chicken wound care

Due to an overly amorous and slightly clumsy rooster, one of my hens has quite the deep laceration on her back. It is all the way through the skin and seems like maybe into/through fat. She's acting pretty normal, just resting slightly more than usual. I have brought her inside, mostly out of concern that flies could get to the wound. I've experienced that before with my cat and don't care for a repeat. The wound is hidden by her wing, so luckily no one pecked it. I cleaned it out as much as she would allow with vetericyn and then applied a plantain and calendula compress. After I cleaned it, the color of the wound was pink, with a bit of red at the edges. After a couple hours, the whole thing looks light brown, but not like a scab.

While I've managed quite a few gnarly wounds with herbs, I still have some things I don't feel super confident about. I never know with deeper wounds how far to go in cleaning them. I don't want to damage tissue, but also don't want to be leaving material in there that could cause problems. With my own wounds, my usual approach is to wash as best I can and then if I can't get something out easily, to put plantain salve on and let that draw it out. I tend to be less sure when dealing with someone else's wounds though, since I can't tell quite as easily what is going on with it. I can recognize signs of infection, but at times I feel less certain if what I'm seeing is a normal healing process or something that needs attention still. It doesn't help anything that I'm fairly squeamish bordering on phobic when it comes to blood and injury. I'm always able to do what needs to be done to help my animals, but I have to push myself way past my comfort zone to do so.

When will she be safe from the risk of flies getting into the wound? Does the skin need to be all the way regrown? Or is it okay if it's just scabbed over with no signs of infection? I will be putting a hen saddle on her when she goes back out to prevent the other hens picking and obviously any further injury from the rooster. I imagine this might help with keeping the flies off, but I've also seen that the saddle can shift of out of place fairly easily and often. Any tips or tricks for keeping those in place would be welcome too.

I have dealt with a serious injury like this only once before, but this is my experience. It was a hen that had the back of her head pecked so much (I think initially by the rooster when he was trying to catch her, then by the other hens once they saw something red), that the skin and flesh were completely removed and you could see her skull. I brought her in and kept her in my shower stall with a towel underneath, so that I could keep her enclosure very clean. I also used Vetericyn Plus, and sprayed multiple times a day. Besides the antimicrobial and pain-relieving properties it provides, I wanted to keep the area moist. I tried to wrap it but she scratched off every attempt. My experience is that the wound will heal more easily if it is not drying out. (Provided, of course, that the moisture doesn't lead to infection - hence using Vetericyn Plus instead of anything else. But a friend once used Manukka honey in this same way, for a dog wound that just wasn't healing right and the vet didn't have any other answers.) I put her back out only once the skin had completely healed over. Eventually most of the feathers even grew back, and now she only has a tiny bald spot in the middle of where the wound was.

After that, I thought about previous times that chickens had wounds that seemed bad enough it was better to put them out of their misery, and I regretted not giving them more of a chance to recover. This one was surprisingly easy, just took time and keeping everything clean. The worst part was that the chicken grew to hate me coming in to check on her and resisted the spray as she regained strength. Perhaps it stung when applied.

Aha, found a previous thread I was thinking of that had another person's experience with skin growing back. This was what made me tend to my injured Brahma rather than culling her:
https://permies.com/t/154787/Growing-skin-chicken

Thank you for sharing your experience, Juniper! So glad your chicken recovered! That sounds really rough. I think you're right about keeping it moist while healing. I'm probably going to keep spraying it several times a day, maybe alternating between vetericyn and the plantain and calendula tea. I'll give her lots of herbs to eat too. I'm still not sure if I should try to clean any of those spots more. The one nearest my finger in the photo particularly. Can't really tell what the stuff in there is. It doesn't move easily, even after soaking a warm compress on it and trying to clean it out. I don't want to hurt her trying to remove it, especially if it is fine. If it wasn't for that doubt, I might use salve to keep the skin moist, but I'm reluctant since it would be really hard to wash off if needed and as you said, could promote infection by trapping things in.

Do you remember roughly how long it took your hen to heal up? That's unfortunate she got resentful about what you had to do to help her. I think the vetericyn does sting. I've noticed my hen really doesn't like it, but doesn't mind the herbal spray. I've been giving her treats while I treat her as a means to make it easier for us both. Hopefully that will also soothe any hard feelings.

That thread you shared is great. I had seen it long ago. It definitely made me feel more at ease about the situation to see that such a brutal looking wound could heal.

You'd be amazed how quickly chickens heal from wounds like this. Sounds like you are on the right track with treatment. My only suggestion would be "the red headlamp trick" where you use a red headlamp to do treatment at night in the dark. Chickens are much more docile then and I do all my doctoring this way to keep everyone's stress down, including my own.

Something easy to do, that would help her a lot- high doses of vitamin C for a few days. Animals do make their own vitamin C (except for guinea pigs), but when the body is under stress, they need even more, so supplementation in their food is a good idea. I actually gave this to a very gallant rooster who was wounded in a fight with something (we don't know what it was, we just found him trembling and wounded). He surprised me with how quickly he recovered.

About the dose- for humans 3000 mg to 5000 mg / day is safe. I remember a long time ago trying 3000 mg on myself, no problems, and I'm 120 lbs. So 25 mg / lb is safe. How much does your girl weigh? For my rooster, I just cut the estimated sliver out of a vitamin C tablet, cut it up until it was reduced to powder, and mixed the powder in his wet crumbs. How is her appetite? I'd give her a little cooked meat, too, or some boiled egg.

To me, the biggest key is the initial cleaning of the wound.  

Dettol, Alcohol, and Hydrogen Peroxide used to be the "go to" for wound cleansing; but now we know the truth.  Although they do a great job disinfecting wounds by removing bacteria, dirt, debris or foreign bodies, these products damage the healthy tissue in the process.  This delays healing creating a higher risk of infection down the road and other complications due to the slower recovery.

Instead, I highly suggest that using sterile saline is a simpler and healthier option.  I adore the line of pressurized sterile saline offered by hydraSense.

After a thorough cleaning, yes, keeping the flies off is critical, and bringing them into an indoor bathtub or shower stall is ideal; often has a separate thermostat allowing for simple temperature adjustments, easy to clean, disinfect, and safely contain most critters.  Keep in mind, the floors, tubs and shower stalls tend to be chilly, you may need to add quilts both for footing and for warmth.

Ongoing wound care: this needs to heal from the inside out; keeping the surface moist, is key.  This can be done with a sterile Manuka honey dressing, ointment, or other sterile wound care product, topped with either a clear dressing or the standard Telfa (non stick/non adherent) pad and either a "stocking" or use vet wrap to gently wrap the torso (I believe that is where the wound is).  Dressing must be replaced daily so wound can be inspected and flushed if necessary.

Lastly, birds do not make pus like us, it is solid, rubbery, and literally needs to be carved out.  Do not mistake this substance for skin healing.

HydraSense: As much as I hate plastic, and this stuff is sort of pricey, it is super simple, and incredibly effective for wound flushing, eye flushing, and of course its actual purpose, nasal flushing.  This is their "gentlest" version, there is an adult version with a slightly higher pressure.

What is nicest about this specific product is the unique pressurization that propels the saline, there are no 'accelerates' etc., plus, it does not suck in air like most squeeze bottles of saline, potentially contaminating the interior of the bottle.

Lorinne Anderson wrote:Ongoing wound care: this needs to heal from the inside out; keeping the surface moist, is key.  This can be done with a sterile Manuka honey dressing, ointment, or other sterile wound care product, topped with either a clear dressing or the standard Telfa (non stick/non adherent) pad and either a "stocking" or use vet wrap to gently wrap the torso (I believe that is where the wound is).  Dressing must be replaced daily so wound can be inspected and flushed if necessary.

Lastly, birds do not make pus like us, it is solid, rubbery, and literally needs to be carved out.  Do not mistake this substance for skin healing.

Thank you for this, Lorinne. Yes, the wound is on her back, just below the top edge of her wing. I haven't attempted to put vet wrap or any kind of bandage on cause I haven't been able to figure out how to do so without putting too much pressure and thus limiting her breathing and/or mobility. Seems tricky to get to stay on. But I can try. With regard to initial cleaning, that is where I feel most unsure still. I flushed the wound out and tried to remove the darker material in the photos with a gauze pad, then a cotton swab. Wouldn't budge. Should I have gone further in trying to get that out? If so, how? I just couldn't tell if it was a scab or what.

I had no idea their pus was like that. How strange. How would I tell the difference between pus and a scab? Right now, she has what I had assumed was a scab over the whole thing. The edges started to lift a bit while I was cleaning her and I could see what looked like healing tissue underneath. Whatever was on top did seem kind of rubbery. It didn't come all the way off with just wiping. Since I was under the impression it was a scab, I didn't pull it off. But now you have me wondering if it is pus...Perhaps I can try to get another picture when she's awake.