Maggots! emergency!

[plantguy90]

ok here's the update, she seems to be doing ok, stable now as i dont think anything is munching on her. put neosporin on the wound, looks better, recent inspection didnt show any more maggots surfacing. its hard because there is an opening between the skin and body that goes kind of deep where the maggots were digging, so am just hoping the flush was thorough and will keep rechecking, right now the wound looks like its trying to scab up and heal, though there is a lot of pus in that crevice. but right now i dont want to flush further unless i see more worms.

here is a pic, its not good because those cellphone pics are terrible, will try to take another one later with better camera. but it does look like its in heal mode vs, hurt mode..

 

[stoopid]

Actually doesn't look as bad as I expected. Keep an eye on it, like I said about more hatching. The eggs could be hiding under the skin. Next is to find out why it happened, and fix that problem.
Don't put her back outside where she was until she is healed. And keep the ointment on it, looks like you're doing great so far.

 

[plantguy90]

Was that horse ointment called SWAT? Its got pyrethrin...

 

[chkn]

Yes, it's called SWAT. What it does is smother the little buggers. One or two applications should do. Yes, there can be quite a hole from the maggots but don't worry, no matter how bad it looks, you're chicken should heal up fine. The thing is to get on it right away since it's a life threatening emergency. He should improve almost immediately but if you feel he's not, maybe add some antibiotics to the treatment (topical, oral, whatever, depending). The first thing I'd do when I see a sickly chicken is look at the butt!

 

[chkn]

Quote:
Yes, it's the horse ointment. I think it's in a little pot with a blue label. Wonderful stuff!!! I had a rooster stumbling around looking like he wanted to die. Kept bathing him and washing off the maggots and they kept coming back. Then the SWAT was recommended to me by a gal down at the Farm Supply. One treatment and I'm sure they were gone. Put another one on 2-3 days later to be sure. My roo's long tail feathers never came back but he healed fine (oh yeah, he had a big cavity with maggots crawling in and out the insides). He was a good roo and I had him for many years after that. I'm pretty sure I lost at least one hen to that over the years and it's really too bad because I could have saved them all.

 

[cjwaldon]

I'm confused. Don't doctors use maggots to clean infected wounds because maggots only eat the rotting stuff and leave the good flesh alone? Or is that only for people, and not animals?

 

[jhuggs21]

Just went through the whole maggot deal with one of my roo's. I did the SWAT and I would recommend flushing it with a betadine/water mixture. That will kill any bacteria that is lingering in the wound. Hope she is doing okay.

 

[M@M@2four]

Apply peroxide and flush it with a saline solution(just warm water and salt)--this kills the maggots. Then LATHER the wound with neosporin. Keep her away from other chickens while she heals as well as flies. Good luck!

 

[Blue Ninja]

1. Flush good with a syringe filled with a betadine and warm water mixture (diluted to look like weak tea). 2. Pack wound with garlic POWDER not salt. This worked wonders on a terrible gash that split open even after suturing in the hot weather on one of my horses. Good luck! Or smear with triple antibiotic ointment. It's more of a broad spectrum than neosporin.

If you use peroxide only apply once as it also eats at live tissue.

 

[chkn]

Quote:
They may use a specially bred type of maggot or pull them before they eat the good tissue. The type of maggots we're used to seeing are attracted to rotting tissue or open sores but they just keep going, eating the good tissue. No, they'll tunnel right into the abdominal cavity and just keep going. The chicken essentially is being eaten alive and will only survive a few days without treatment. It's a horrible, horrible way to go. They know they are going to die and look like they'd just as soon get it over with. Their time is really running out by then. With proper treatment, no matter how big of a hole and no matter how futile it looks, treat anyway because a chicken can overcome so many injuries you'd think weren't possible. Most likely, 100% turn around in no time.