Is there any way to save this hen?

[casportpony]

*All* of that needs to come off, now, this is life or death for her. Get a warm, wet cloth and apply it to the area, then pick nasty stuff off.

-Kathy

 

[Keggen]

Ok she is isolated for the moment. I am not opposed to doing a humane killing, we will do that if necessary. I was just hoping to do as much for her as possible if I can. If you can see in the pictures, the injury is higher up to the left and is circular. That is where the maggots were. At first glance it didn't look so bad considering how rough it looked the first day. I thought she was healing except for this poop stuff.

I am going to try to clean her butt again but I am still trying to understand what it is and why it is happening. Is that diarrhea? Is it infection coming out of her rear end? Is it just poop? It is like glue and very difficult to get off. I ran her under water the other day for at least 20 minutes and couldn't get much off. I am hesitant to scrub or cause friction because I know the area is sore/tender. The best way seems to brush at it when it is kind of dry and then it comes off in pieces.

What the heck is it though?

 

[casportpony]

Look up fly strike. If you get it wet enough it will come off, probably with some scab and feathers, but trust me, you can get it off.

-Kathy

 

[SunnySkies]

You can kill maggots with Sevin dust, which you can use on chickens.

 

[casportpony]

My theory on why it's happening is that she has vent gleet from either parasites, bacteria or fungus and that the constant dripping of the white stuff (urates) has caused a sore which the flies got into and now her whole backside is involved.

-Kathy

 

[Eggcessive]

Try putting her in a tub or sink full of arm soapy water--that may be easier on her, and most say the maggots will come off easier. You will have your work cut out for you, but you can save her. Eventually when all of the maggots are off and out, get a product called SWAT for horses to apply after she heals--this will keep flies off, but she needs to be kept in the house for now.

 

[MelissaTXRn]

That's awful. I would put her out of her misery.

 

[casportpony]

I've seen way worse, this is treatable, but will require hard work on the part of the OP.

-Kathy

 

[JoePa]

Keggen - raising chickens isn't hard - in fact it's easy - if you follow some very simple rules - one of them is - don't get attached to them - as some as one gets sick - cull it - plain and simple - people make it hard on themselves when they start doctoring their chickens - if you can't cull a chicken then you shouldn't be raising them - I have a lot of suggestions on how to raise chickens the easy way -

 

[Clucky Me]

Yep, I am one of those hypocrites that will go buy a chicken to eat but would probably have a really hard time culling.