Sick Silkie with Dirty Vent

[aussie_chooks]

EDIT: Added some photos further down. It looks like maggots or something are in her vent

Hello everyone,

I woke up this morning to find my beautiful little silkie hovering in a dark corner looking very sad. She's 2.5 years old.

She had a dirty vent for a few days.This was the only symptom until today. This has happened once or twice in the past but she has always cleaned it up with a dust bath. When I picked her up this morning it looked much dirtier than it was yesterday and smelt bad. I gave her a warm bath and cleaned it up as much as I could. Her vent is red in the centre. I saw a small worm/bug (1cm, clearish white with a black thing in the centre?) near her vent. I've given her worming treatment (Kilverm) but she isn't interested in drinking it. She happily ate yoghurt and some seeds. Straight after the bath she had a watery poo. She perked up straight after the bath but still looks sad . She hasn't laid an egg in months and has always been a light layer. Two weeks ago I saw her sitting on the nest but no eggs.

Any idea what I'm dealing with? Is it some kind of worms? Thank you so much for your help!

 

[EggWalrus]

It could be she's got the worms but I'm not the worm expert. If you'll check back in the morning, I'm sure an expert on the worms will chime inand give you the low down. I certainly hope that little silkie gets to feeling and doing better.
Much chicken love to yall!

 

[Chickens :)]

Hello there. When you said that you saw a small worm/bug that was clear and had a black thing in the centre, I was thinking it would have been a mite or lice but when you mentioned it was about 1 cm that made me second guess myself. I am not quite sure what is going on with your bird. Continue washing her vent when it gets dirty and make sure she has food and water close to her. It sounds like she could have worms which can sometimes prevent the bird from laying.
Good luck and hopefully someone will know what this is.

 

[aussie_chooks]

Thank you both for your help. I went to check on her earlier and checked her vent. Eep!

Yucky picture warning!



You've been warned.

Looks like those little worm/bugs I saw earlier are inside her! And lots of them. After her bath, her vent was clear but red. That was 5 hours ago. This cannot be comfortable for her at all The poor thing. I feel awful for not finding it sooner.

 

[rebrascora]

It sounds like she is suffering from fly strike as a result of her soiled butt fathers and those are maggots inside her, eating her alive. You need to bath her at least daily and flush those maggots out (make a warm, sterile saline solution to do this..... a teaspoon of table salt or seas salt boiled in a litre of water) and keep her in the house so that more flies cannot lay eggs on her and perpetuate the problem. You also need treat the wound that the maggots have caused with something like Neosporin or whatever wound treatment you have. Carefully clipping those feathers around the wound and her vent (which will probably be above and intact if you look closely) will help to keep it cleaner for longer and may also help us see the extent of the damage if you take another photo, but black skin is not easy to see wounds on.

Unfortunately the prognosis is not good if they have breached the abdominal cavity which it sounds like if the maggots are inside her. There will also, almost certainly, be an underlying medical reason why she has been soiling herself in the first place..... usually it is due to abdominal swelling below the vent which means that poop cannot drop clear as it normally does and instead snags on the feathers causing a build up and irritating the skin. The abdominal swelling is often caused by reproductive malfunction but can be caused by tumours as well.

All you can do at this stage is work on getting those maggots out of her and keeping the wound clean but be aware that this will be a long slow healing process, so if you are not committed to it, or she is not a pet, then euthanizing her now might be kinder. That might sound harsh but this is not a simple case of worms that can be treated with a chemical wormer and solved and she will be in some signoficant discomfort.

I wish you luck. There are many posts here on BYC about fly strike if you care to do a search and you may find it supportive or inspirational to read and see photos of similar birds that have been nursed through this and perhaps make contact with those owners/care givers for advice or tips on how they tackled it. Have you figured out where the search function is and how to use it. If not, shout up

 

[aussie_chooks]

It sounds like she is suffering from fly strike as a result of her soiled butt fathers and those are maggots inside her, eating her alive. You need to bath her at least daily and flush those maggots out (make a warm, sterile saline solution to do this..... a teaspoon of table salt or seas salt boiled in a litre of water) and keep her in the house so that more flies cannot lay eggs on her and perpetuate the problem. You also need treat the wound that the maggots have caused with something like Neosporin or whatever wound treatment you have. Carefully clipping those feathers around the wound and her vent (which will probably be above and intact if you look closely) will help to keep it cleaner for longer and may also help us see the extent of the damage if you take another photo, but black skin is not easy to see wounds on.

Unfortunately the prognosis is not good if they have breached the abdominal cavity which it sounds like if the maggots are inside her. There will also, almost certainly, be an underlying medical reason why she has been soiling herself in the first place..... usually it is due to abdominal swelling below the vent which means that poop cannot drop clear as it normally does and instead snags on the feathers causing a build up and irritating the skin. The abdominal swelling is often caused by reproductive malfunction but can be caused by tumours as well.

All you can do at this stage is work on getting those maggots out of her and keeping the wound clean but be aware that this will be a long slow healing process, so if you are not committed to it, or she is not a pet, then euthanizing her now might be kinder. That might sound harsh but this is not a simple case of worms that can be treated with a chemical wormer and solved and she will be in some signoficant discomfort.

I wish you luck. There are many posts here on BYC about fly strike if you care to do a search and you may find it supportive or inspirational to read and see photos of similar birds that have been nursed through this and perhaps make contact with those owners/care givers for advice or tips on how they tackled it. Have you figured out where the search function is and how to use it. If not, shout up

Thank you for your detailed answer. I've checked other threads and it looks exactly like what I'm dealing with. I've given her another bath and checked her vent again. It looks worse than before. Tomorrow I will take her to the vet and see what they say but it looks like putting her down is the most humane option.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you for your detailed answer. I've checked other threads and it looks exactly like what I'm dealing with. I've given her another bath and checked her vent again. It looks worse than before. Tomorrow I will take her to the vet and see what they say but it looks like putting her down is the most humane option.

I'm sorry she is not doing well.

Were you able to pick out the maggots? Giving a bath is helpful, but you need to get the maggots out of the wound too. You may need to use tweezers to pull out the ones that you see.

 

[EggWalrus]

I heard on another thread somewhere here that a woman used a douche bottle or bag to flush out pieces of broken egg from one of her birds. Maybe that would help make it easier?

 

[aussie_chooks]

Hi everyone,

I took her to the vet this morning and decided the best thing was to put her down. There was more going on and unfortunately nothing would ease her pain. The maggots had all gone but the damage left by them together with the other issues was too much.

Thanks for your help! I really appreciate it. It's good to know she's no longer suffering.

 

[Chickens :)]

I am sorry to hear that. It’s good to know she isn’t suffering anymore.