How to treat a deep cut

I have a Plymouth Rock hen that has about a 3 inch long cut across her back going down by her leg. The cut separated the skin and you can very clearly see her muscle under her skin. Im assuming this was from a rooster and I will be getting those barbs (idk what they are called) off of their feet now after this incident. But heres my question, were on day 3 now and I dont see any puss or signs of infection (Ive been spraying the area separately with alcohol and peroxide) but my question is how do I sew her skin back up to close this cut up? I am willing to stitch the area up but where do you find string that is acceptable to use as a stitch, and how do you sedate the chicken while your stitching her up? Or is there something else that I should be doing that I just havent thought of? She will not be going to a vet and as long as she is not in any pain and she can function normally then I will not put her down.

Thanks for your help with this issue!!

This has happened to us and we really didn't need to do anything. The cut healed on its own after a week or so. Just make sure she is not laying in a dirty nest.

I would leave it be at this point. It's too late too sew it up because the wound has been open to infection for so long. Closing it may trap infectious material inside which can lead to worse problems like septic shock. If it's not bleeding then I would just make sure it stays clean and let it heal on it's own. Alcohol and peroxide are good at killing germs but they also kill newly forming skin cells. By applying these treatments you may be lengthening the time it takes the wound to heal. Also, alcohol and peroxide are kinda painful to apply on open wounds. OWWW
My advice would be to wash it in a lukewarm solution of mild soap and warm water. Make sure the cut stays free from debris, poop and feathers. If it's not too cold you can cut the feathers in that area back a bit to keep them from irritating the wound too much. With luck, nature will do what nature does best.

Best wishes

Nothing. Chickens usually have no problem with such a thing. You could put yarrow on the top. Yarrow is the best herb against cuts.

Thanks everyone for all the help! Im glad to know that this should heal naturally now! I dont let her go outside right now, I have her in a clean coop and I cut her feathers back just a little in that area. Once that hole closes up ill let her back outside.

I recently had a very bad injury to one of our chicks ... The poor thing got stuck and the other chickens damn near ate it's butt off. Seriously, all the feathers were gone around its rump. and just a bony stump was protruding in a blood pecked at mess! His blood got onto other chicks and they got picked nk as well but not nearly as bad. 5 total assaulted. I rinsed with hydrogen peroxide and water to clean it. Then I applied a paste mixture of fresh ground usnea, coconut oil, Grapeseed oil, Tamanu oil, meadowfoam seed oil, lavender EO, niaouli EO and Manuka honey medical grade. (I already had the CO, TO, MFSO and GO blend made up so it was just easy to grab and use. I had just gotten the Manuka honey and wanted to try it out. Any honey is a great wound healer) Next time, hopefully there won't be, I think I'll just do the honey & usnea. The bleeding stopped almost immediately. I kept the chicken in isolation and rinsed the wound twice a day for three days with a herbal decoction of lavender, garlic, plantain, calendula and chick weed then reapplied the paste. The chicken healed very quickly with no sign of infection. When I returned him to the flock I painted the injury with blue food coloring to be sure that the other chickens didn't see it as something to peck at as they are attracted to red and are quite nosy little buggers

If you've no knowledge of usnea I HIGHLY recommend a google search. Chances are it's growing in your yard or nearby, unless your in the desert SW it's been effective on treating cuts on my hands as well.

Its times like this that I really feel the meaning behind the phrase knowledge is power!! Thank you Danielle for telling me about usnea!! I had never heard of usnea until I read your post.

I looked around our property and I found maybe 10 trees that had a small amount of what appeared to be usnea, I marked the trees and left the usnea there until I know more about it, I dont want to damage what little is growing on our property.

I have had a lung issue for about a year now and Im going to try this stuff on that to see if it works! Plus I was already looking for something to use to clean the teats of our goat off before milking her and apparently usnea is great for that too!!

Well thanks again Danielle and everyone else for all the help!

In Stephen Harold Buhner's book Herbal Antibiotics there is great info on it and many other excellent herbs including how to make herbal medicines if you've no knowledge of it. $25, less on Amazon, that you will not ever regret spending. There is also Herbal Antivirals. On YouTube there are videos on correctly identifying usnea. I hunt around after ever good windstorm for fallen branches containing it.