Hen not eating/drinking, has worms in her smelly poop - help!

[deepbluesea]

Just keep soaking and plucking until you don't see more, otherwise the numbers will go back up. It took me a couple of days with multiple soaks to get them all out. Also, if you put neosporin on the wound they'll come out because they can't breathe.

 

[Chicken Strut]

2nd bath of the day complete. This time there were less than 20 maggots in the water, all dead, and I found none on the wound when I was drying her. I coated the wound with neosporin this time. Will do one more spa threatment today and 2-3 tomorrow, depending on whether there are new maggots hatching out. And then reassess for the next day.

One reason I think they were all dead this time is that I dusted the crate with permethrin spray and sprayed the pee pads with liquid permethrin, placing them in the crate once they were dry. The few maggots I saw in there when I changed out her bedding this time were dead. However, I'm hoping that using the permethrin is not somehow driving them up into her body to do more damage. But it does seem like the maggots need to pop out periodically for oxygen - does anyone know?

I haven't done anything specific to treat the vent prolapse yet. Kind of waiting for some input from you guys, though I have started reading up on it. The prognosis for vent prolapse actually sounds worse than for the flystrike.

 

[FarmerGirl101]

I agree with @Eggcessive that does look like maggots.

 

[Eggcessive]

Agreed. I had a feeling there might have been a prolapse initially, and the other chickens may have pecked at the red tissue, causing bleeding. I would just go about treating the flystrike, soaking, then applying the ointment. Permethrin spray can be combined with the ointment. There is something is farm stores horse section called SWAT that is an ointment and treats maggots, since it contains pyrethins. There is also screw worm spray that many use as well. The prolapse hopefully will heal, and then later you may try to push it back inside, or it might go back in on it’s own. With just a prolapse, many use hemorrhiod cream (preparation H) or hydrocortisone cream. But with the flystrike, I would stick with Nesoproin/Triple Antibiotic for now, and permethrin if you wish. Here is a good link about treating a prolapse:
https://the-chicken-chick.com/prolapse-vent-causes-treatment-graphic/
Has she laid an egg recently? Something to keep in mind is that you can stop egg laying, but it can take several days of keeping them in darkness for 16 hours overnight, and letting them out in daylight for 8 hours a day to eat and drink. This would certainly complicate your treating her, but still possible to let her heal. Keep in mind that many people that see these things will put the hen down, and especially if they get worse, or their quality of life is bad. Sorry you and your hen are having to go through all of this.

 

[Eggcessive]

 

[micstrachan]

Keep at it. You’re doing great!

 

[Trux]

Following

 

[Chicken Strut]

Update: First the good news (and in my next post I'll explain how we got here): Cleo is feeling *much* better, on her second day of no live maggots on her flystrike wound, and enjoying spending part of the day on grass next to her flock mates, albeit confined to a puppy playpen. At night she is in a similar structure in the garage, and since last night she uses the roost we put in there instead of just huddling on the floor.

(Molting has started for our other hens!)

 

[Eggcessive]

That is so wonderful that she is doing better and recovering.

 

[Chicken Strut]

I'll try to post some pics after I have brought her in for the day but the new complications are that the prolapse has not improved -- if anything, it's worse -- and yesterday she started excreting liquid egg from her vent.

The routine has settled into a long soak in a warm betadine-solution bath each day, followed by neosporin rubbed into the flystrike wound, then drying gently with a hair dryer. Yesterday morning we injected her in the breast with .25cc of antibiotic (Duramycin) and that seems to have been the biggest factor in her feeling better. We are planning another injection (something we have never done before, btw -- what we will do for our chickens!) tomorrow morning.

But does the seepage we are seeing mean that she is an internal egg layer? That she has egg yolk peritonitis? I want to do the right thing by her but she is acting so much like herself now that I really need some unemotional advice from you more experienced chicken keepers.

She has never been a reliable layer AT ALL (as few as 4 pullet-sized eggs a year and she's just now 3 years old) so I've always thought that something was wrong with her internal mechanism but she is (of course!) my favorite baby and right now she does not appear to be suffering. It has been touching how much she and her flock mates have enjoyed seeing each other again. The first night that Cleo was inside 3 of the 4 other hens huddled together on top of the egg boxes instead of taking their usual places on the roost -- it really seemed like they were lost without her. Her eating and drinking yesterday and today has been fine. Help me, please! And thanks so much. I don't know what I would do without this forum.