Open wound and maggots! What do I do?!?

[SandraChick]

because peroxide does "eat" flesh...I always use a betadyne "tea" for any of my animals' wounds. I learned this method from my vet after my neighbors dog almost killed my dog and left some nasty puncture wounds.

Take betadyne and water it down to a tea color. You can flush the wound out really good. I have some syringes (without the needle) that I use to really get the betadyne all in the wounds. Then I use antibiotic cream and cover if necessary.

It's best if you can do it twice a day- at least at first- until all signs of infection (or maggots in your case) are gone.

At this point....it would be good to get him some antibiotics...I thinkg Batryl is one of the better one's for birds...but I haven't had to use antibiotics for my birds yet (knock on wood)...so I have no personal experience.

GOOD LUCK....HANG IN THERE! We all do the best we can.

Sandra

 

[FarmGirlNE]

Quote:
I bet... seeing that yesterday was the nastiest thing I've ever seen... I don't have that much of a weak stomach, but it really grossed me out. bf was questioning my wanting to go into raising poultry and having a hatchery because of how grossed out I was and the fact that you have to deal with things like this when you have a poultry farm, or any kind of livestock farm I guess...

The other problem he pointed out is that I worry about hurting them, he told me to hold the tom by the neck, and my tom was jerking and pulling away so bad I'd let go because I was worried he'd snap his neck lol I don't get rough with my birds at all and probably worry more than I should about hurting them. Even after dealing with the birds this long, I can't pick up a chicken and hold it by it's legs like I've seen people do, although I know it doesn't hurt them.

 

[FarmGirlNE]

Quote:
I don't know what betadyne is, I'll look it up though.... bf's old German method for killing fleas is to boil tobacco into a "tea" solution, strain it, and spray/pour it on the animal... sounds sorta like what you're talking about, but with tobacco instead... do you think this would work for maggots also? It's all natural, shouldn't hurt the flesh. I haven't tried it on our dogs/cats yet for fleas, but he says it works... but... when he told me about when they did it to their flea infested dog, it didn't sound like it kills the fleas, but repels it... he said they didn't put it on the dog's face, and the fleas ran up to the dog's face, so they patted it on the face, then on the rest of the body, the fleas ran down the dog's tail into the water and drowned... so didn't exactly sound like it kills them... but is supposed to repel them for about a week after doing it. He was wanting to do this to my tom, I'm just wondering if I'd be wasting my time or if it might actually work.

 

[dlhunicorn]

get your self soem of those cheap disposable surgical type gloves (they come in handy for soooo many things especially when having to clean after animals!!!) ... that will help your natural repulsion of having to deal with the icky stuff /maggots on the bird...
Pouring nicotine tea (which by the way is extrememly toxic to birds so I would NOT use this as the bird may preen or so and ingest it this way)... or peroxide or madly dusting with the sevin is not going to replace the need to hand pick the blasted things off...you will simply have to keep monitoring the wounds and hand-picking them off and OUT of the flesh (look carefully>>>the main reason they use the peroxide is that is makes smallest maggots which are embedded in the flesh withdraw so you can get at them and pick them off> not to kill them). Check at your feed store for a spray (usually sold for sheep) that is sold for screwworm ... it is very effective to help that no new flies will come along and start laying in the open wounds...

 

[thndrdancr]

Betadine is just an iodine wash, if you have iodine, you could dilute it and use it, would be about the same I imagine.
Walmart carries the betadine too, if you need it in the future, its in the pharmacy/med section.

Get that guy to help you, no way can you hold a big turkey and doctor it at the same time, for pity sake!

 

[SandraChick]

You can use betadyne or Iodine...both basically the same.

I agree with dianna....you just plain need to pick out the maggots. If your BF can't help...get yourself a sheet and wrap it around the bird so it can't move it's wings (not so tight it can't breathe though...they don't have a diaphram). Then...You may have to actually sort of "sit" on the bird so you can work on him without a second person. I hope I'm being clear...it's hard to explain.

The iodine/betadyne tea is to fight infection....it's one of the few things you can use internally--that's why it's good in this situation.


This is doable...just jump in there with both feet---I bet you'll be just fine!

Good Luck
Sandra

 

[rooster-red]

After picking out all the maggots that you can find, smear the wound with an antibiotic ointment.

It will help seal off the holes that the maggots breath through, suffocating them. they will usually try to escape the wound to breathe and you can pick those off too.
A pair of tweezers will help pull them out of the flesh.

 

[FarmGirlNE]

I put him down tonight

before I saw the posts here about not using tobacco, we dipped him... started pouring as soon as we got him dipped, once it stopped pouring I went back out to check him over, clean him up, pick off the maggots... he was in a lot of pain, wouldn't let me touch his back where the maggots had been, the sores on his butt were really red, with a few maggots on it... I couldn't let him suffer.

I couldn't do it the "right" way either... did the dry ice thing I'd heard about, dry ice in a cooler, the fumes knock them out, then suffocate them... didn't knock him out quite as fast as I'd understood it would, but I don't think he suffered... I hope.

I would've cut his head off... I might could've done it... but... I was so worried about not doing it right, and causing more suffering...

It's been a rough night... and I'm sooooo ticked at my bf, he's not here tonight, I called him and told him I was putting the tom down, and he said he should've done it when we found the maggots on him (they'd obviously been there too long already), he knew the tom wouldn't make it, but he didn't want to do it... he always chooses to let the birds suffer rather than making himself uncomfortable by culling them...

 

[justusnak]

Awww, farmgirl....I am so sorry. You did the right thing tho. He is not suffering anymore.

 

[dlhunicorn]

we all learn from these sad incidents... and unfortunately flystrike in poultry is more common than you might think (people hesitant to report) ...
:aww so very sorry you lost him...