Maggots On Vent!!!!( Graphic Image Stuck In My Head)

[44Wolves]

Hmm. I dont have plain yogurt..........

 

[Gerbil]

We found a turkey like that, She made it through. Just trying to give some hope.

We gave her strawberry yogurt.

 

[valsey]

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I don't think you want the sugar in flavored. In a pinch I've gotten the stuff that says"fruit on the bottom" and just given the yogurt part. Buttermilk will also have the good stuff in it.

 

[valsey]

To those of you that have had this - where did it come from and/or what caused it? One of my hens had it too and I thought it was from sitting to much. Ideas?

Michaelmay - the wound-kote does a great job for stuff like this and keeps out flies

 

[Gerbil]

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I don't think you want the sugar in flavored. In a pinch I've gotten the stuff that says"fruit on the bottom" and just given the yogurt part. Buttermilk will also have the good stuff in it.

That's kinda what we used.

 

[cejones119]

It is actually possible for maggots to eat through healthy skin. It happens less often because usually the eggs/maggots will be removed before that happens, but it is possible. Just takes longer. Make sure you get in there with a pair of tweezers and get ALL the maggots out. Keep it clean with the diluted betadine and keep her inside at least until she scabs over. Even then, you'll have to keep a close eye on her when she goes outside, check every day for fly eggs. They look like teeny tiny grains of rice. You are probably right about them laying in the diarrhea stuck to her bum, so my suggestion would be to try to tackle that problem so that you don't have this issue in the future. Good luck!
Also, I too have seen the horror of a vent infested with maggots, that image never leaves your mind...

 

[jaimslee4u]

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- NO trust me it the image doesn't go away!

 

[jaimslee4u]

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My hen was an internal layer. This time however we couldn't get her to recover. She would stop walking & couldn't get our of her own way. The poopy would stick and her vent area would get raw. It didn't take long for it to happen, & I felt awful when I found her.

 

[valsey]

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Oh I know. And then, just to imagine what they might be feeling! I felt the same way you did. What a horrific mess. Poor things...

 

[ellend]

Maggots can and do eat through healthy skin. I have much experience, sadly, of removing maggots from entire litters of orphaned wildllife. Damp, compromised skin, especially if covered in excrement, is a perfect place for maggots. If there is just one hole, drip hydrogen peroxide into it and stand by with tweezers until the maggot becomes visible. IMPORTANT to KEEP REPEATING until you are POSITIVE there is not even ONE left. If you get them ALL, the wound heals rapidly. If it doesn't look better in two or three days, check again with hydrogen peroxide, to make sure that none were missed. As a previous post noted, carefully examine her for fly eggs--FREQUENTLY!!!! On mammal babies you will find them in the creases where limbs join the body, in the anus and urinary opening, umbilicus, behind ears, and in the corners of the eyes. You will notice all mothers pay particular attention to grooming these areas on their babies. They keep the fly eggs removed. Once Mom is removed from the picture, the eggs remain, hatch, and start eating. Where they eat, they also produce waste. Waste further breaks down the tissues, and the feast goes on.

Frequent betadine rinses or flushes are safer than ointment. Ointments are fine for wounds that are open, but deep wounds or wounds with tracts (tunnels) with a small opening can harbor bacteria (including those that cause gangrene.) If you seal up the top of the wound, or allow it to self-seal before the deeper parts heal, you set up conditions for anaerobic ("no-oxygen") bacteria to grow. That's why Mom (and Doctor) always told you NO ointments on puncture wounds! FAR better a draining wound than a sealed, bacteria and fluid-filled wound.

Any animal with excrement on the skin needs to be very gently cleaned and dried immediately. Even daily is not really enough to avoid damaged skin. She's been very "lucky" up until this point. Ammonia-burned skin is VERY painful. It may be worth assessing whether you are doing her a favor by not "dispatching" her, if you're not able to solve her diarrhea problem. I'm not suggesting that this would be easy.

One thought; there are products on the market for people with colostomies, to protect the skin under the colostomy appliance ("bag".) These wipes provide a barrier between the adhesive and the skin, and also protect the skin from wetness. Check with a nurse in your area; if you can get some, and it DRIES without stickiness, applying it immediately under her vent may protect her skin from ammonia burn, and also make the excrement easier to remove without damaging her skin.

Glad you caught the infestation in time; good luck!