DEAD Ducks found with maggots in their vent

[Jeanieameraucana]

Are there any oral wormers waterfowl can take? I'd give that right away, then I would change pastures/pens for a couple of months.
A lot of rarer diseases and health problems with people and animals are under-reported and not widely known. I had a carrion
eating beetle invade my leather seated car. They started biting me like fleas and even acted like fleas. I went to the extension office
to get the beetle identified, I even wrote some entomologists. Each bite caused a big welts that were incrediably itchy. I have no idea
why the carrion beetles turned on me and my car but I would not be suprised if you have flys laying eggs on live ducks. Unsual circumstances
can trigger odd behavior. Maybe something the ducks are eating are giving off an unsual chemical attractant. Look up carpet beetles, I could
not find any reference as them being a biting pest, but the entomologist I talked to thought it was no big deal. I sold the car and bought
a new car with cloth seats.

 

[Sachasmom]

Well, for rabbit flystrike I usually go over them with a flea comb and pick them off, I spray them with cat flea spray and give them a shot of Ivomec to kill any internal ones I may have missed. Or squirt it in any "holes" that you can't get to the bottom of.

You have to keep checking them, esp "moist" places because more can hatch. Ick I have no idea if any of the above is safe for flystrike in ducks tho. The maggots not only eat and kill the flesh, they give out a toxin that sends them into congestive heart failure/liver failure, which is why its important to get them all off.

Most of the cases I've seen have been where the rabbit got poop butt and then got fly strike. I have had them attack "downed" animals too, but not usually healthy animals.

I didn't have any cases of it last year, I think the year prior I had three and I was able to save two of them. I would never blame anyone for humanely putting the animal down rather than treating it, its a nasty, gross experiance that will leave you unable to look at rice for a while!

Its possible they may have had some sort of discharge which was attracting the flies, since they won't normally attack a healthy animal.

Can you check over the rest of your ducks to see if you see (or smell?) anything?

 

[FireTigeris]

I had a hen with prolapsed oviduct (the whole thing) who had flies inside, another internal layer too-

 

[MarsHillchickencoop]

When I was a kid we had a cat get a bad urinary tract infection which can take them down pretty quick. We found him dragging himself by his front paws in the yard and got him to the vet pronto. While on the table at the vet, ALIVE, his side split open and his tail and maggots came out. GROSS! He survived this and the next few months of rehabilitation. Vet said he probably went somewhere to die and flies got onto (and into) him and laid eggs. Hope you are past the worst of this!