First Aid Kit For Farm Animals

In our quest to get the farm restored I jumped the gun a little in getting our chickens.  I had one narrow window of opportunity and I took it, but we were not really ready in terms of housing and the roosters were ready before we had the breeding pens set up.  Needless to say our six breeding stock roosters have done some damage to our eight breeding stock hens while waiting for separate quarters.  

One of our hens must be the most popular because they tore her up.  Honestly, I thought about taking pictures, but felt so guilty for not noticing how bad she was sooner I just didn’t want to document the injustice I caused her.  I noticed she did not want to get down from where she had perched to go into the coop for the night and when I took her down noticed she was skinnier then she was during last check-ups.  I took her to the safety area and gave her a thorough exam and then immediately took her into the house for better light and the first aid kit.

She was practically skinned alive where the rooster’s claws had torn her epidermis and then slid down between the muscle and hypodermis, my three inch long index finger fit all the way into the holes – one on each side and one more towards her back.  To make matters worse, because they were walking around the farm with access to manure and mud, she was badly infected.  My husbands first question was “Can you sew her back up?” Yes, I could, but I’m not going to.  There is too much infection to close into the wound, I need to flush it and keep it open.  If I had closed her up I would have cleaned the edges and held them together then used superglue to seal the edges together while they healed.  Another option for wounds like this is to clean and close the wound, but use a scalpel to make a small hole at the bottom of the wound and keep it open to drain while it heals.

So the first step was to make sure she wasn’t shocky.  Her breathing was okay, she was not overly hot or cold, and she pecked me – all good signs.

Second, I had to get the wounds as clean as possible.  They were crusty in places, dirty, and pussy.  Using a syringe I flushed the wounds several times with 50/50 betadine and water.  Be prepared for a mess, especially if they get a little loose from you and flap or even move, plus the flush has to drain back out to take all the nasty stuff with it.  Paper towels, or what we call “dog towels” are a good idea to have on hand.  Once I flushed the wound with betadine I flushed it again with saline, towel dried her, and put triple on the crusty and dry parts to soften it because it needs to come off.  Triple is good for eyes too.  I’ve used it on birds, dogs, cats, horses, myself, etc.  It doesn’t hurt and clears up green eye boogers, crusty eye, and draws out any foreign matter.  Good stuff.

Third, it is important to keep any wounded animal safe and calm.  They need to be isolated so that the other animals do not hurt them unintentionally or not.  We have several wire crates that are always handy for this purpose.  Patients that need to be kept warm with heating pads or lamps are put in boxes, I-pens or stalls.  Horse trailers make good stalls for larger animals by the way, just make sure you hook it up to a vehicle first.

This procedure repeated two more days, then went to every other day which ended up being a total of a week.  Day eight the wound is healing and I’m still using triple, but the wounds are only about an inch deep now and the skin is starting to close.  She will have some scars, but she will make a full recovery.  To help heal skin and scars you can use aloe vera gel and in certain cases silicone.  I put aloe gel on her bare skin to help keep it soft and protected until her feathers grow back.

Comments and questions are always welcome.  Post in the blog thread or reach out to me through email or messenger.  Have a great day and happy farming!