Has anybody used maggots for an impacted crop? Just interested for future.

[HollyWoozle]

I'm in a few UK Facebook groups for backyard chicken-keepers and notice lately that a lot of people are recommending the use of maggots to help clear an impacted crop. I'd never heard of that remedy until seeing it on those groups but some people seem to swear by it. Has anybody on here used this method and was it successful?

Don't have any issues with impacted crop in our flock at the moment but did lose a hen to it in the past (admittedly when I knew a lot less about chickens, I think I'd be better able to tackle it now) and just gathering info for future reference.

 

[CLSranch]

Honestly I've never heard of it. Also never had a problem with impacted crop.

 

[coach723]

I really don't know that it would work. Medical maggots are a specific species that eats only dead flesh, they don't eat normal healthy flesh, so that's why they work. Many species will eat healthy flesh so that would not be good, assuming that they could survive inside the crop. The wrong species could very well cause more problems than they fix, read up on fly strike. Medical maggots in the US are a prescription item and quite expensive. Not sure how availability in the UK is.

 

[HollyWoozle]

I did wonder if it could really be effective, I've just seen so many comments mentioning it and I like to run all sorts of chicken ideas past the BYC community. Here in the UK people are buying live fishing maggots (white ones, before they are dyed which is common here for fishing purposes). Here are just some of the posts I have seen... I appreciate these are not the results of a scientific study. I think in most cases people are trying oil and massaging as a first port of call or alongside the 'maggot treatment' so more likely to be that helping I would've though. Intriguing anyhow!

"Yes we’ve used it and it works. They need to be white fishing maggots though not dyed. It worked pretty quick for us. I’d give a small handful and see how she goes."

"We used white maggots for one of our girls who's crop hadn't emptied in over a week, the vet said she hadn't got long left and her crop not emptying was down to a tumour, we fed maggots and the day after her crop was empty and she's still going strong!"

"i think the lump is reducing!!! Just woken her to give her some more..... she’s had about 60 today!!!"

"I used the maggot thing too. It worked a treat."

"When I have a crop problem I normally bring the poorly hen indoors & give her half a handful of maggots in a bowl then pop her back outside with the others & throw lots on the ground for them all to eat! I have found maggots work wonders for crop problems. "

"Yep I've used this method a few years ago when one of my girls showed signs of impacted crop. The maggots eat their way through the 'matter' before being digested."

"Worked for me i brought the maggots from a fishing shop nearby."

"If one of your hens has impacted crop i would really suggest the maggots worked well for me. "

 

[coach723]

I personally would like to see something more controlled and documented as opposed to just hearing someone on the internet saying it works. I can't say that it would or wouldn't definitely. There are professional articles on maggots for wound therapy, I've not found any on crops. But crop issues can have many causes, some completely caused by issues not even in the crop. Birds with reproductive infections and cancer will often have backed up crops and I seriously doubt that a maggot treatment would do anything for those. I don't really know how long a maggot could survive inside the crop with no access to air, and if the crop is moving, the maggot will be ground up and digested in the gizzard. Some kinds of maggots can be toxic, particularly if they've been feeding on carrion that is contaminated. Chickens can get botulism that way. From what I've read, the fishing maggots can be fed as a source of protein as long as they are not dyed (the dye is apparently toxic to the birds). Treating crop problems can be a bit of a challenge since we don't always know exactly what caused it until necropsy. I've not had many issues with crops except in the case of reproductive problems, and one bird that appeared to have a congenitally deformed gizzard. I suppose if nothing else is working and the bird is deteriorating, then it might be something to try as a last ditch effort. There are loads of online opinions that diatomaceous earth works wonders for internal parasites and for external parasites, and in fact it does not. It does nothing for internal parasites, and I've seen no actual evidence that it will treat external ones either. There are other's who have said they used it for mites and watched the mites crawl right through it. I'm not against trying anything if it won't do harm or cause unnecessary suffering, but I also don't want to waste time, or hope, on things that are not effective.