Topic of the Week - Fly Strike

[WatWasIThinking!!!]

Thanks! Very good information to those of us who did not know.

 

[casportpony]

About this time every year someone posts something like "Help, worms are crawling out of my chicken's backside, what wormer should I use?", and they are truly horrified when they are told that the worms are actually maggots.

I'm in the process of find some good tips for treating it and will post what I find later.

Edited to add:
This is also common condidtion in rabbits and sheep.

 

[casportpony]

@brucifer , is this the spray you use?https://www.bayerlivestock.com/show.aspx/productdetail/tempo-sc-ultra-premise-spray

 

[Kiki]

As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. With that in mind, the best practice is to stay ahead of the game.


I 110% agree with this saying.

 

[Tenrec]

Yep, the best way to deal with this is prevent it, and that means keeping things clean. Ovitrol does a pretty good job of killing the eggs of a lot of insects, including flies...You can put it directly on even very young puppies and kittens, though it is not indicated for poultry. However, I have used it on geese with no problem.

If an animal gets an open wound and it's fly season, it goes inside until its better. Just cleaning the wound is not good enough.

If you see maggots, in addition to treatment, you have to pick/swab every single maggot out that you can see. It's not fun work for you or the animal.

I STILL hear people on here saying that maggots in wounds are beneficial! So having this on the front page is good. Wild maggots are not beneficial. Unless you are a controlled medical setting, wild flies should not be having their babies in you or your animal's flesh.

 

[brucifer]

@brucifer , is this the spray you use?https://www.bayerlivestock.com/show.aspx/productdetail/tempo-sc-ultra-premise-spray

Kathy, I use the powdered form of Tempo Ultra WP. It's on the expensive side, so if you online shop on a good day, you can probably find a 14.8 oz (420 gram) canister for just under $60. It comes with the 5-gram blue scoop, and it will mix up to 84 gallons @ 1 5-gram scoop per gallon (42 gallons if you have a heavy infestation and want to use a more concentrated mixture [@ 2 5-gram scoops per gallon] for quicker knockdown and longer-lasting residual effect). One canister lasts a loooong time.

Here's the application for treating flies:

Here's the data fact sheet:
https://www.backedbybayer.com/~/media/BackedByBayer/Product Labels - pdf/Tempo Ultra WP.ashx

 

[pfarrell442]

Last year one of my White Rock Hens (3 years old at the time) had a wound on her rear end just outside her vent. I make a point to check my girls regularly for poopy butts and rinse them in my kitchen sink. Well this particular hen never liked handling and worked hard to hide from me but this day just stood and stared and i went to her. Her butt was soaked with what i thought was mud but it was puss and maggots. the wound was the diameter of a hardball and was black and red and raw. I never knew of flystrikes. I proceeded to rinse her off in the kitchen sink and she seemed relieved for finally getting some proper attention. She was amazingly calm. it appeared as if there were a crater on her but until i saw the maggots just under the edge of her skin. I used tweezers to pull out over 100 maggots and figured my hen for dead but gave it a try. Looked on this site for suggestions and once i read about flystrike i started looking for more maggots. Some were even floating in the sink water. I got them all and then rinsed her butt with saline solution... contact lens plain saline. Then i patted her dry and applied my husband's good home gathered bee honey... 100% honey is a natural antibiotic... I kept my girl in a kennel for over 2 weeks. Bathed her daily and used the saline and honey. She eventually scabbed over and the wound started to shrink.. i am guessing it took a week. Finally on about the 10th day i approached her and the scab had been torn from her rear .... she did it herself. the scab was the size of a quarter... thick and dark and nasty. but it was hard and big... her butt had a remaining pink wound, healing nicely and only the size of a dime... all thanks to the rinses, saline and honey. She eventually healed and feathers even grew over that huge area.... never ever would have thought she could pull through. I had the confidence in doing what i could thanks to only articles here and elsewhere. Google to save your girls. She went on to live another 8 months but eventually died of Acites in the abdomen.... that 's another story,,,, we drew fluid out of her belly every 3rd day... she again was as patient as could be.... we removed over 1 cup each time and she let us do this knowing she would feel better.... just take your time and use the right gear. Again, Google helped with a video on this.... Pokey (our girl) finally passed at the age of 5 1/2... she was a lot of maintenance but you do what you must. As far as those fly strikes? i keep a closer eye on the vents of each of my girls and keep the poop chutes under their vents as clean as i can.

 

[chcknwhisperer]

I give my chickens probiotics, electrolytes, and oregano oil regularly. We have not had any problems at all. And it's been pretty wet here too!

 

[driver]

I never knew about flystrike until it happened to one of my hens 2 weeks ago. She is 6 years old, and has had a messy butt for a while (mostly dried-on nuggets), but I figured age had something to do with it. I picked her up Monday before last and saw maggots and a sore area. Not knowing what I was dealing with, my first instinct was to pick up the hose and squirt them off of her. After doing some research, I gave her an epsom salts bath, sprayed with vetericin, and some permethrin spray (my horse's fly spray). I continued with the spraying for several days, making her harder and harder to catch. She seemed a little off for a couple of days, but I never saw another maggot. I think I got lucky and caught it very early, and my hosing off of the maggots got rid of them. It will be two weeks post-discovery tomorrow, and so far, I think she's doing just fine.

One thing that I wonder about is if I maybe contributed to it. About a week before the maggots, I took some scissors and cut out some of the crusty poop from her feathers. I wonder if I just made it easier for the flies to get to her skin.

 

[RodNTN]

Thank the Lord that I have never had this problem, but watching this thread for the information.