Maggots on vent injury.

[flowers4me22]

Can anyone advise me what more can I do for my chicken? I found maggots on a large tear on the side of my chickens vent. We washed the wound in the tub (washing away all maggots seen) rinsed area with saline then sprayed the wound with Vetericyn. We separated her from the others but she's not eating or drinking without being forced to.

 

[coach723]

Pictures are helpful. You are dealing with flystrike, which can be very serious. You did the right things so far. You will need to check her several times a day to make sure that you remove any maggots that continue to hatch, use tweezers if necessary. Move her to a place where no more flies can get to her until she heals. Continue to use the veterycin, or you can use plain neosporin ointment or plain triple antibiotic ointment on the wound. Trim back any feathers that are getting in the wound, this will help keep it clean, and help you see to make sure you don't miss any maggots. Recovery depends on how soon you caught the flystrike, how severe the wound is, and infection. If maggots did not enter her abdominal cavity, she has a chance. Make sure she stays hydrated, that is more important than food initially. Some electrolites in her water, sav-a-chick, pedialite, gatorade is helpful, dip her beak to see if you can get her to drink. If you have some poultry nutri-drench give her some of that. You can try scrambled or chopped up cooked egg, some canned tuna, or mixing her feed with water to make a mash to see if you can get her to eat. Hopefully she will start feeling better and perk up and start eating and drinking on her own. Here is some more info on flystrike:
https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/flystrike-a-chicken-killer-cuddles-beats-the-odds-again/
https://the-chicken-chick.com/flystrike-in-backyard-chickens-causes/

 

[Rivington]

We went through this recently and (in addition to the advice given above by coach723) we made a saline bath by mixing salt and warm tap water and holding the chicken in it to drown the maggots. We let her air dry since it was warm and sunny but I have seen suggestions to use a blow dryer. We had to do this two or three times over the course of a few days.

 

[Folly's place]

Look carefully for more fly eggs and hatching maggots everywhere on her, not just around the vent. Permethrin spray or dust helps, but it's so important to remove every one of them immediately!
Coach has great advice!
She might like applesauce too, or anything she will drink or eat.
Often/ usually there's a problem with the bird, and then the flies move in. I hope she recovers, it's a horrible event!
Mary

 

[flowers4me22]

Pictures are helpful. You are dealing with flystrike, which can be very serious. You did the right things so far. You will need to check her several times a day to make sure that you remove any maggots that continue to hatch, use tweezers if necessary. Move her to a place where no more flies can get to her until she heals. Continue to use the veterycin, or you can use plain neosporin ointment or plain triple antibiotic ointment on the wound. Trim back any feathers that are getting in the wound, this will help keep it clean, and help you see to make sure you don't miss any maggots. Recovery depends on how soon you caught the flystrike, how severe the wound is, and infection. If maggots did not enter her abdominal cavity, she has a chance. Make sure she stays hydrated, that is more important than food initially. Some electrolites in her water, sav-a-chick, pedialite, gatorade is helpful, dip her beak to see if you can get her to drink. If you have some poultry nutri-drench give her some of that. You can try scrambled or chopped up cooked egg, some canned tuna, or mixing her feed with water to make a mash to see if you can get her to eat. Hopefully she will start feeling better and perk up and start eating and drinking on her own. Here is some more info on flystrike:
https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/flystrike-a-chicken-killer-cuddles-beats-the-odds-again/
https://the-chicken-chick.com/flystrike-in-backyard-chickens-causes/

Thank you for your advise. This morning I rinsed the wound using the shower nozzle, removed another maggot, rinsed the area with saline, sprayed veterycin, then slathered area with neosporine. I'm happy to report she's drinking pedialite from a dropper and has eaten mill worms and feed. The thing is I'm not sure I got 100% of all the maggots. How can I be sure the maggots have not entered her abdominal cavity and if they did what do I do next? Please help and once again thank you.

 

[coach723]

Time will tell. Just keep doing what you are doing. If they have gotten inside there is nothing you can do. Hopefully that didn't happen and she will continue to improve. That she is perking up and feeling better is a good sign. Just keep checking and removing any that you do find. Keeping it moist and covered in ointment is also going to help. Eggs that were laid on her can continue to hatch for a while so being vigilant about checking is important and removing any that show up. Flystrike can happen if there is an open wound, or if droppings are built up in the feathers around the vent. Sometimes if a bird has a poopy butt it may possibly be caused by another health issue, which is what @Folly's place was saying. But poopy butts have many causes, so it's just something to be aware of with her down the road. Keeping her on puppy pads or clean towels rather than on loose bedding is also helpful in keeping things clean and monitoring her droppings. If the wound is in a place that can get droppings on it when she poops then you will need to keep that cleaned up as much as possible.

 

[flowers4me22]

We went through this recently and (in addition to the advice given above by coach723) we made a saline bath by mixing salt and warm tap water and holding the chicken in it to drown the maggots. We let her air dry since it was warm and sunny but I have seen suggestions to use a blow dryer. We had to do this two or three times over the course of a few days.

How can I be sure there are no more maggots? How would I get rid of All maggots?

 

[flowers4me22]

Look carefully for more fly eggs and hatching maggots everywhere on her, not just around the vent. Permethrin spray or dust helps, but it's so important to remove every one of them immediately!
Coach has great advice!
She might like applesauce too, or anything she will drink or eat.
Often/ usually there's a problem with the bird, and then the flies move in. I hope she recovers, it's a horrible event!
Mary

Thank you for your concern Mary. I'm so worried about not getting 100% of the maggots, can you offer any advise to help be rid of the maggots?

 

[flowers4me22]

Time will tell. Just keep doing what you are doing. If they have gotten inside there is nothing you can do. Hopefully that didn't happen and she will continue to improve. That she is perking up and feeling better is a good sign. Just keep checking and removing any that you do find. Keeping it moist and covered in ointment is also going to help. Eggs that were laid on her can continue to hatch for a while so being vigilant about checking is important and removing any that show up. Flystrike can happen if there is an open wound, or if droppings are built up in the feathers around the vent. Sometimes if a bird has a poopy butt it may possibly be caused by another health issue, which is what @Folly's place was saying. But poopy butts have many causes, so it's just something to be aware of with her down the road. Keeping her on puppy pads or clean towels rather than on loose bedding is also helpful in keeping things clean and monitoring her droppings. If the wound is in a place that can get droppings on it when she poops then you will need to keep that cleaned up as much as possible.

When you say "gotten inside" do you mean between the skin and organs or actually inside her stomach? I'm also a little confused about applying/not applying Neosporin because in one of the web sites you recommended it suggests not to apply any ointment, reason being that maggots like "gooey" places.

 

[flowers4me22]

How long did you soak her in the saline water to drown the maggots?