Injured Feral. Wounds Under Wing

[amyable]

I've brought another feral home today from the 'sanctuary' where it's been for the last two weeks.
When it first came in it just sat in a corner, but over the last two weeks seemed to be getting stronger and even managing to flutter up to sit on the top of a door to the shelter. While I was cleaning out the water bowls today it was helicoptering and I noticed it looked a bit dark under it's wing.
When I caught it and had a look, I found very large black crusty wound and so decided to kidnap it and bring it home to have a closer look.
It turns out there are at least two wounds but they must be at least two weeks old. I've bathed them a bit and plucked away the feathers around them. The black seems to be dried blood, but the area under this wing is very hot compared to the other, so there must be an infection going on under there.

Can you advise me on meds as I don't know which would be best. I have 50 mg Synulox or Baytril that Cynthia sent me for a previous bird. What would be best and is there anything else I should do with a wound this old or be looking for?

Thanks

Janet

[Pidgey]

They don't usually get a fever with an infection. Use a human thermometer to check the temperature of the area by holding the wing down over the bulb and giving it a few minutes. It should be about 107-ish to be normal.

Pidgey

[TheSnipes]

I am no wound expert but the wounded bird that I have been tending was put on baytril, and also trimethaprim/sulfa by the vet. the latter because it supposedly is good at penetrating into deeper tissue (muscle, bone).

I would sure use the baytril at least, since it seems there is something going on.

Also...the wound on the bird I had was similarly crusty and dried, and the vet cleaned all that scabby crust off. It does sort of reopen the wound but it was necessary to get at it so it can be cleansed and treated with some topical antibiotic ointment.

Is there any vet that could give you a hand figuring out what to do, or in debriding the wound(s) if need be?

[amyable]

Hi,

Pidgey, unfortunately I don't have a conventional thermometer, I'll go get one tomorrow though. It was very noticable when I put my hand under each wing how hot it felt in comparison.

Snipes, Hi,
Yes I should probably try the vets. The last time I took a pigeon with a crop injury to them they just told me to bathe it and didn't give me any meds. Fortunately Cynthia sent me some. I am worried about the depth of the wound though and it's quite a large area for a bite wound. I just thought I'd better start it on something asap.

[Pidgey]

Well, usually you've got feathers in the way and you'd said something about clearing the feathers off the bad side. That'd make it feel warmer than the other side.

Pidgey

[amyable]

Pidgey, you're just too clever!
I have just gone back to bathe it again and realise just that. You are quite right!!!

[cyro51]

Hi Janet,

I prefer Synulox to Baytril for deep wounds as Baytril isn't very good with anaerobic bacteria. I would give 1/2 tablet of Synulox twice a day.

Remove all the feathers from the area surrounding the wound with sterilised tweezers . It would also benefit the pigeon if you would remove all the scabbing and flush the wound with sterile saline. They sell quite big bottles of that in Boots. Try to do that once a day

After the daily clean you could smear Intrasite gel over the wound, that will keep it clean and moist.

Have a good look at the wound once it is cleaned to see whether there is a bone protruding. If there is that might need filing or trimming back (by a vet) before the wound will heal.

Cynthia



Let me know how you are doing for meds.

Cynthia

[amyable]

Hi Cynthia,

Thanks Cynthia, (didn't want to phone you this late in the evening!).
I'm quite nervous about pulling this big scab off, it feels quite deep and very hard underneath.
I'll do the smaller one first and see how that looks. I'll get some Intrasite tomorow. I have Colloidal Silver in my box of tricks now aswell as the saline. Would that be any help to put on aswell?

I have 8 Synulox at the moment, I'll check back to Angel's thread, the white pigeon I had to remind me how long she was on it. That may not be enough.

I've posted a couple of pictures of the wounds.

[Pidgey]

It's kinda' irritating sometimes--you need the flash function in order to see detail, but flash photography "flattens" the subject matter such that's it's often difficult to get perspective. I'm having a real hard time of figuring out exactly where that is. Don't suppose you could post the rest of the picture or more of the bird around the wound? It doesn't look infected, though.

Pidgey

[kittypaws]

Hi Amy,

If you have Antirobe available, you could give him 25mg twice a day - where I am working we are currently giving a pigeon with a badly infected wing this particular antibiotic. Not very nice meds though as in a capsule and you have to push the capsule down his throat - alternatively you could empty the contents of the capsule into a syringe and gavage with some water or rehydration fluid - I would repeat this for at least five days ( twice a day) as well as daily woundcare applying in this case some Fuciderm or if there is a hole, intrasite gel.

Tania xx

[amyable]

Hi Tania,
I have some Synulox that Cynthia sent me previously, I started it on last night.
Is the Fuciderm something I can buy over the counter. I am going to try and get some Intracite today anyway to keep on hand as the crusty bit seems quite deep so it might have a hole under there.
I am going to try and get the scab off the smaller wound that's higher up first to see what's under there.
Thanks for your help.

Pidgey, will get a better picture later. When I zoomed in on the picture later the skin did look nice and pink around the edge, so hopefully is the same underneath.
I'll bathe it some more today and see if I can get the hard lump off.

Janet

[kittypaws]

Hi Janet,

I'm not sure if you can buy Fuciderm over the counter - if you are going to apply Intrasite then you don't need to do the Fuciderm.

I guess best to ask at a chemist/vet if they have something similar. It is an aqueous gel containing Fusidic Acid and Betamethasone.

Synolux is good. I would give a pigeon 10mg twice a day again for 5 days whilst you are treating the infection.

Tania x

[amyable]

Thanks Tania,
I'll just ask the vets, but I don't have much luck with getting meds around here.
I'm keen to try and get things on hand in case of emergencies, so it's good to have some names of things and what they are used for.
I've just had a couple of calls today to see if I can take on a baby Starling with a cat bite injury and a duckling to rear, things seem to snowball once you take on one.

Thanks again,

Janet

[cyro51]

The Synulox is in tablet form, so we (I include Hallswood in this) give either 12.5 mg BID (1/4 tablet twice daily) or 25 mg BID (half a tablet). We reserve the 25mg a day dose for severe infections or larger pigeons.

According to Nooti the recommended dose for Synulox is 125mgs per kilo TID (three times daily) orally- up to 3 weeks. Dose and dosing interval determined by infection site, severity and organism involved.

The flesh around the scab looks healthy, but I would still remove the scab to ensure that there isn't a tracking abscess underneath it and to ensure that the wound heals from within.

I have some antirobe somewhere (it was prescribed for Joan's cat), but that is old and comes in small pilules that would make measuring a dose difficult.

Cynthia

[amyable]

Hi Cynthia,
I was just about to contact you about the dosage.
I was checking back to the white pigeon thread as that seems very much like this wound and I was giving 1/4 of 50gm twice daily of Synulox for that.
That's why I thought the tablets might not be enough as originally I was estimating usage at 1/2 tablet twice a day last night.

I'll carry on as you suggested with 1/4 twice daily.
I was going to ask the vets about the Fuciderm but hopefully if I can get Intecite I'll use that.

thanks

Janet