her leg to her hip is ripped off but the bone is still there and there's a green spot on her hip to chest area we've been doing as much research as we can her leg was gone after day 1 but now rotting and there's maggots we used hydrogen peroxide and washed her leg with water and I thought we got most of the maggots off of her but they still a whole infestation on it we started cutting some feathers off from the area so it would be easier to see my mom saying the maggots are good cuz that means they're eating the dead skin off of her but it's still nasty smelly to see her leg like this she's barely eating or drinking is sleeping a lot more than she usually does
Thank u I'm scared if the maggots are helping us or not to
@Katie98 You and your Mom bought some products to take care of the wound. Can you tell us what you have on hand?
The maggots will damage the skin and cause infection. It's very important to get rid of the maggots. Infection and maggots is why she smells bad.
Fill up a dish pan with warm soapy water (you can use original Dawn). Place your hen's legs in the water and wash really well, try to get all the maggots off that you can. Look under her wings as well - if she has injuries further up, she may have maggots there too.
Flush those wounds out really well - that brown stuff is "yuck", rinse that off or use a cloth to wipe it away.
Trim the feathers away from the wounds and take some photos so we can see the damage.
If you still find maggots after the cleaning up, then pick them off with tweezers. Dry her well.
Depending on what you have on hand - I would swab the wounds with Chlorhexidine or Betadine or other anti-septic. I would not use the Peroxide any more. Apply triple antibiotic ointment to the wounds.
The foot, I would leave alone at the moment. The skin looks like it's drying up, likely she's going to lose some more toes.
Place her on clean dry bedding. You can use puppy pads if you have them.
She's going down quickly due to infection. Give her a bit of sugar water to help perk her up. If you have poultry vitamins, those would be good.
To give her a fighting chance, I would really recommend antibiotics. Check with your local feed store like
Tractor Supply - some of them carry Amoxicillin, if your's had that, then get the Amoxicillin. If not, then get some Procaine Penicillin G (it's in the refrigerated section) along with syringes in 20gauge needles. (dosing for both below)
Amoxcillin dose is 57 mg per pound of weight given orally twice a day for 7 days.
Procaine Penicillin G dosie is 1/2 ml injected into the breast muscle once a day for 5-7 days. Alternate sides every day.
Let us know how she's doing.
