Help! Hen's vent covered in maggots. Treatment?

[bawkbawkbawk]

Wow. Never in a million years did I think I would be waking up with my

and reading about bloody maggots. I hope I never have to perform the heroics described here but what a great service to BYC readers that it has been posted. What great and brave flock keepers you all are!

 

[Xiao Casa]

I needed to treat my Buff Orpington for the same condition... it's gross but at least I know from this thread that it's curable. I will be picking up a Ivermectin injection tomorrow.

Following up from my original post about a year ago:

The hen in question made a full recovery from a bad case of flystrike, with the following treatment:

-Hen was bathed/soaked in a saline solution made from sea salt and warm water for approx. 45 mins 2-3 times a day to kill maggots and clean wound. This removed hundreds of them but did not kill all -- there were always others hiding deep inside the wound and surrounding tissues.

-Hen was dosed with Ivermectin, which killed remaining maggots

-Wound was treated with an antiseptic and hen was kept in isolation. She was not really interested in food but drank plenty of water. We added ACV to her water as well.

5 days after the initial discovery, she was eating well, no longer appeared droopy and sick, and was released from isolation, with us monitoring to ensure others did not pick at her wound. The maggots had eaten away a large area of skin, a little less than 1 cm thick, near the vent. This skin grew back as she recovered, but she had no feathers there for months. However, she did begin to regrow the missing feathers near her vent. If you saw her now, you would never guess at how terrible and disgusting of a wound she had.

 

[Merrykh]

I realize this is an old post/thread, too, but in hopes that I can get some help on this matter, I am reaching out here. I have 1 hen, Iris, with which I experienced flystrike for the first time and I was horrified for her! This forum helped me identify and treat her, so I am VERY grateful!! I felt I got it under control and she went from death's door when I found her to 5 days later moving her head in quick movements. There are some strange things tho. First, she couldn't walk or barely even move for several days. On the 4th day she stood for a few seconds then lowered herself down, placing one wing out for ballast, stability, I don't know. But the inability to move was very concerning. We are now 7 days out and she is walking a little, maybe 5-8 steps, then laying down for awhile. I have her IN the house as it's 109+ degrees outside and I just didn't think she could get better with the heat and the flies. So here's what I've done. I bathed her in epsom salt baths to help remove maggots and poo-she's the kind of hen with a 24/7 poopy butt--dried her with a low blowdryer setting--she was so sick she let me and this is a hen that runs from me most of the time--applied betadine to dry bottom. I got the Catron and sprayed her bum to help heal and keep the flies away. Every time the doors are opened, flies come in! She weighs only 5 lbs so I have been giving her .5 ml of Orbax(had it from the cats) as directed at 1 x per 24 hours. I started with syringing her water and on the second day she put her beak into the dish and drank. I was very encouraged by that. BUT THE OTHER ODD THING IS before she got attacked by the flies, for a couple of weeks I noticed her beak doing a clacking sound like to little wooden planks hitting together. It isn't the contented sound that some birds make with their beaks at evening roosting time. It is definitely something awry. So as she has been in the house, I've been able to notice it more and see that she is having difficulty trying to grab her food with her beak and keep it to the point of pulling it into her mouth. It appears she just gives up. While recouping from the fly strike, she has hardly eaten what she normally likes. I make her scrambled egg, shredded cucumber, cooked some oatmeal, and the only thing she showed interest in was the cucumber. At least she was able to eat some. But the beak is an issue. It's not abnormal looking. It closes fine. SO I took her to the vet that works with farm animals after asking the receptionist if he sees chickens, which she said yes to, because the beak issue is keeping her from getting her strength back. All to say, the vet said I had done a great job so far with the bathing, antibiotics, etc. but he said he wasn't very versed in fowl so he didn't know about what could be going on with her beak/mouth. He also didn't check her bum to see what it was like now so I asked him to double check it for me. When he did he said it was very swollen and red so stop the Cantron, keep her on antibiotics, bathe her bum twice a day, apply Gentacaim topical spray twice a day, syringe her with Calcium Gluconate twice a day via her mouth, to which I add a little poultry nutria-drench I got from the great gals at the feed store, and even tried to get some Critical Care formula into her with no success. The vet asked me if I had time to attend to Iris during the day to which I said yes. He then told me to wash her bottom twice a day EVERY DAY forever, not really, just as long as she lives, and I was a tiny bit uncomfortable thinking that I have to bring her in and bathe her in the sink twice a day for what feels like forever. I'd like to cry, I'm so exhausted and concerned. At this writing which is now a week from the beginning of bringing Iris back from death's door, she barely eats anything, she can hardly pick up food, she clucks at the meal worms with her sweet voice but alas, just looks away knowing she can't get them in her mouth, it seems like. I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. The vet, to my husband's miffness, cost $150 and I'm not much better off than before we went. OH!! I forgot! The vet did an X-ray and Iris has bits of shell in her abdomen that he said should have killed her but we're dealing with peritonitis, too. Her eggs have been few and far between in the last month and I knew her shells were soft most of the time but I COULDN'T get calcium in her!! I really tried. She barely would touch her Layena, or eat shell, and when I would lace her scrambled egg with calcium powder, she'd take a few bites and walk away! I was going mad trying to help her. So I failed her in this area. And about 2 weeks before I found her in the bushes waiting to die, I saw she had something hanging from her bum along with the poops that looked like what might have been a fried egg if one could be there. So I'm thinking the egg broke inside her, the contents came out and solidified along with the poop there, and the flies set up a nursery in their new home. Just speculating. SO AGAIN, I NEED HELP. I realize this is long but the more info to work with the better. Iris is the hen in my avatar. THANK YOU TO ANYONE WHO CAN HELP ME!

 

[Dawnclucks22]

Floppy turned out just fine! Treating her was disgusting and laborious, but we were lucky that the maggots had not penetrated her skin. Once they were washed off and she had a little isolation time to recuperate, she was the same old chicken once again. A happy ending!

I'm glad she's better! Great job treating her

 

[PippaP]

Thank you so much for this thread. Just washed my 18 month old little brown hen’s (she’s always poorly) bottom and found the most disgusting infestation of maggots. She had been the victim of a flystrike, but like all hens, was hiding it really well.

She has a terrible hernia and some of the skin on it is ragged and folded which is where the (1000s of) maggots were hiding. I have spent at least two hours with her this afternoon and I just hope she makes it through the night tonight. Thank goodness I’m self employed and at home I The week!

I had some feed grade diatomaceous earth which I sprinkled on the area after my initial removal of maggots and this seems to have been a great way to discover where more were hiding - I don’t imagine I got them all but I really hope I did. I’ll look again tomorrow.

I read good article on a blog by the ‘chicken chick’ which showed how quietly her hen lay when her head was covered lightly with a towel and this was the same for me, little Vicky lay on her back on my lap while I used surgical tweezers ( who knew they how Handy they would be) to pick out hundreds more maggots that I could see by the bubbles in the earth and saline solution that I was gently spraying on her bot.

She’s resting quietly in a dog cage now sitting on straw covered in a puppy pad, and with a big bowl of water with apple cider vinegar. Just hoping she makes it through poor little hen.

Any way, thanks for the advice here, it might have saved Vivky’s life.

 

[pamschick]

I am having this problem with my hen, Jubilee. She was injured by something that tried to get her through the fence. It broke the pelvis, but it was not displaced. She started eating after being brought into the house. I had a bad car accident this pay Monday and just got out of the hospital today(Thursday). My daughter is washing her now in epson salt, Dawn, and some tea tree oil. I have broken ribs and am staying with my oldest daughter. I hope that this works as I can’t help her right now.

 

[Texassongbird77]

Finn's Mom :​

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Ok so I googled it because I had to know and the brief summary is that the maggots themselves, as gross as it sounds, are not the emergency as they eat the necrotic (sp?) (rotten) tissue. Wash the wound with saline (some will go with that -- sounds like you got the wash part covered,) and pick them out with tweezers as you can. I am guessing from what I read, the wound would be your bigger issue (how, when, why) once you get the critters off of her. Dewormers and antibiotics will not affect the maggots. Please someone correct me if you know better. Ick, I'm sorry, but good luck.​

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Ok so strike what I said about the maggots not being the problem. They eat living tissue????

I found this information also. I was thinking about when the started maggot therapy..... So I think some think they don't and some think they do eat live flesh.

So Maggots generally do not eat live tissue, but instead feed on dead and decaying tissue. They are often used in maggot therapy to clean wounds by consuming necrotic tissue and bacteria, without damaging healthy flesh. However, some types of maggots can feed on both live and dead tissue, and myiasis, the infestation of living tissue by maggots, can occur in certain cases.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
Maggot Therapy:
In medical settings, maggots are used to clean wounds by consuming dead tissue and bacteria, which helps promote healing.
Necrotic Tissue:
The dead, dying tissue that maggots consume is often referred to as necrotic tissue.
Myiasis:
While maggots used in wound management typically only target dead tissue, some species of maggots can infest living tissue, leading to a parasitic infection called myiasis.
Types of Maggots:
There are various types of maggots, and some species are known to feed on live tissue, while others are strictly scavengers of dead matter.
Wound Cleaning:
Maggots can help clean wounds by consuming dead tissue, bacteria, and even pus, creating a cleaner environment for healing.