Fly Stike - Listless but Alive - When to use antibiotics?

[NUGE]

I found one of my pullets slumped over behind the food bowl this morning and picked her up to see what was wrong. Discovered fly strike. Had never heard of it until today, but a quick search tells me its a common chicken disease/injury. Without know what to do, after going in and reading all the posts about this, it sounds like I did the right thing. Washed, sprayed, picked, soaked, picked and flushed. Sprayed with Vetericyn once i was done. There is now a pretty large open wound where they got under the skin (you could lift the surface of the skin and see in about an inch, but it does look like its only on the surface layer. The pullet on the other hand looks close to death. Alive, but can't really hold itself up. I've been force feeding vitamins and electrolytes. She is no where near close to wanting to eat anything. My question is, can/should I give it a Tylan 50 shot? I assume there is a pretty good infection going on in there?

any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

update: She passed not much later. I think she was too far gone.

for future knowledge and for the health of my flock, is there always an underlying reason the flystrike happens in the first place? Should I be looking for other diseases?

 

[MrsBrooke]

Antibiotics are only necessary if there is an infection... Does the wound have an odor? If it does, you can use Tylan 50 orally, so no injection is needed (though you'll need the needle to get the medicine in the syringe, as I'm sure you know). Dose at 1/2 ml/cc (that's "one-half") twice per day if she UNDER 5lbs... Give her 1 ml/cc twice a day if she's OVER 5lbs. Treat for five days.

You are doing the right thing forcing her to drink liquids... Just make sure you're giving enough, or she could die of dehydration.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/805728/go-team-tube-feeding - Check that out for more information on tubing liquids.

I would get a syringe without a needle and douse the wound (and inside it, if you can) with chlorhexidine... You can get it at Walgreens in the hydro perox section or you can order it online. If you use chlorhexidine, you can skip the antibiotic ointment all together.

She will need a boost in protein to help rebuild tissue. You might try plying her with crushed, boiled eggs to see if you can get some nutrition in her. If she doesn't eat, worry less about that than about keeping her hydrated.

Pedialyte works very well to re-hydrate sick chickens and is available at Walgreens, too... Avoid Gatorade.

Keep us posted!

MrsB