Hen with bulge in skin below vent, rotting wound, and fly larvae inside. Cause? Prevention in others?

[Eyikl]

My four-year-old Rhode Island Red has been lethargic for weeks now, and yesterday her comb turned light pink and flopped over. Today I finally had time to examine her, and I noticed that she was really light and her breastbone stuck out way too much, but she felt like she had a solid mass near her vent. I also saw her struggling to defecate, and when she did so it was runny and yellow. When I picked her up and then put her down she got droopy, but after a few minutes she seemed to gain a little more energy, even if I didn't do anything. She did eat a few layer pellets this morning, but I haven't seen her drink anything.

She had sticky, mucky feathers under her vent, so I cut them away so that I could see the area. Should I have done that?

Once I got the feathers away I noticed she had a bulge below her vent. It seemed solid, but not sensitive, and had a bit of blood on it.

Around the edges of the bulge was a thin layer of yellow flesh, and on top of that was a lot of black, rotting flesh. Under the black and yellow flesh there were maggots crawling around. My dad and I soaked her in warm water, cut away more feathers, and then I got some tweezers and started pulling out maggots. I got as many as I saw, but they kept crawling further in her, and then a few minutes after I stopped they'd reemerge. Should I have tried to pull them, or did that just make things worse?

My dad wanted to put vaseline on the wound to protect it. Is this a good idea?

I noticed that the black flesh was rotting and smelled bad. When I nicked some by mistake it didn't bleed. Should I have cut it away?

Was the rot and the flies caused by the mucky feathers under her vent, or the bulge? Does anyone know or have a guess what caused the bulge?

I settled the hen away from the rest of the flock. How can I prevent this from happening to any of my other chickens?

 

[Eggcessive]

My first thought would be to put the hen down and out of her suffering. She is suffering from flystike (maggots) probably due to her being I’ll and lying around on the ground. Who knows if she had poop stuck on her, was pecked and injured, or had a hernia or enlarged lower belly from ascites or internal laying. Since she has been I’ll so long, I doubt if you could get her healed and back to normal. Her abdominal wall could break open at any time, causing painful infection.

Hens die of a variety of reproductive disorders. If you do chose to go ahead and treat her, the maggots can linger for a day or two after treatment has begun. She will need to be soaked once or twice daily in warm water with either chlorhexidene, Betadine, or saline ( 2 tsp of table salt to each gallon of warm water used.) Mix well, and try to get any new maggots off. Use tweezers if necessary. Then pat her dry with a clean towel. Apply a coat of Triple Antibiotic or similar ointment to the wound. Repeat once or twice daily until no maggots are seen. Keep her isolated from others.

Offer her water with electrolytes and vitamins up to her beak often. Offer her usual dry chickens feed, make a small amount wet to see if she likes that, and cooked egg is good as well. Sorry that you are dealing with this.

 

[Eggcessive]

Make sure that you coop bedding is dry and as clean as possible. Remove soiled bedding and replace with fresh pine shavings as needed. Stir it daily. You can try to treat flies in the coop. Poop will attract them. Clean any poopy butts with soap and water. Permethrin spray in the coop can help, but cleanliness is best. Any hens that are seen lying around and not roosting at night might be in danger.

 

[theoldchick]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/prolapsed-chicken-vent.78134/

 

[Eyikl]

The hen died later that day, but thanks for the advice. Maybe it will be useful with one of my other hens.

 

[theoldchick]

So sorry.