I have a hen with maggots in her vent.

[diannawilliamson]

My husband told me today that he thought one of the barred rocks was ill. She is older. My chickens are free range. So this evening when she returned to the chicken coop, I was able to pull her out and take a look. I have no experience with this. Actually, I have only had chickens for about five years. She appears to be prolasped, but full of maggots. I couldn't think of anything else to do so I poored mineral oil into that area after washing her. I was hoping to force the maggots out. I also placed a piece of worm medicine you give dogs internally, only I placed it in the vent. Then I put her in a box in the garage so the other chickens wouldn't pick at her. Until today, I didn't notice her acting funny. I really didn't no what else to do that I had around the house. I saw someone else say to put kerosene on her, but that seems cruel. Can anyone tell me what is the proper thing to do? I keep them powdered.

 

[My Little Sister's Farm]

Chickens are prey, so until something is really wrong you usually can't tell something is a miss. It's not your fault you didn't see any funny behavior. As for what do you do, separating her is best and keeping it clean. I think maggots can live inside the body really well, especially bot fly larva (worbles i think they are called?) If she is eating and drinking water fine, she will probably recover. "Clean" larva don't spread disease, but in this case you are talking about maggots that are not captivity breed, so she may get sicker from them, but maggots do eat the dead flesh and by crawling over the life flesh, invigorate it to grow and renew. Keep an eye on her and although this isn't a common problem, stranger things can happen. I think you are doing the right thing, but if you have a vet you can consult over the phone, that would probably be a good idea too.

Oh and kerosene on an open wound doesn't sound like a fun day for the chicken's tushy

 

[seminolewind]

That's terrible. I guess flies laid eggs there. I would spray them with bug spray or put sevin powder on the tush. I don't know what to do about the prolapse. Maybe someone else knows.

 

[kees]

I would have someone help you hold her down so that you could use forceps to remove every single maggot, as gross as it may sound. They're feeding off of her flesh, and are really resilient. I've seen them live even after I poured straight bleach on them (not on a chicken). Please remove them from her body ASAP.