How to keep chicken(s) from pecking leg wound

[Rocking W]

On March 9, our hen punctured her hock joint. We were successful in stopping the bleeding with the clotting powder (see photo) and have been soaking her leg in Epson salt and water, applying the Silver Wound spray and bandages. After 14 days, we took off the bandages. It was at this time that we also noticed a secondary injury which we think was due to the bandages rubbing against her shank. So at that time, we have been soaking her leg in Epson salt and water, applying the Silver wound spray and applied “New Skin” and then left the bandages off. She went all day without pecking it but by the 2nd day, she pecked it open. So we went through the routine again with the Epson Salt water, Silver spray and we also applied Neosporin and Vaseline to both areas, hoping to provide more healing and we covered it with a nonstick pad, wrapped it with flexible vet wrap and tape loosely and so far it is staying in place for almost a week.

So my questions are,
1. Is it better to keep a wound moist with Vaseline and covered with bandages (like our dermatologist always recommends for wounds) OR let air dry it out?
2. What are some solutions to keep the chicken (or other chickens) from pecking the wound? I don’t see putting an e-collar on my hen, but I have thought about some sort of e-collar around her waist! . After all, she needs to freely eat, drink and groom herself! *Side note, she has a separate pen away from the other chickens most of the day and night and is only allowed with other chickens to free graze under supervision. Therefore, I’m looking for another solution to keep other chickens from pecking on her, but mostly looking for providing protection from herself!
3. See last photos for wound healing of her hock joint—it looks like it’s healing, but we’re very concerned about the other area on her shank (front side). Any suggestions on wound care than we are already providing? (See question 1)

Any suggestions would be helpful! Thank you for this forum!

 

[Yardfulla poopers]

I use blu-cote to keep other chickens from pecking but am not sure how to keep her from pecking herself. I hope someone can chime in with advice for that.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I recommend Neosporin twice a day to promote healing - be sure to get the Original formula, not the one with pain reliever, as the latter can be toxic to chickens.

However, I am not sure what to advise about the self-pecking, so I will tag one of our Educators for advice on that.
@Eggcessive? Do you recommend vetwrap for taping this wound, or ....?

 

[Rocking W]

I recommend Neosporin twice a day to promote healing - be sure to get the Original formula, not the one with pain reliever, as the latter can be toxic to chickens.

However, I am not sure what to advise about the self-pecking, so I will tag one of our Educators for advice on that.
@Eggcessive? Do you recommend vetwrap for taping this wound, or ....?

Thank you for that reminder about Neosporin! And yes, I appreciate you reaching out to others.

 

[Rocking W]

I recommend Neosporin twice a day to promote healing - be sure to get the Original formula, not the one with pain reliever, as the latter can be toxic to chickens.

However, I am not sure what to advise about the self-pecking, so I will tag one of our Educators for advice on that.
@Eggcessive? Do you recommend vetwrap for taping this wound, or ....?

I was also wondering if you think I should keep it covered like we’ve been doing or air dry?

 

[Eggcessive]

Dressings around legs can get too tight, and the vet wrap itself might be irritating her. I would use the plain triple antibiotic ointment twice a day and leave it open for a few days. If she starts pecking her leg a lot, you may have to replace the bandage.

 

[Rocking W]

Dressings around legs can get too tight, and the vet wrap itself might be irritating her. I would use the plain triple antibiotic ointment twice a day and leave it open for a few days. If she starts pecking her leg a lot, you may have to replace the bandage.

Thank you for taking the time to advise me. It’s been very difficult to keep her from pecking and I’ve needed to constantly supervise her when her bandages are off. We will try again tonight when the lights go out and hope she doesn’t peck at it. Here are some updated photos of her 2 wounds. The initial one on her back hock joint (not sure if I’m naming that joint correctly?) looks really good—it’s getting smaller, but the front one on her upper shank looks bad.

But she is eating and drinking and acting normal and her face looks good. (See photos also taken today). She also laid her first egg this week—3 total including this morning so, she’s not showing signs of stress either.

So I wish I could create some kind of a barrier that she can wear around her body that would block her from pecking at her legs, yet allow her to groom, eat, drink, etc.
Are there any sewers and inverters on this thread that could design something for like this for our chicken/fowl friends?

Again, any more suggestions and advice will be appreciated!

 

[Rocking W]

Thank you for taking the time to advise me. It’s been very difficult to keep her from pecking and I’ve needed to constantly supervise her when her bandages are off. We will try again tonight when the lights go out and hope she doesn’t peck at it. Here are some updated photos of her 2 wounds. The initial one on her back hock joint (not sure if I’m naming that joint correctly?) looks really good—it’s getting smaller, but the front one on her upper shank looks bad.

But she is eating and drinking and acting normal and her face looks good. (See photos also taken today). She also laid her first egg this week—3 total including this morning so, she’s not showing signs of stress either.

So I wish I could create some kind of a barrier that she can wear around her body that would block her from pecking at her legs, yet allow her to groom, eat, drink, etc.
Are there any sewers and inverters on this thread that could design something for like this for our chicken/fowl friends?

Again, any more suggestions and advice will be appreciated!

Unfortunately, she’s back to pecking at her wounds again, so we had to wrap her leg again. Ugh!

 

[Rocking W]

Unfortunately, she’s back to pecking at her wounds again, so we had to wrap her leg again. Ugh!

 

[Rocking W]

It’s been over a month now since she was wounded and every time we take off the bandages at night, by the morning she pecks on the wounds and it bleeds again. Should we constantly keep it bandaged during the night too? Will it heal this way with just antibiotic ointment and cleaning the wound nightly but keeping it bandaged night and day?
Or do we remove the bandages and put her in a e-caller for birds?