I accidentally (stupidly) sprayed a hen with wasp spray - what to do?

[Malkaris]

Ignoring the fact I'm an idiot brieftly, I took what I thought was my poultry bug stuff from its spot and sprayed one of my hens because they've been doing a lot of headshaking at night... only it was Dr. Doom wasp spray. I realized it as I was spraying and brought her into the house, sprayed her with Dawn foam, then rinsed her really well but... I don't know what else to do? It's a toxic product absorbed through the skin. I haven't had any success getting through to the company yet. I tried to Google it but probably no one on earth has done something so moronic...

 

[Hannahnic14]

It sounds like you did a good job, I would make sure she drinks alot to help flush her system. Maybe someone else has better advice!

 

[Malkaris]

It sounds like you did a good job, I would make sure she drinks alot to help flush her system. Maybe someone else has better advice!

Thanks for the support. I'm off to sleep but we'll see what happens. I read some more about what to do if it were a person or other mammal since I couldn't find anything specifically about poultry. I also eventually reached the poultry vet who felt that washing was all I could do. I'm making the notes below in the unlikely case anyone else ever does this:

Usually the advice is 15-20 minutes of flushing with cold water but since I figured that would also be bad for a chicken, I opted for a second bath in warm water + dish detergent. I was out of foam Dawn so I used liquid Sunlight, which I normally prefer anyway. I put her in a bucket of warm soapy water for even longer than before and swished it to get it around her skin, especially places I knew I'd sprayed. (I imagine one long bath is fine, but if the water is cooling, then dumping it and preparing a second bath I think would be better.) Then I rinsed her in the bathtub faucet as well as I could.

After the longest and frankly most challenging part: drying a sopping wet chicken. Seemed like it took about an hour with towels and a blow dryer. It was about... +26C I think? But the breeze felt cold, so I was trying to keep her in the sun but warmed and fluffed with the blow dryer.

Whether it was the chemicals, and/or wet & cold, she seemed to be having trouble walking for a while. Alert, good appetite strong grip with her toes - but her coordination was off. She walked a bit like a duck. After she was dry she wanted to be in the shade. I left her there for a while and then after maybe an hour moved her into a sunny spot. The warmth helped, as did her flock-mates perhaps. As of this evening she was acting pretty much normally but we'll have to see.

I'm assuming there are two dangers:
- The neurotoxin
- The petroleum distillates used as a carrier

The latter I'm guessing may take a day or two to manifest. Merck's page said that PDs used as a carrier isn't a big concern, but I don't think that was a poultry specific article.

Bottom line: Don't spray your hens with wasp spray!

 

[Artichoke Lover]

@Malkaris How is she doing today? I’ve always been scared of accidentally hitting one with spray or them eating a dead wasp I didn’t find.