100 degree day 6yearold hen died of maggots and chicks ate them! Help!

[little_grey_bantam]

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When one lets an animal suffer, learning from that experience so it does not happen again is paramount. We are our animals care takers, there is NO excuse for being squeamish or weak and letting it suffer needlessly. I did give her some ideas on what to do to hopefully ensure she doesn't let this happen again.

WOW! That was very well done said - also to keep in mind, if we cannot do it ourselves (whether physically yourself OR affording a vet) there are always others around who will do it. It is not a "negative" thing to kill an animal... especially for reasons such as to end suffering! We as humans need to remember that, since I meet many nowadays who would rather let an animal suffer so they wouldn't have to be a "murderer"

Brave CariLynn, well said!

I guess time for me to grow balls too LOl

 

[Donner]

Don't maggots only eat dead flesh? Hence, why sterile maggots are used to clean necrotic flesh from wounds on people, in particular diabetics. They will eat all the dead flesh leaving behind only the clean healthy flesh. So, for chickens to get maggots doesn't that require a wound that has become infected and the flesh dead. So, then wouldn't cause of death be sepsis and necrosis from the original infection rather than the maggots? Although, wild maggots are probably help spread the infection. So, is concentrating on the maggots really that helpful. Wouldn't the bird probably die without the maggots?

 

[mercedes]

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X2 CariLynn is giving good,sound advice here.Thank you

 

[Elite Silkies]

Let's please remember this is a child we are trying to help through a bad experience, not an adult.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Quote:

Quote:
When one lets an animal suffer, learning from that experience so it does not happen again is paramount. We are our animals care takers, there is NO excuse for being squeamish or weak and letting it suffer needlessly. I did give her some ideas on what to do to hopefully ensure she doesn't let this happen again.

again

 

[Echobabe]

laura949 wrote:

<<<Spotty was fine yesterday. She had some feses on her backside but nothing unusual .She is pretty good about cleaning herself and she is (was) very fluffy. I usually let my birds clean themselves unless they get really dirty or they stay dirty too long. It has been 80-95 degrees here. I have one dog.

Today she was lathargic and there were drops of blood on the ground next to her. I lost one bird to being egg bound and I let nature takes it's course when I couldn't cure her myself . I decided I wasn't going to do that this time. The vets are expensive but I now think of their fee as part of my education about caring for my chickens so in the future I can diagnose and treat with more knowledge. I immediately took her to the vet and to my horror she had a massive infection with no sign of a wound near her vent>>>

I just lost one this past weekend in a similar situation. I think the extreme heat is adding to our woes. By the time I noticed her abdomen had ballooned up and there was no way she could get her egg out. She was crawling with maggots that were trying to find a way IN. Very sad, as she was a particular favorite and a very beautiful, sweet hen.

FOR EVERYONE ELSE: Maggots WILL eat healthy flesh. They will dig through healthy flesh to get to the putrid flesh they want. That is why any maggot infestation should be dealt with as soon as possible, and anything left should be removed from the coop. The chicks eating the maggots will be fine. But I would check and make sure there were no maggots/fly eggs in the area.

 

[Echobabe]

Christ'sCowgirlChick: sorry for your hen. It hurts to lose our babies.

You know your ability to deal with the situation was less than optimum, that's why you asked to not hear a lecture. I can understand making a mistake on the 1st one due to ignorance and/or neglect. It's now time for you to either step up and learn from the experience or find homes for the rest.

Loving these animals, accepting their care, means doing the hard things when necessary. No one wants to have to kill, but its part of the job we take on. Just as worming, cleaning and fixing boo boo's is. Now, THAT is real love, not some idealized idea of loving an animal where everything is going perfect.

The fact you are young means there is hope for you. There are plenty of grown women on BYC that let their animals die alone in a corner of the coop!! And that makes me so @#$% mad! At the very least, put $5 in a cookie jar every week--'cause your animals will get sick. That way you will have the cash set aside to pay the vet visit. If you can't afford to put $5 by every week, then find new homes for your animals because you can't afford them.

 

[Scarlet_Cowgirl]

Echo is correct - maggots WILL eat healthy flesh. All flies need to lay eggs is a moist environment..and how many chickens do we know that are perfectly dry, all the time? THis can happen to anyone, and it happens very quickly.

Tea tree oil is VERY effective against maggots, and using a dilute solution of it will help drive out the maggots and repel flies.

When you find a wound that it maggot infested, the first thing you want to do is irrigate irrigate irrigate with fresh water, lukewarm is best, possibly mixed with a little tea tree oil or very dilute betadine. The rest of the maggots you need to hand pick.

When I was working an ER shift a couple of years ago we had a dog whose presenting complaint was "Unable to walk". When I went to triage him, I lifted his tail to take a temperature and was greeted by a mass of maggots playing ring around the anus. Turns out, upon post mortem exam, the maggots has burrowed all the way to the dogs spinal cord, so physically removing them is the only way to go and suffocating them with petroleum based products may not work....though I admit that most of my experience is with dogs/cats.

Applying a cream based antibiotic ic better than an oil or petroleum based, as feathers lose their insulating ability when these products are applies, and they are hard to rinse off.

Getting the animal inside and away from flies is also important, and keeping them well hydrated and fed.

 

[Donner]

Ahh. Got it. It is fly species specific. Green Bottle Fly larva eat only dead tissue. Other larva are indiscriminate.

 

[BlackberryFarm]

Yes, good points have been made about what should've been done and what should be done in the future. Taking good care of our animals is important.

And so is taking good care of each other.

It is not necessary to be rude. She opened herself up to us and asked for help, which is good! We all make mistakes. If we can't come here for help without being afraid of others' judgement over our mistakes, or lack of knowledge, then how can we really help each other?

Being helpful is one thing. Being mean is something else.