Flystrike - back in the chicken hospital (dog crate in my mud room)

[MiraBella Ranch]

Hi all, I have read every post I could about the dreaded Flystrike. June 14, is when Early Bird, one of my brown Easter Egger chickens was down in the coop at bedtime. I saw her poopy butt so I brought her up to the house for a wash. To my horror, I found a would under the poop just below her vent crawling with tiny maggots! I was able to hold it together since there's no one else around that can handle this type of thing, and she is my animal and I felt so sorry for her, I had to help her - she was totally helpless in this situation, so I washed her and soaked her, cut feathers, etc. I used dawn dish soap and epsom salts and my faucet sprayer in the laundry room sink. Using a high powered flashlight and strong reader glasses, I inspected her butt between every soak and rinse. (I soaked her a lot...but didn't read the post about keeping her under water for 20 minutes at a time.) The water was so gross with poop and floating squirming maggots, I just kept pouring it out (she was in a dish tub in my laundry sink) It finally got to the point where their appeared there were no more maggots. She was a great patient. I then felt like I had to soak her in dawn bubbles and rinse her whole body for a while since she was in that gross water. I wanted all her feathers clean. I then blow dried her fluffy and sprayed her wound with Pet choloidial silver, because that's what I had. I kept checking her and happily I never saw another maggot. Her vent seemed fine, although I wondered if any of the maggots had gone up there? How would I be able to tell? The wound was close to the vent but clearly separate. I had her isolated in the (chicken hospital) dog crate in the garage. I changed her newspaper several times a day - when ever she pooped and I made sure there were no damn flies around. I inspected every poop I found after that - they were watery, but no worms, no maggots. I fed her yummy nutritions food and cleaned and dried and sprayed her butt/wound twice a day. Her skin was healing fast - as chickens do. In 3-4 days the wound was completely closed and the skin was nice and healthy looking. After a week, I was so relieved, I kept her around for another week partly because I was enjoying her by now, she still had watery poops, so I was cleaning her as necessary ...she would hang out on the patio with me in the mornings and not run away while we were airdrying her butt. Then, at the end of 2 weeks she seemed fine.
I waited until bedtime to sneak her back on the roost with her flock. She was fine for a few days....until she wasn't...I saw her sleeping separatly from the flock...she seemed ok during the day, and her butt was staying clean....Two other chickens needed butt baths - no wounds, no maggots...I think I'll be checking chicken butts every night from now on! There really is not a fly problem in the coop, I keep it clean, they poop on plastic sheets which I change daily, they are out all day and we live in a hot dry climate. Fly season is summer, that's it. We are in a heat wave, and she was lethargic on the ground, not even on a roost, so I brought her back to the chicken hospital - and was suprised how thin and light she is. I have had to move her dog crate into the mud room where there's AC. What's wrong with my Early Bird? I am sure she is dehydrated - poop is watery. I fed her scrambled egg with fresh garlic and oregano, Manuka honey with fresh garlic, water with a drop of apple cider vinigar, whole grain chicken feed, tomatoes (she loved that) a little raw spinach. She did not eat the cooked oatmeal or the pasta. Tonight, I gave her new food and left her on top of her cage for a change of scenary and left to go feed the cats, I came back and she had an explosive black poop (that got all over my nice rug!) Again, no worms, no maggots...she wants to eat and she doesn't resist when I dip her beak in the water - but she can't sit. Her legs are not supporting her, weirdly her head and neck are interested in eating and she pecks away at her seeds regardless of her laying down position.

Can anyone tell me if there could be maggots inside her? There are no chicken vets around here - so advice can't be give her antibiotics because I don't have any...that's why I gave her Manuka Honey and garlic and oregano. Please help me help Early Bird - she's a good chicken. And by the way, she hasn't laid an egg through out this sickness.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry to hear about Early Bird.

How old is she?

Have you ever dewormed her? You are not in the U.S. right? Can you get Fenbendazole (Safeguard/Panacur), Albendazole (Valbazen) or Flubendazole?

She's not laid any eggs, so I would be inclined to think she may have some type of reproductive disorder. Cancer, EYP, etc. can often be common in hens and cause decline.

I'd work on hydration and getting her to eat. Do check to see that her crop is emptying overnight.

 

[Nomimon]

Hens when stressed often don't lay. Mine stop during the moult and my hen is still not laying 3 weeks post flystrike. Could it be that your hen is developing sepsis or blood poisoning from her bout of fly strike? I started my hen on oral human amoxicillin I had left over from last winter's sinus infection. 4 lbs 12 oz. She was getting tired, weak and not eating much when we discovered the hole in her abdomen full of maggots. We were so worried about the hole in her abdominal wall but the black scab like covering helped to protect her wound and began to shed off as the hole filled in with clean healthy tissue. I am still concerned about debris left in the abdomen but it looks like the body shed all foreign debris out. We will see if she develops sepsis once we finish the antibiotic which will be in 2 days.

Will your local vet be willing to call in a prescription to your local pharmacy? It is difficult to find avian vets. I had to pick up a prescription for our hamster for an "exotic animal vet" through the drive thru at our local Walgreens. I was stymied when they asked me Sniffles' date of birth! Praying that your hen is ok. The black stool is concerning. In humans that could mean penetration of the bowel. It's a good sign that she can pass stool though.