Pekin Duck with flystrike ???

[Honey_the_Pekin]

I just moved to Alabama from Ohio and I brought my two pet Pekin ducks of course. well on one of them I noticed there was what looked like dirt or poop all over her behind/vent area. Well when I got a closer look there were maggots everywhere on her skin, just eating away at her . There was no kind of open wound on her at all before this. Now, there is some spots where I think the maggots have eaten away at her skin causing wounds.. After extensive research and calling around I think she has flystrike. Down south here there are flys everywhere and mixed with the heat and humidity maybe thats what has caused it? I’ve been letting both of my ducks free range all day in the back yard/woods area.
I've brought her inside and scrubbed her with Dawn dish soap (scrubbed her so much i was crying knowing this probably was hurting her) I did an epsom salt bath and held her under it for 20 minutes to drown the worms (keeping just her head and neck above water) , and have repeated this twice. Hundreds if not thousands have fallen off of her. I'm kind of at a loss of what to do to prevent this or if flystrike is even what it is? Just wondering if anyone had any experience with anything like this before, or any advice of what I should do.
I’m keeping her in the bathtub over night to monitor her. Should I be concerned about her sister maybe having this too? I’ve checked her also and she looks clean but I’ve never had something like this happen so I’m stunned and heartbroken for her.

 

[Honey_the_Pekin]

I just moved to Alabama from Ohio and I brought my two pet Pekin ducks of course. well on one of them I noticed there was what looked like dirt or poop all over her behind/vent area. Well when I got a closer look there were maggots everywhere on her skin, just eating away at her . There was no kind of open wound on her at all before this. Now, there is some spots where I think the maggots have eaten away at her skin causing wounds.. After extensive research and calling around I think she has flystrike. Down south here there are flys everywhere and mixed with the heat and humidity maybe thats what has caused it? I’ve been letting both of my ducks free range all day in the back yard/woods area.
I've brought her inside and scrubbed her with Dawn dish soap (scrubbed her so much i was crying knowing this probably was hurting her) I did an epsom salt bath and held her under it for 20 minutes to drown the worms (keeping just her head and neck above water) , and have repeated this twice. Hundreds if not thousands have fallen off of her. I'm kind of at a loss of what to do to prevent this or if flystrike is even what it is? Just wondering if anyone had any experience with anything like this before, or any advice of what I should do.
I’m keeping her in the bathtub over night to monitor her. Should I be concerned about her sister maybe having this too? I’ve checked her also and she looks clean but I’ve never had something like this happen so I’m stunned and heartbroken for her.

 

[picklestheduck]

I just moved to Alabama from Ohio and I brought my two pet Pekin ducks of course. well on one of them I noticed there was what looked like dirt or poop all over her behind/vent area. Well when I got a closer look there were maggots everywhere on her skin, just eating away at her . There was no kind of open wound on her at all before this. Now, there is some spots where I think the maggots have eaten away at her skin causing wounds.. After extensive research and calling around I think she has flystrike. Down south here there are flys everywhere and mixed with the heat and humidity maybe thats what has caused it? I’ve been letting both of my ducks free range all day in the back yard/woods area.
I've brought her inside and scrubbed her with Dawn dish soap (scrubbed her so much i was crying knowing this probably was hurting her) I did an epsom salt bath and held her under it for 20 minutes to drown the worms (keeping just her head and neck above water) , and have repeated this twice. Hundreds if not thousands have fallen off of her. I'm kind of at a loss of what to do to prevent this or if flystrike is even what it is? Just wondering if anyone had any experience with anything like this before, or any advice of what I should do.
I’m keeping her in the bathtub over night to monitor her. Should I be concerned about her sister maybe having this too? I’ve checked her also and she looks clean but I’ve never had something like this happen so I’m stunned and heartbroken for her.

I’m no expert of flystrike, but I believe it’s crucial to manually remove them all with tweezers or fingers- if it is flystrike you are dealing with. Leave her inside for a while, how is she acting, is she eating and drinking and acting her normal self? If it is flystrike Yes soak her and scrub her before trying to pull them off/out. Can you get pictures up close of the effected area? Is it around her vent?

 

[Honey_the_Pekin]

I’m no expert of flystrike, but I believe it’s crucial to manually remove them all with tweezers or fingers- if it is flystrike you are dealing with. Leave her inside for a while, how is she acting, is she eating and drinking and acting her normal self? If it is flystrike Yes soak her and scrub her before trying to pull them off/out. Can you get pictures up close of the effected area? Is it around her vent?

Thank you so much for the quick reply! So when I first saw them on her there were literally so many I instantly walked her over to the pond and once she got in the water some started falling off. Well I figured with the pond water being dirty I should bring her inside and do a Dawn dish soap bath which caused hundreds to fall off her, from there I manually with tweezers removed the ones that looked like they were buried in her, I didn’t have anyone home to help me hold her as I did this so it was difficult to know for sure if they were really in the vent area. She is acting like her normal self just tired from the long day of my bathing and scrubbing her and I’m sure she is in pain. She won’t sit down she just stands and will constantly move her wings (I’ve checked under her wings and there’s no maggots or any wounds). I’ve also clipped a lot of feathers around her vent area to prevent any droppings sticking to her. After all the scrubbing and soaking her the skin around her vent area and where the maggots were is very dark but there are no maggots that I can see now.

 

[picklestheduck]

Ok! It sounds like you are on the right track! Keep checking her and making sure you don’t see more, and check her sister.

 

[picklestheduck]

@Eggcessive I don’t know much about flystrike, anything else they should do for the bird?

 

[Honey_the_Pekin]

@Eggcessive I’ve been up all night reading all of your posts and probably hundreds of other threads.

 

[Honey_the_Pekin]

@Eggcessive I don’t know much about flystrike, anything else they should do for the bird?

Ok! It sounds like you are on the right track! Keep checking her and making sure you don’t see more, and check her sister.

@picklestheduck I of course wasn’t able to sleep all night worried about her, I’ve constantly been checking her. She’s all dried now so it’s hard to see any of the wounds it looks like her feathers are all fluffed back up and covering her vent area. She’s perky, talking to me and pecking at my hands, she won’t eat much of her pellet food, but ate a bowl of grapes and drank a little water. Do you think I should give her another dawn dish soap bath just to see if there may have been more that hatched overnight? Or will that irritate her vent area further? I just want to really make sure every last maggot is gone.

 

[Eggcessive]

Hi, I just seeing this and sorry to hear about your duck with fly strike. It can be deadly if it has progressed, but glad that you have soaked her several times. I would continue the weak Dawn soaks until no more maggots are found. Vetericyn can be sprayed on the wounds to disinfect. Some just use saline. I would try to get her eating a healthy diet, and make sure that she is drinking. Offer some egg or tuna for a boost. It sounds like she is active, so that is good.