Can someone help?

[Paul Martinello]

I've had chickens for about ten days, and a few days ago I found a heavy mite infestation on one of the birds. I've treated her twice with powder and am monitoring. This morning I found this stuck to my leg when I woke up in bed. WTF?!? Coincidence or is it related. I'm slightly creeped out by this...

 

[Chickassan]

That is a blow fly maggot. Check your hens for wounds and check their vents. You could have just picked it up somewhere too.

 

[Paul Martinello]

Thanks for responding, that's somewhat relieving. I shower before bed every night, how did it get into my bed???

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

That looks like a squished maggot of some sort. Unless one of your chickens has a necrotic open wound I'd say coincidence.

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

Do you have any other house pet? It could have been carried into bed with them. Maggots are sort of sticky.

 

[Paul Martinello]

OK, blood pressure stabilising, thank you

 

[Paul Martinello]

I have a small dog, but he's not allowed anywhere near the bed

 

[naf_appaz]

looks like a leech...if it is, I never heard of them on chickens they can get on you in a pond if you been wading through some water. On second look with zoom it looks more like a maggot chickens can get maggots around there bum or in wounds its called "fly strike" I think, search it in the forum search. Sounds like you may have bought some infected birds. Mites are pretty easily controlled with premerthin...spelling? I use a liquid spray to keep flies off horses. Works very well but you need to spray coop and roosts thoroughly probably twice a few days to a week apart...it is safe to spray chickens also. There are directions for chickens on the label

 

[Paul Martinello]

Thank you very much for the response. As you can probably imagine, as a newbie I was freaking out at the possibility that my house was suddenly infested with something. I’ll keep an eye on things…

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

If your chicken had a wound bad enough it has maggots your chicken would be showing signs of sickness.

Mites and lice happen. Wild birds carry them and they spread quickly between birds.

I agree spraying the birds and the coop is best. You may need to do it twice. 7-10 days apart to get the life cycle of the crawlies.

Welcome to BYC!