chicken wih small wound that turned into gaping wound, also had maggots

[JailBird]

I am frightened about what I’m seeing in my flock. Yesterday, I saw that one of the chickens had a wound on her front chest. I couldn’t catch her (they free range) and she didn’t come back to the coop last night. Today her wound is larger and bloody. My daughter was able to get closer to her and said there were maggots in the wound. Now, until yesterday, she was fine. She is an arucana and has lovely beige & brown feathers and seemed perfectly healthy. How could maggots grow on/in the wound that fast? Doesn’t it take many days for maggots to appear? She won’t let us near her. She is still running around and seems to be scratching and eating. But, her front is all opened & raw. I’ve been wondering if a predator of some sort got a hold of her.

But, just now, my daughter came inside and said that another chicken, a barred rock, has an open wound across her neck now. So now I'm wondering if this could be some strange disease or parasite that eats chickens from the inside out. It seems to be affecting more than just the one chicken.

My son says that the chickens are eating walnuts that have fallen from a nearby tree and the walnuts have worms in them. Could these worms be affecting the chickens?

I'm worried about the rest of the flock. But I'm also worried that this could be something that will pass to other animals or people. I don’t know what’s going on. Do these symptoms sound familiar to anyone?

Please help!

 

[realsis]

I'm thinking its a injury that's happened to your birds. Yes fly strike can happen pretty fast. You need to catch the birds and remove the maggots. there are several threads here on this forum that tells how to do this. Basically clean the area and remove the maggots and apply a topical treatment like neospirim without pain reliever in it or vetrycine spray. Or some sort of clean ointment. Keep her inside while she heals to prevent future fly strikes. You may or may not want to give a antibotic depending if infection is present. But you do need to catch her and treat her as soon as possible. Hope this helps. There are many reasons she could have the wound. She could have scraped herself or it could be a attack but its very Un likely its a parasite so dont worry about that. You can look around for any object that might have possibly cut her. But id bring her inside and start treatment and keep her in or its likely the flys will strike her again. Hope this helps and I wish you the best.

 

[JailBird]

Thank you so much for your input. We caught the barred rock when she came in the coop this evening. It looks like something had attacked her. We put some antibiotic cream on her wound. Since starting this thread, I talked with a vet who also suggested that it might be a predator of some sort. He also said that the maggots were probably responsible for the gaping wound that grew so quickly. It is a relief to know that this isn’t something contagious to others, but at the same time I’m worried about the safety of the rest of the flock. I have to figure out what kind of predator this is and where its coming from.

I will check for those threads on removing the maggots. What a job this is going to be!

Anyway, thanks again for your advice.