Need help diagnosing/fixing sick chicken with flystrike. What caused this? *GRAPHIC PICS*

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BigKitty09

BigKitty09

In the Brooder
8 Years
Jun 18, 2011
93
4
39
Rolling Hills Estates, Ca
Hi All,

So we got some lavender ameraucana girls back in March. When we got them their butts seemed a little dirty and never seemed to clear up and be nice and fluffy as the other girls we got (not lav.ameraucanas). We quarantined them for a few weeks and they seemed fine. But about a week or so ago we noticed she seemed a little lethargic and losing weight when compared to her sister. Both of their butts seemed a LOT dirtier, so we gave them a bath and hoped this would help.

Then, a few days ago I noticed a clear discharge coming from her butt and we washed her again. Other than sleeping in her box instead of roosting, she seemed fine. She was eating and drinking and walking around normal. But I'm not sure if she has been laying or not.

Today I found her in her box sitting and when I opened it she got out and went outside and was walking around. But I went to check on her butt again, and this is the gross part, and there were maggots (I think they were maggots) all over her vent. I didn't know what it was at the time till I researched it, but I am assuming this is flystrike. I quickly rushed to give her a bath. I soaked her butt for in a tub of warm water, with a little bit of Dr. Bronner's Mint Castile Soap (Hindsight, mint probably was not good). About 5 min later they all started letting go and floating in the water. I scooped them up and put them in a cup. I soaked her for about 20 min and it seemed like we got all of them.

We separated her in the rabbit hutch and put a heat lamp on her and gave her food, water with acv (couldn't hurt) and some cooked scrambled eggs. She ate and drank fine. We then dunked her about 40 min later again in a solution of sea salt and water with a splash of hydrogen peroxide. Why? Because we couldn't figure out which to do, so we did both for good measure. A few maggots we couldn't even see came out and floated to the top of the water. Im pretty sure they are burrowed in her. We did this for another 20 min. till we couldn't see any more and put her back in the hutch with the lamp and said goodnight. I will dunk her again tomorrow until it looks like all maggots are gone and the wound heals.

I've been researching around and so far I have come up with flystrike, and gleet. But could it be that she had something else wrong with her that caused the flystrike? I don't think it's prolapse but I don't think I know what I'm looking for. Also, our cockerel started recently mating with the girls in the last 2 weeks could this be related? Her bottom is pretty bare, with a huge gaping wound, and looks swollen. How do I help her and fix this? I will post pictures and keep up to date with her progress.

Is it really necessary to take her to the vet?

Thank you so much for your replies I know this was a long one.
 
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This is her sisters butt which is dirty, but no maggots.
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A few days ago, she had a clear discharge from her butt. I didn't think to look for maggots and I didn't want to disturb her in case it was sore.
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Her and her sister the next day
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And their butts
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When I checked on her butt today. THE GROSSEST THING IVE EVER SEEN
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They were moving around
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Then after being dunked the first time
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The bas+@rds we found. What are they???
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The poor thing after being dunked the 2nd time.
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I've been reading from the forums here tonight for about 3 hours;I learned in here BYC and years before from other people, that DE helps with chicken mites in different insects and including fly infestation with their poop. It's safe For humans to consume daily and had health benefits. I'm not an expert and I'm new at having chickens, as this is my first year and a half having some. The chickens are able to eat it and so are humans you get the organic food grade DE, which you may be able to go to your local feed barn for it. You can sprinkle around their coup and areas the files and poop are. Look up how to add DE to their food and treat both chickens for worms/parasites. You could take a sample to a vet to check what the parasite is. I believe you can avoid going to the vet.

This natural mineral, DE you will be able to give it to all your chickens it is approved by the FDA and its putting all that in our grains in many products that we buy today, since the 1970's, like bisquick and things I understand.

The bathing in bath salts is good for her and continue them to help her Heal.

She may even have a yeast infection, which they suggest to use on the site an antifungal, but when I breast fed all 3 of my children for almost 3 years; when they had a yeast infection in their mouth known as thrush,, Naturopaths and pediatricians alike had me use gentian violet on them(placed in their mouth and on their tongues) and I don't see why you couldn't try it maybe some Genitan Violet on a q-tip and place it on her vent for the redness and irritation. It's purple, so do wear gloves so not to Stain your hands or clothing!

I personally with runny poops on chicks have added yogurt into their feed and mixed it in; so perhaps you could take & put some yogurt in with the eggs or as one lady suggests here, buying some probiotics from the store in a capsule and adding it out to something you're feeding her and to the other chicken as a preventative for yeast infection . Their poops did solidify for me after a few days. Goodluck and hope this helps! :)
 
Thanks for replying! When we clean out their run and coop we do sprinkle DE everywhere and in the their boxes. We haven't put it in their food. Should we? Do we just sprinkle a little on their food? We also do give them yogurt every once in a while, but maybe well get the probiotic capsules. I noticed sometimes their poop is runny and sometimes its not. They've also been eating a lot of loquats, I wonder if this is making their poop runny...
 
I think the loquats are probably causing the poop to be a little bit runny. But if they're very red on the bottom side,,Sometimes that's a yeast infection and I think if you put a good tablespoon of yogurt in their food it oughta be fine cause there's live cultures than that. Or if you wish you can go get some probiotic capsules.make sure the DE is food grade. ☆Don't You (or them )breathe it into your nose and carefully put under their wings and make sure to wet it down in the food. In humans they recommend like a teaspoon and a half up to 1 tbsp ,so maybe you could give them up to a 1/4 of a teaspoon or less between the two of them.
 
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Thanks dawg53 for the link!! here is what one gal did for fly strike, from that link......

#13
2012/6/12
Chookman-
Hi. We had fly strike just like this with one of our Isa Browns (not as bad as these pics - we caught it early). We fixed it quite easily. I thought I would share our method. Initially we thought the Chook was egg-bound. So we filled a plastic tub with warm (not hot) water (in between lukewarm and the temperature you would bath in, if that makes sense). We put her in the bath making sure her butt was completely covered. After about 10-15 minutes we noticed what looked like seeds floating in the water. The seeds wriggled and we realised they were maggots. She started eating them. We kept her in the water for another 15 minutes (about half an hour in total) to make sure the maggots were off her. The maggots seem to need air, so if you keep her butt submerged for more than 10 minutes, they let go and look for air. The next two days we did the same thing, except we added a good quantity of sea salt to the warm water. We kept her in it for 15-20 minutes. The salt water is great for healing. By the third day she was 100% recovered and about 10 days later she started laying again.
 

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