Help...collapsed chicken

[witland]

So this morning I trimmed the feathers around her vent. There was a larger deeper wound that I did not see previously, because it is to the left of her vent and she always wants to lay on that side. In addition, there are two smaller wounds. I flushed them all with peroxide as well as her vent. Applied Neosporin after that and picked off a few maggots that managed to crawl out of the wounds after the application. Ugh, I'm going to have nightmares about this whole event with the maggots! Gave her a few syringes of vitamin water and left for work.

This evening, she is sitting upright and is alert. Curious about food and pecking, but still no eating much or standing up. But the fact that she is making attempts to eat and drink is huge, compared to where we were yesterday. Quite frankly, yesterday I didn't thing she would make it through the day. She's still weak but making improvements. I got up close and personal with her vent (never thought I'd say that) and am happy to report no maggots. I'll check in the morning and if there are, she'll take another epsom salt bath.

Here's something weird and creepy. This morning I gave her a bath in my bathroom sink. There were some maggots and I flushed them down the drain. After some time I noticed a few crawling out of the drain. I sprayed the entire sink and drain twice with Scrubbing Bubbles, but it didn't kill the maggots. That's going to give me nightmares as well. After that, I got a bottle of Clorox and poured some down all the drains. The last thing I want is those tiny worms infesting my house.

 

[TazGal]

I just finished dealing with a case of flystrike in my rooster. Don't use Polysporin...anything sticky or gooey will attract the flies and encourage the maggots as they like a moist environment. You need to keep the wound dry. Bathe daily and flush out the maggots. Hydrogen peroxide is okay to use once or twice but if you use it too much it will start to damage good tissue as well. What you can do is to make a saline solution and syringe it into the holes in the wound. This will help the wound and flush some of the maggots out (they don't like the salt water). I also found a strong lavender solution works very well. It's antibacterial/antifungal and the maggots absolutely hate it! 20 drops to a 4 oz spray bottle, shake well and start squirting it into the holes. This really made them vacate and I was able to get rid of the maggots in 3 days. Also, the flies are partly attracted to poo smell...they don't like the lavender. So it also serves the purpose in keeping them away, and the mixture dries well so that the wound stays dry. As for the maggots creeping you out and in the sink...I hear ya! Of all the things I ever had to deal with with the chickens flystrike was the worst. I gagged the whole time I was bathing him and seeing them continuing to crawl out and drop to the floor after I spent 2 hours bathing him...shiver...grossed me out. But try the lavender. They really hate it.

 

[witland]

Wounds look good this morning and no maggots! Small victories!

However her wry neck is keeping her from eating. Yesterday it was less evident and she was able to look at her food and pick at it. Not so today. I am feeding her with a syringe and while she’s not crazy about it, we are slowly working it out. Giving her poly-vy-sol and pedialyte mixed with water, 400 iu Vitamin E and Critical Care. And while I don’t have selenium, I manage to get a few bites of egg and tuna down her.

 

[rebrascora]

Good to hear you are getting on top of the fly strike. I can greatly sympathise with you having nightmares. I'm not normally squeamish but really not sure I could deal with that.
Two thoughts as regards her treatment. A chicken sling may be beneficial to keep her in a more upright position and enable her to position her neck more centrally and feed herself. They can be make quite simply and can prevent a bird from soiling themselves when they cannot stand.

You need to adjust the material so that her legs can just touch the bottom otherwise they panic but the material support at least some of their weight. A third hole can be cut under their vent for their poop to drop through or their vent can be left to overhang the material although this can be less stable. Empty yoghurt pots can be clipped to the front of the box for food and water and the fabric moved forward or back to make them within comfortable range.

If she is struggling to eat, tube feeding might be something to consider. It enables you to give her decent amounts of food and water 2 or 3 times a day without risking her aspirating from using a syringe.
Unfortunately if she has a reproductive problem that is causing a gut constriction and her digestive tract is becoming stopped back and her crop is slow, tube feeding will not help that and you would need to be careful not to try to fill her crop so full that she refluxed. A little gentle massage of her crop and abdomen may help in that situation.

 

[TazGal]

That sounds great! Selenium helps them to absorb the vitamin E. So if you don't have any selenium capsules just feed a lot of foods high in selenium...egg and tuna are excellent. My rooster also lost weight from not eating...they get so uncomfortable from the flystrike it stops them eating. So she may have a vit deficiency as a result of that. If you keep up the feeding and get the nutrients back up she may pull through. You're doing all the right things...now it's just wait and pray. I'm in same mode...rooster I mentioned is now recovering from raccoon attack. It was touch and go for a bit but he is now making progress.My fingers are crossed for you.