I had to kill my prized hen today because of maggots!!!

[Chick named Lola]

Clean a chicken? Like give them baths? Really?

 

[dwegg]

Thank you to everyone for your kind words but mostly for reassuring me that I did the right thing. I was not going to post about this because I just couldn't believe that I let this awful thing happen. I mean I feed my girls organic feed, yogurt, fresh greens, scrambled eggs and oatmeal on cold mornings. I have vitamins, rooster booster products, oyster shell ect..anything I can get for them they have.

And to allow maggots to get onto one of my girls? I must admit that I do not handle some of my girls because they do not like it so I let them do what they want. The coop always has DE spread around and cleaned bedding ect. But the flies were on her on Sunday when they were out free ranging.

I know now that I CAN'T leave a pasty butt when someone has one. I also found out that I CAN bath a chicken. I am also glad that people can learn from this experience. With the cold snap coming this week it should kill off any flies but I put up a fly zapper and some vanilla car fresheners also just to be sure.

 

[Luke0987654321]

so sorry for your loss,



luke.

 

[ReiMiraa]

someone else had that happen on here to their silky roo.

i think its called fly strike. the roo lived... but the owner had a $500+ vet bill. and it was likely the maggots had gone into the vent and infested the chicken.
fly strike has been known to kill horses, they are not your average maggots, they eat live flesh.

good luck. i reccomend a few dozen fly traps....

 

[Smiles-N-Sunshine]

Quote:
Sure. Not regularly, as they keep themselves clean with dust baths and preening, but definitely pasty-butt little peeps.

OP, sorry you lost your hen!

 

[Chick named Lola]

This is so horrible that this has happened. But I do want to learn. How often should I check their behinds, I only did it when they were little, I didn't know I needed to do it now

I assume I should only bathe them when they have poo on them? Boy, they aren't gonna like that...that, cannot be an easy task! Is there a thread on chicken bathing?

We just had a good frost and freeze so I'm not worried about flies right now but as soon as spring hits I will be on it like stink on ....you know Where do I get these fly traps? Tractor Supply, Home Depot, Southern States? I can't really do fly strips because my coop/run are pretty small and my girl would get caught up in them. I do them them free range (supervised after a good scare) for a couple hours a day. I do clean the bedding each day...just the big poo's...I am doing the dlm and I clean every poo I see from the run. I clean up all uneaten produce each day and their feed up in the coop. They are worth every bit of effort/work they take, I love them dearly and I really want to learn the correct way of caring for them. I'm sorry I have so many questions!!!

 

[Sillystunt]

don"t be to hard on yourself! These things happen and sometimes we have hard choices to make. my silkie got attacked by the dog & had a rip on her back. Not realizing it was a good size rip, i just checked for blood & thought she was good. The next day my husband noticed the maggots & i fainted! How could i be so stupid, not check, bring her in, etc etc. Sometimes we just overlook things & we don't realize.

He cleaned her wound out and we saved her but it was horrible. The rooster passed & i often feel guilty but i know these things just happen! I chalked it up as a lesson for the future when dealing with boo boo's.

Sorry for your loss, you did the right thing even though it was hard!

 

[Uzuri]

For those of you worried about needing to bathe your chickens to take care of pasting -- don't. It's far, far easier to clean them up once and trim their bum feathers. Crap doesn't stick = no maggots. I just pluck my one problem child*. She doesn't like it, but it works.



*Gently. Don't grab huge handfuls of feathers and yank.

 

[Red&Yellow]

I'm sorry this happened to you.

This happened to me a month ago. My hen had been looking under the weather for about a month, then finally she wouldn't get up. I took her out of the coop and put her with chicks, so she wouldn't get picked on. After a rain, I saw the maggots, and took her head off. She was my first one too.

 

[Lbrad7]

Sorry about your loss but rest assured that you did the right thing.