barred rock with worms(?) on vent

[deepbluesea]

There are two close together--1/2 inch and an inch. The smaller one is deeper. They look nasty, but I've been looking at others' photos and have seen worse. Fingers crossed. I'll take pics tomorrow when my son can help me. We have company this weekend and I haven't wanted to gross them out.

 

[deepbluesea]

Update- sorry, still no pics. Our company left around 5:00 and my son works at 4:30.
She's still with us. I did the epsom salt and dawn soak and there were still maggots! Insert swearing here. I soaked and plucked until i didn't see any more. I bought the betadine wash and flushed the whole area. Her vent looks pretty healthy and she has pooped ( more fun). I need to trim feathers. The main wound is below her vent. * I know, pictures.
She drank when I made her, but haven't seen her eating today. Not even the egg.

 

[Folly's place]

Look over every inch of her body and feathers, for any eggs or maggots. She is indoors, not outside, right?
Have you sprayed or dusted her with permethrin all over?
This is such an awful experience!
She may need antibiotics, like injectable penicillin, to save her life.
Mary

 

[deepbluesea]

I have sprayed the premethrin all over her ( minus her face) but haven't checked her body for eggs or maggots. Yes, she's inside in my office in a dog crate with nutridrenched water and food. I'll see if I can get some penicillin-esque stuff tomorrow. I have a friend at the vet school.

 

[deepbluesea]

No maggots--yes! Yesterday evening's soak and poke revealed no more squirmies. The wound is still there, but it looks to be healing. She ate some of the chick feed, two grapes and picked at some watermelon. And she was preening and seemed more alert.

I have her in a dog crate in my office; that's where the chicks are as well, in a big dog cage. I think that's actually nice for her, to have other birds around, even if they aren't her flock (yet).

She still has a lot of healing to do, but I'm feeling cautiously optimistic.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

 

[Nambroth]

When I dealt with fly strike, after getting all the maggots out (it happened quickly; less than 6 hours from fine to maggot city on my poor girl!) I used Vetrycin to spray the wound to promote drying and rapid healing. It really worked very well. Make sure to trim any soiled and poofy feathers away from the wounds so that they don't dry and heal into it. "Dry and clean" is your mantra now... and of course, keeping any new flies off of her!

Have you seen any irregular eggs or weird laying behaviors by this hen? The reason my barred rock hen had fly strike is that she was suffering from peritonitis and had loose stools with occasional yolky infectious material being passed, which is what attracted the flies in the first place. Like your girl, she was acting well until one day she was droopy and had the fly strike, and started going off of food slowly as the pressure from her large infection was slowing down her GI tract. I only know all this because we had her to the vet a few times to try to save her and we got good x-ray and ultrasound images of what was happening. They flushed as much material from her oviduct as they could as an outpatient procedure, as she was already far progressed in the disease and wasn't a good surgery candidate. Sadly we had to euthanize her several months later when she could not longer pass food through her system and was starting to suffer.

I am not offering a diagnosis for your hen, but the fly strike, plus being in the nest box when it happened, and her going off of food is worrisome. Do you have another hen of similar age/size/breed that you could compare her to? If so, you can try gently palpating and feeling her abdomen (her big "booty" behind the end of her keel bone) and comparing it to another hen in your flock. You will be feeling for the sensation of "fullness" or hard, or lumpy material in her. It's a hard thing to explain, but her body will often just feel more "full" than a healthy bird.

 

[Folly's place]

There is going to be an underlying issue before fly strike (what a harmless sounding name!) happens. Hopefully it's not a fatal illness, but it's possible. Mary

 

[deepbluesea]

Thanks--very informative. It was very fast--shocked me!

Yes, she's had loose poops on and off her entire almost five years, more than any of my others. Her cohort is with a GLW and an Easter Egger, she's in the middle of them in size. I've been feeling that area daily as I wash her, it doesn't seem that full to me. I'll handle the other two tonight to compare.

She hasn't been laying that much lately, though neither have the others her age. I'd put it down to the big heat wave. The newer ones are still laying--two-year-olds and one-year- olds.

I've trimmed some of the feathers, but will need to do some more tonight. I've been putting betadine on it, but maybe I should get vetrycin instead?

 

[coach723]

Veterycin is better, betadine may inhibit healing while the veterycin will aid in healing. Sounds like you've done a good job! If she actually had an internal parasite that could have been contributing to her runny droppings, hopefully the safeguard got them. Might be a good idea to get a fecal done to see if there is a parasite issue remaining, then you could at least rule that out.