Horrific fly strike

[RosemaryDuck]

Do you have any updated photos of what it looks like now?



Sorry, it would be nice if this was the way it worked....Maggots on livestock are not eating the bacteria and preventing infection - they are eating flesh and causing infection.
IF they were preventing infection, then there would be no need to treat right?

Maggots usually go for necrotic or infected tissue first, but they do eat live flesh which is why Flystrike is so dangerous.

Usually Flystrike happens where there's already a wound or an opening. So it's entirely possible they were eating the tumor first.

 

[Hopeful homesteader]

Maggots usually go for necrotic or infected tissue first, but they do eat live flesh which is why Flystrike is so dangerous.

Usually Flystrike happens where there's already a wound or an opening. So it's entirely possible they were eating the tumor first.

It depends on the type of maggots, some eat living flesh, some eat only dead flesh, and some don't eat meat at all. The most common ones that get in wounds tend to be after the rotting flesh but they are problematic because they are not sterile (unless you have medical maggots) so they bring infections viral and bacterial with them coupled with their poop when they burrow under layers of skin causing pockets of bacteria that fester so it's like an unending cycle that gets worse and worse.

 

[Galmara_Farm]

I've just had my second case of flystrike. Definitely doesn't have to be a wound or dead flesh. Fruit fly larvae are maggots too. Flies lay eggs in poopy feathers cause it's soft and moist. The eggs hatch to tiny maggots which spread to the chook where they'll start to eat the skin. They will also crawl inside the vent as again, soft and moist.
When bathing the bird to treat I let her sit up to her neck in (warm) water. Maggots breath air so they'll drop off as they're underwater. Picking them off by hand or tweezers is very very difficult. I put her in a big bucket of warm saline 2 - 3 times a day with another bucket loosely on top for 10 - 15 minutes so she's in a warm, dark, protected bath. By the third time they're gone, then it's on to recovery and infection prevention.
Spring is the danger season (for me - Aus). Clean up poopy butt chooks in early Spring, put out fly traps, do poop management, I think DE helps too.
There is no doubt it is very unpleasant for all involved. Don't plan on chicken or rice for dinner.

 

[President_ChickenGirl]

I just dealt with flystrike on my hen, who was already sick with a reproductive tumor. She didn’t make it through the night after I first found it, but props to you for saving her! I tried but it was just too much for my hen. It sounds like you were very successful, though and that is so great!