Chicken Flesh Eating Disease? Warning-Graphic pics

[RollerDerbyLexi]

Hello, this thread really helped me, so I'm sharing my flystrike story. I have a chicken that has a bowed leg deformity and walks kinda sluggish. She started deteriorating. I chalked it up to her disability getting the best of her. Anyways, I noticed excess brown on her butt. I knew something was up. A maggot infestation about two inches below her butt. I don't really see a trauma. I trimmed the feathers all around the infestation an vent. I think it's due to her inability to clean herself properly. I pulled out my trusty hospital cage. She has a penthouse on the patio.
We aren't out of the woods. I'm on day two, but here's what I found in my research.

Clean the wound. I used an Epson salt bath. Drown as many as those suckers as you can. I try to clean out the wound with some peroxide. I read not to do this too much. It can disturb the ability to regrow the skin. I couldn't reach some of the maggots. They wriggled into a flap of skin. I read that you are to use a patch of turpentine for an hour to draw the bastards out. Sorry, that sounds really painful on an open wound.

I just treated Marshmallow with Aspen Screw Worm Aerosol from tractor supply. The worms came squirming out. So gross! I also bought BLU-KOTE. I left the store under 15 bucks. I already have Terra-Vet 10 (tetracycline Hydrochloride Soluble Powder) add add it to her water. I highly recommend getting a bag and keeping in for just such a thing. And it's cheap! I just put a tab bit in daily fresh water and will continue to do so for 7 days.

I haven't used the blue kote yet cause I didn't want a negative reaction with the two sprays. One at a time sounds safer to me. I put Marshmallow back in the coup and night and bring her back out in the am. I was late taking her in tonight and she threw a shit fit! I'll update my progress. God bless this funky chicken.

P.S. Doing this is really scary real farm shit. Having a helper restrain the chicken and be moral support during treatment really helps. It's easy to do nothing. Be humane and take care of your chicken. Cull or treatment are your two options.

 

[jacksonnotary]

I have the same issue with my chicken. I lost one by one chicken, every 2 weeks or so. Never saw too much other than diarrhea and them walking funny. After a while they quit walking, get really lethargic and then pass away. This morning I noticed another chicken walking funny and barely moving. I picked her up and looked at her behind. Feathers around the butt were clean(I had previously cut and cleaned her behind a few days ago). Nothing to see until I looked further up her belly and in between her skin folds. She is being eating alive by little worms that hide under loose skin flab that is almost black in color. That poor thing. My first instinct was to clean and treat but then I started to think she suffers to much to help her get better. Also, these worms are spreading from chicken to chicken because I'm at number 4 now.
I deworm every 7 days, I clean the run, coop and boxes daily and replace everything also. Nothing gets used more than once.
I'm crazy like that. Never had anything like it.
Don't know how it's spreading exactly but we decided to cull them tonight after they are in the coop.
I love my pets and I can't tell you how sad I am that we have to do this. I went to my vet and he hasn't much information or help for me. We don't have avian veterinary close.
I hope you have luck with yours and she gets better. I follow your progress/ posting.

 

[jacksonnotary]

Maggots can get into anything where there's nourishment and moisture. Of all of my maggot cases, they came from my hens' bums having wet poop stuck all over. That's what a maggot would need so flies would lay the eggs.
I have found the best way to kill them is using Prozap Screw Worm Spray. I'm not sure where you live but places like TSC should have it. I recently found out that Hydrogen Peroxide is a bad thing to put on wounds that touch internal tissue because it can break them down. When I ran into my first maggots case, nothing killed them except this. I used Hp, Iodine, light squirts with the water hose, but only this worked. The funny thing about it is that the formula is blue so your hen will have a colorful butt after you spray them.
The best way to prevent the maggots is to sorta scan all of your chickens when they roost at night to make sure that they don't have a wet, dirty, diarrhea bum and if they do to wash it off ASAP. Plus, once you get to know all of your bird's normal behavior, you can look for signs of slowness, lethargy and the like to check them if something is wrong. In my last maggot case, I never smelt anything but when I was throwing out some berry treats, she was going slow at it like she wanted it but was just too tired. So I ran up as quick as I could because of past experiences were I've been too late and I immediately smelt that smell. I knew what I was looking for so I turned her to her butt and saw some blood. After moving some feathers out the way with a stick you could imagine a small pocket of them. Trust me, if this your first maggot case you felt like I did. In fact, I haven't told anyone but my whole body was trembling when we had to treat her. Anyway, this was a smaller wound because I caught it early. When it comes to maggots, they can go through LOTS of tissue in a day so the earlier you find this, the better. We didn't have the Prozap on hand at the house so my dad made a quick trip to Southern States the next day since we weren't able to go that day. So once I got a hold of it, I got the hen and tried my best to spray every inch of that wound. The maggots fell of eventually after a few minutes and she stayed kinda slow but she is now on her way to recovery as I typed this. Sorry this was so long and so descriptive but I want to put my knowledge out there. So sorry about your girl!

It wasn't your fault and don't ever beat yourself up! I'm sure you can save the life of the next bird to get this problem!

Your post helped me a lot. Fly and maggots makes sense
We culled the weak ones but kept one with mild symptoms. She moves very slow and barely eats. I checked her behind and underbelly but the skin looks healthy, also checked between legs and belly. The only thing that is actually visible are a few red dots around her vent area. Nothing big, almost like a small needle prick.
Could that be the beginning of it all? The way she walked I thought she had to be culled too. I gave her some antibiotics and rinsed her with HY. I also put some neosporin on her skin. Have to go to store first.
Is it possible that a fly could lay eggs in the vent? At one point after the rinse I thought I saw a small white maggot coming out of vent area.
Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

OMG

 

[Punkabear]

What's this caused by. Does anyone know? Took to vet.. vet wasn't sure either. Got antibiotics and cream.