Maggots....

[holderh]

I have a two year old hen who I noticed yesterday she wasnt acting right. She is wild and wont let us touch her so I dont handle her much. I finally caught her today and found her problem. She has at least an inch deep hole on her hip...close to her vent. well there are maggots in it. I called our vet and he said all we could do is clean her up with dawn dish detergent and if it doesnt help put her down. I had already cleaned her up and seperated her from the flock but I cant get the maggots out. I am pretty sure she is too far gone and is going to have to be put down but I am just concerned as to why this would happen and want to prevent this problem from happing to the rest of my flock. This particular hen was missing on tuesday when i put them up for the afternoon in their run. When my husband shut the coop door that night he said somehow she found her way in. We just wonder if something got after her and she got away or if when she got back in she scratched herself but we never noticed a wound on her. she started acting funny yesterday. This hen also keeps nasty feathers covered in fecal matter on her bottom. She isnt the only hen that has that problem but not all of my hens have that problem either. This has been going on for about a year now...they had worms and I have wormed them a few times for this and cleaned them up and I have also had to clipped off the nasty feathers but some of them are just nasty agian the next day. I am going to take a fecal sample to the vet to be sure they dont have any bacterial problems but this has been going on for a year and none of them have had any problems other than a nasty rear end. They free range for most of the day and I check them every so often for mites and lice , I dust them down if i find any but they also have dusting holes in the yard and i have one in the run for when they cant get out. I clean out the coop every 3-6 months so i really dont know what else to do to keep them healthy. Its use less to clean up their rear ends cause its just nasty the next day. I feed them layer pellets, a little scratch, Black oil sun flower seeds, every so often i put probiotics and electrolites in there water and i give them apple cider vinager too. Does this sound like maybe she hurt herself and the flies laid their eggs in the wound or flies laid some eggs on her messy feathers? Any ideas?

 

[dawg53]

Try trimming their feathers and fluff back so they'll have a "clear shot" to the ground.

 

[VintageLilFarm]

I have a two year old Buff Orpington. Yesterday I noticed she was acting puny. Over the weekend, we saw feathers around from a few of our birds, but sat outside for a few hours at a time on both Saturday and Sunday, and everyone was acting fine. So when she was acting puny yesterday, I thought it could be because we switched to a nozzle watering bucket and wondered if maybe they were not discovering how to do it, and I had only put one bowl of water out. So I gave her water, which she drank.

I was out last night and, when I arrived home, she was not roosting in the coop like the others, but sitting on the floor. She let me pick her up (not common) and she started dripping blood. At first I thought it was from her vent. Upon closer inspection, I saw she has a wound down near her vent, just below and off to the side. I sprayed BluKote (it was almost midnight by then and had nothing else, even though it is a deep wound), saw it stopped ripping blood, then kept her quiet and isolated all night inside my house. This morning she was still alive and I got to thinking about how animals attack in a bite and that maybe there was more.

So, sure enough, neat the base of her tail, on top, was another wound, and it was squirming --- SO DISGUSTING -- BOTH WOUNDS WERE CRAWLING WITH MAGGOTS at different stages of development. Apparently she is a tough cookie and was tolerating the wounds with no symptoms readily noticed, but the maggots are getting her.

I tweezed off all I could get, then flushed with a neem and tea tree mixture. I let it sit a couple minutes (they were clearly trying to get away from it), then soaked her in anti-bacterial soapy water, with a tad of bleach added. She seemed to enjoy that. I left her in for at least five minutes, with both areas submerged. But there were still tiny squiggling maggots when I pulled her out. I towel dried her and squirted more neem, tea tree mixture then let it sit. When I looked, I did not see any movement after a few minutes. I took the blow dryer to her, I have offered her cat food soaked in homemade plain yogurt, which she will not eat. I wiped some yogurt on her beak and she did lick it so I did it a few times.

Suggestions I have gleaned are to apply SWAT to make sure all maggots are gone and to ward off additional laying of eggs, maybe try to obtain ivermectin and give a drop on the tongue to kill from the inside, to purchase some kind of anti-biotic that I would give to her in a shot. Some also say to keep flushing with betadine to avoid a fungal infection. Anyone have specific ideas of what shot to give? Should I do both ivermectin and SWAT? What else? I don't want to use overkill and kill her from meds or treatment stress. I use DE and ACV and have not had problems with parasites or sickness, and used non medicated feed with babies with no losses (I keep things pretty clean) and they are not accustomed to meds.

I'd like to save her if it isn't too hard on her. Input on that? What else should I do? I'm headed out to Wilco and/or Coastal shortly and want to buy what I need. I have many essential oils on hand, as well as neem. I also have BluKote and VetRX.

She is two and was in good health previous to this. My birds are on hand mixed feed at night, which contains 4-5 bacillus strains, sea kelp, etc. and free range all day.

I'd really appreciate any and all help, advice and input I can get ASAP. Thank you so much!

 

[JacP]

I would clip all the feathers back off the area around the hole maggots only eat dead flesh..
Get a dousing syringe a big one, wrap her up on your counter & start cleaning them out. Flush the wound over & over. Get tweezers & pick em out..
Whatever means needed..
Wash with diluted hibataine after & use a gentle polysporin To pack the hole after the poly will likely choak out the others that get left behind..
Keep it clean!
Get her on an antibiotic ASAP
Is she eating & drinking on her own?

 

[realsis]

great advice from above post! you can use a anti infective antibiotic like Gallamycine water soluble or a injection of LA200 once daily at 1/2 cc in the breast muscle
. start the antibiotics ASAP.I'd opt for the injection as you will get a more controlled and concentrated dose. especially since she's not drinking as she should! the injections should really help her out! best of luck. use the injection for 5 to 7 days.

 

[VintageLilFarm]

Thank you so much!

It has been a few hours and I still see no more maggot movement or any signs there are any more. I will keep watching. But it looks like flushing with neem and tea tree solution (with an epi bottle) did the trick.

Can I buy the Gallamycine or LA200 at a feed store (like Coastal or Wilco)? I will start her immediately after I find some.

No, she doesn't seem to be eating or drinking on her own at this point. She was yesterday. I did leave some cat food and homemade yogurt in for her and it seems less, but could just be the absorption of the yogurt into the cat food. If I drop sugar water or yogurt on her beak, she licks it off so she is getting a tiny bit that way. Should i attempt to feed her with a syringe or wait after a dose or two of antibiotic? Should i try electrolytes?

She is still squirming at times when I try to treat her. I have her laying down now, but she was sleeping while standing with her head tucked into her back. Which is preferable?

Also, there seems to be some differing opinions about covering it or letting it dry out -- cell migration vs. scabbing. Any opinions there?

Should I powder her with any dry remedy? Or be applying triple anti biotic? Cover it with a bandage of some sort? I'm afraid she'd peck at it and ingest some bandaging material...

 

[JacP]

If ur teating with a topical anti-b & you have her on something I'm or oral I wouldn't worry about bandaging if she is separated out & not bothering with it.
You do need to get her to eat & soon!
I feel that's the reason my hen just passed, I didn't get enough food into her quick enough!
If u have polyvisol I would give her a few drops, water with electros, & egg yolk as soon as you can.
If she will not eat, start feeding her baby bird formula via sryinging ASAP. No eating is going to compermise her.
Keep yor eye on that wound!

 

[VintageLilFarm]

Well, the only antibiotic readily available was penicillin so that's what I gave her. They said once yesterday and once today, then see how she does.

I flushed with the neem and tea tree oil solution, soaked her in soap and (barely any) bleach water, then flushed with oil solution again and still no sign on maggots since Wednesday afternoon. Hopefully no more survived or will hatch, but I will keep watching. Hen nibbled a little and has been resting but is not listless. Hopefully she will continue to improve. I have her in the house still, isolated in the bathroom, so hoping no flies get in there.

 

[VintageLilFarm]

She had a pretty normal poop last night, so she must not have been w/o food for long before I discovered her wound and infestation. I think I will offer her some egg in a bit but I'm pretty sure she's been eating the yogurt...

Thank you so very much to all of you who have been helping me.

 

[JacP]

Good news if she is eating!
Give her egg & honey..