Need urgent advice about Fly Strike

Hi,
I am a new member and dealing with what appears to be a critical situation with one of my hens. I have a three year old barred rock hen. Sometimes she has a "poopy" butt. Yesterday, as I was mowing the lawn (yes, its almost summer here in Florida), I noticed that she had blood running down her back end!

I filled a large tote in my bathtub with warm water and some Epsom salts and stuck her in it. Immediately, the water began to turn red from the blood and I was sickened by the smell of rot! As she contentedly soaked in the water I started to notice maggots rising to the surface~

From what I gather, this may very well be a case of fly strike. I read up on it yesterday and put her in a cage on my back porch, so no flies could get to the area, now that it is clean. I also trimmed some of the feathers around her vent. I must say that I cannot distinguish where her vent is anymore, as the whole area looks like eaten flesh.

Some things I read say to put antibiotic ointment on the wound, others say no ointment, so as to keep the area dry? I also added some Oxytetracycline powder to her water.

My main concern is that this wound is actively bleeding. Quite a bit of blood this morning on the towel that is on the bottom of her cage. I made up some saline water in a spray bottle and tried to wash away the blood by spraying the area with the saline. I used the towel to blot the area.

I have no experience dealing with a sick chicken. I have four others and they all roam my backyard. Fortunately, they have all been in good health.

I really need some advice on how to best care for this large wound and the bleeding. I haven't read any articles about flystrike where it speaks of bleeding.

Thank you all so much for any help or suggestions.

Greetings from Kansas, calmeter, and ! Pleased you joined our flock but sorry about your poor hen. Don't know much about fly strike but here's a link to some old threads where it is discussed: https://www.backyardchickens.com/newsearch?search=fly+strike
But for the immediacy, here is a link to the Emergencies Forum where I think you should post - someone there will chime in with advice on the treatment of her condition. https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/10/emergencies-diseases-injuries-and-cures
Best wishes to you and your hen and good luck!!

Your poor girl, that sounds really bad. Please do post on the ER forum, hopefully someone there can give you some advice on how to treat her.

Best of luck!

Maggots are not that easily gotten rid of, most likely there are many deep inside her, hence the bleeding. When they run out of dead flesh to feast on, they will attack healthy tissue and can migrate through the body. I strongly suggest you get the hen to a vet who can handle this situation before she is too damaged to recover. If you have her outside, other flies will continue to lay eggs in her wound.

She is in a screened in porch and there are no flies in there.

G’Day from down under calmeter Welcome!

As you have already received some links to great starting points, I will just wish you all the best. I hope your girl is OK and makes a full recovery.