How do you reduce swelling from flystrike?

[Michigan Chicken]

Older chicken with tumor like swelling, mainly due to flystrike, I think. Below vent. I have been soaking in salt water, applying vetericin and flysx spray. She is eating and seems comfortable, but this swelling needs to go down.

 

[sourland]

Try applying honey.

 

[Michigan Chicken]

Try applying honey.

Honey can be a natural anti bacterial, but if your problem is flystrike, honey is going to attract more flies. And, I am using vetericin as an antibiotic. What would specifically reduce inflammation? Has anyone given a chicken aspirin ? How much? What was the result?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She has lost her outer layer of skin (epidermis) due to maggot damage.
What you are seeing is probably a fat pad behind the thicker inner layer (dermis). Could possibly be a mass (salpingitis?), tumor or indication of a reproductive disorder - often hens with reproductive disorders have distended abdomens like that- it's just that skin and feathers hide the bulge..

Hard to know IF that will go down. All you can due is continue treating her like you are.

I would not give Aspirin - you mention she seems comfortable, so I see no benefit of it.

Honey can be used on wounds, raw honey works well, it can be messy like ointments - but yes - you would want to keep the patient inside where Flies can't get on the wound. Flies getting on a wound, compromised tissue or on irritated skin with poop is generally how Fly Strike begins.

You can try keeping it moist with triple antibiotic ointment instead of just the Vetericyn spray to see if that helps.

 

[Michigan Chicken]

She has lost her outer layer of skin (epidermis) due to maggot damage.
What you are seeing is probably a fat pad behind the thicker inner layer (dermis). Could possibly be a mass (salpingitis?), tumor or indication of a reproductive disorder - often hens with reproductive disorders have distended abdomens like that- it's just that skin and feathers hide the bulge..

Hard to know IF that will go down. All you can due is continue treating her like you are.

I would not give Aspirin - you mention she seems comfortable, so I see no benefit of it.

Honey can be used on wounds, raw honey works well, it can be messy like ointments - but yes - you would want to keep the patient inside where Flies can't get on the wound. Flies getting on a wound, compromised tissue or on irritated skin with poop is generally how Fly Strike begins.

You can try keeping it moist with triple antibiotic ointment instead of just the Vetericyn spray to see if that helps.

She has lost her outer layer of skin (epidermis) due to maggot damage.
What you are seeing is probably a fat pad behind the thicker inner layer (dermis). Could possibly be a mass (salpingitis?), tumor or indication of a reproductive disorder - often hens with reproductive disorders have distended abdomens like that- it's just that skin and feathers hide the bulge..

Hard to know IF that will go down. All you can due is continue treating her like you are.

I would not give Aspirin - you mention she seems comfortable, so I see no benefit of it.

Honey can be used on wounds, raw honey works well, it can be messy like ointments - but yes - you would want to keep the patient inside where Flies can't get on the wound. Flies getting on a wound, compromised tissue or on irritated skin with poop is generally how Fly Strike begins.

You can try keeping it moist with triple antibiotic ointment instead of just the Vetericyn spray to see if that helps.

Some more pictures from the side. I think it has gotten larger.

 

[Michigan Chicken]

In another post, somebody autopsied something that looked just like this. Rotten and stinking inside. If she doesn't die in a few days, I am going to have to kill her.

 

[Michigan Chicken]

just saw a post from another person, whose chicken had the same thing, exactly. They said the tumor hardened and eventually separated and fell off!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Are all the maggots gone or are you still battling them too?

 

[Michigan Chicken]

Are all the maggots gone or are you still battling them too?

maggots are gone, as far as I can tell. I haven't seen any since I first sprayed with flysx

 

[Michigan Chicken]

4th morning, hen still looking lively, eating well, normal droppings. I think that tumor must be an immune response to wall off the maggot infested area, isolate it in a cyst, and allow the area behind it to form a new epidermis. If you look at the chicken from the front, you would never know anything was wrong.