doesn't use antibiotics to know it by name, lol.

While the wound's already shown some blackness, I would suggest you don't overdo it on antibiotics, some aren't the best to mix with others and the problem is that they also kill healthy cells. If she's coping now and the wound isn't progressing in a bad direction I wouldn't use too many things at once. Bad bacteria etc grow back faster than healthy bacteria when killed off by antibiotics.

Best wishes, hope she heals fast.

 

[Chickery Chick]

I concur with the over-doing antibiotics. I will just use the Tetracycline recommended by my vet.
Thank you for your experience, at least in reading other forums, on Veterycin.
I had not heard of this product before. I am new here, but loving this site and reading lots of forum now.
When reading the bottle of Veterycin, it kinda looked like a cure-all, too good to be true product, so wasn't sure. lol
"No prescription needed, safe to lick by patient, doesn't need rinsed, just spray on, good for any type of animal, etc."
I did remove the black, but there is still some brown on the edges.
The one picture shows yellow, but it was the camera flash and triple antibiotic that I think made it look yellow.
It is actually pink.
I'm not seeing regress nor improvement. So unsure which way she is going to go.
She seems feistier. Maybe just feeling cooped up too much.
If I get improvement, I'll take another photo and post, but right now it is the same minus the black edges I had to cut off.
Thanks so much!

 

[24279102]

I had a hen with a similar wound that was crawling with maggots. I bathed her and washed and flushed the wound with betadine to get the maggots out - persistent little buggers. Then I dried her off and coated it with bluekote and lots of it. I find that the ointment only melts with the heat of their body and the summer air and everything sticks to it. I cleaned the wound for about three more days and re-applied the bluekote and it dried it right up. IMO the ointment keeps things too wet .Good luck with her.

 

[Chickery Chick]

I did 2, 20min washes with Epsom salt simultaneously. I never seen another maggot after that.
The Vetericyn seems to stay on, but does dry up after about 3-4 hours so I spray again.
It seems to keep it the right amount of moisture but needs done 3-4 times a day as instructed on pump spray bottle it came in.
If I think this is not going to keep it moist enough I'll go back to triple antibiotic cream, or maybe both.
The triple antibiotic is good in that it slicks off any poop that could land on it. Kinda shields it.
Maybe the triple antibiotic would be a good night-time treatment-lasts longer, but it does need washed off for Vetericyn to be effective.

Did your chicken make it? Just curious for outcome on mine, if she stands a chance.

 

[buckaroogirl]

I work at a clinic, never seen vetericyn work