Flystrike Please Help!

[abraga]

I just sprayed the wound with vetericyn and put a fresh gauze pad on. She is acting pretty normal and has been walking around, pruning her feathers, eating, drinking. I gave her some chick starter soaked in warm water and she ate some of that along with a couple bites of yogurt. Her crop feels pretty full.

Here are some pictures of her and her wound.

View attachment 1062856 View attachment 1062857 View attachment 1062858

Wow...excellent job wrapping her..

 

[LittleBird123]

Ok so I've never had flystrike in a chook, but I deal with it regularly in sheep here in NZ.

She's looking good by the way you did a nice job. Poor little lady is missing a whole bunch of skin from back there though ... I'd almost consider stitching it, but I could only tell if that was safe or appropriate by hands on inspection. It will heal just fine without it anyway, just take a little longer to fully cover over. But chickens have amazing healing abilities, I've seen one lose all but a thin strip of the skin off her neck to a rat and grow it back in just a couple of weeks. She'll be OK, you're doing great.

I'd suggest feeding her Comfrey if you can, I wouldn't apply it externally to a wound like that without again seeing it in person to determine of any deep damage is involved, as it can cause the surface to skin over too fast leaving an abscess, but feeding it to her will give her natural healing a safe boost from inside out.

For those that may see this thread at some future date ... The best thing I've found for flystrike is Tea Tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) essential oil, 1-2% mixed into any liquid vegetable oil as a carrier. I like to add 1% Clove bud oil as well, as it is a topical anesthetic ... it really helps with the pain.

Process is, trim away all feathers (or whatever else your patient has) from the area, making sure to clear at least an inch around the wound and any feathers that fall over the area too as these can harbor new eggs.

Gently brush away all visible maggots. Now liberally apply the oil you mixed to coat the wound. Expect some distress, as the oil coating will start to suffocate the maggots and they will all come swarming out at once!! The clove oil will kick in and numb the area soon. Again, brush away all maggots you see, and reapply the oil.

The tea tree oil is toxic to the fly larvae, so any that got missed or that hatch soon after will be killed when they contact it for the next couple of days. Also it is a repellent to flies, so no more eggs will be laid.

The tea tree oil encourages healing of the skin cells in the area. It is amazing to see the difference in a sheep treated with tea tree as opposed to any other remedy I've tried. Usually the short wool stubble in the area will all fall out over the next week, the skin is dead and has to regrow from scratch leaving bare pink scars for a while. When treated with tea tree the wool just regrows clean and white without a check. The skin is fine: no scar.

The tea tree and clove are both strongly antibacterial as well, so they work as a disinfectant for the wound. And of course the clove oil is a very strong local anesthetic, just try touching some to your tongue and it will go numb in a minute or so.

Normally in a sheep it is best to leave the area open to air, as closed bandaged areas on a sheep can turn steamy, rot the wool stubble and skin, yuck stagnant stinky damp bits, and encourage infection. However that is definitely not appropriate for a case like that pictured, as a chicken's rear is down there in the dirt, prone to being pecked by other birds, and besides the poor girl's abdomen is uncovered and so thin there ... that is her biggest danger right now, so fragile. The bandage you've done is exactly right.

Wow! Thank you very much for all of this wonderful information.
The tea tree oil sounds amazing. I have some that I can use but I don't have any clove bud oil, I am not sure where I would get it. But I will try the tea tree oil, how much do you usually mix with vegetable oil? A few teaspoons?

 

[LittleBird123]

Wow...excellent job wrapping her..

Thank you.
I will probably be wrapping her like this for a while. It took some time to find a way to wrap the gauze so she could still walk somewhat normally.

 

[LittleBird123]

I'm sorry, I don't think I got an alert for this. It sounds like she's eating well now. I would have said to give her as much chick starter as she wanted to eat, as long as her crop is emptying. That's really great she's got that much appetite!


That's quite the nasty wound! If it was me...I'd take E-barnes advice about trimming the longer feathers that are close to/make contact with the wound. That would make it easier/cleaner to bandage. Outstanding job on the bandage by the way!!!

Thank you. I will trim some more feathers away today. She seems to like the chick starter. yesterday I soaked some in a bit of apple cider vinegar, she liked that and all of the other chickens wanted some to!

 

[LittleBird123]

Ok so I've never had flystrike in a chook, but I deal with it regularly in sheep here in NZ.

She's looking good by the way you did a nice job. Poor little lady is missing a whole bunch of skin from back there though ... I'd almost consider stitching it, but I could only tell if that was safe or appropriate by hands on inspection. It will heal just fine without it anyway, just take a little longer to fully cover over. But chickens have amazing healing abilities, I've seen one lose all but a thin strip of the skin off her neck to a rat and grow it back in just a couple of weeks. She'll be OK, you're doing great.

I'd suggest feeding her Comfrey if you can, I wouldn't apply it externally to a wound like that without again seeing it in person to determine of any deep damage is involved, as it can cause the surface to skin over too fast leaving an abscess, but feeding it to her will give her natural healing a safe boost from inside out.

For those that may see this thread at some future date ... The best thing I've found for flystrike is Tea Tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) essential oil, 1-2% mixed into any liquid vegetable oil as a carrier. I like to add 1% Clove bud oil as well, as it is a topical anesthetic ... it really helps with the pain.

Process is, trim away all feathers (or whatever else your patient has) from the area, making sure to clear at least an inch around the wound and any feathers that fall over the area too as these can harbor new eggs.

Gently brush away all visible maggots. Now liberally apply the oil you mixed to coat the wound. Expect some distress, as the oil coating will start to suffocate the maggots and they will all come swarming out at once!! The clove oil will kick in and numb the area soon. Again, brush away all maggots you see, and reapply the oil.

The tea tree oil is toxic to the fly larvae, so any that got missed or that hatch soon after will be killed when they contact it for the next couple of days. Also it is a repellent to flies, so no more eggs will be laid.

The tea tree oil encourages healing of the skin cells in the area. It is amazing to see the difference in a sheep treated with tea tree as opposed to any other remedy I've tried. Usually the short wool stubble in the area will all fall out over the next week, the skin is dead and has to regrow from scratch leaving bare pink scars for a while. When treated with tea tree the wool just regrows clean and white without a check. The skin is fine: no scar.

The tea tree and clove are both strongly antibacterial as well, so they work as a disinfectant for the wound. And of course the clove oil is a very strong local anesthetic, just try touching some to your tongue and it will go numb in a minute or so.

Normally in a sheep it is best to leave the area open to air, as closed bandaged areas on a sheep can turn steamy, rot the wool stubble and skin, yuck stagnant stinky damp bits, and encourage infection. However that is definitely not appropriate for a case like that pictured, as a chicken's rear is down there in the dirt, prone to being pecked by other birds, and besides the poor girl's abdomen is uncovered and so thin there ... that is her biggest danger right now, so fragile. The bandage you've done is exactly right.

Alright I have some clove oil now and tea tree oil but I don't know how much of each to mix.