**URGENT** What parasite is this? Killed my chicken

[TheyBeChillin]

***Graphic Pictures Below***

I know I’m dealing with a parasite- I just don’t know what. I had a chicken pass away this afternoon. Over the past couple days, she hasn’t eaten or drank anything. Her crop felt like a wet balloon. I believed it to be sour crop and have been treating her with monistat cream, but she did not get better. This morning, she was relatively the same, but by this afternoon I went out to check on her. I discovered a bloody gaping wound with worms inside of it below her vent. When I examined the wound ( with
gloves ) I found it infested with these maggot-looking creatures.

As I examined it some more, liquid came up her trachea, and she died. After she died, I squeezed some more and liquid came pouring out of her mouth. She smelled like rotting flesh. I’m very worried about my other two chickens. And we also have dogs. Can the dogs catch it?? What parasite is this?

Please, please help!!!! I will deep clean the coop and run.

 

[nuthatched]

She died from fly strike, these are maggots. You and your other animals can't catch it unless you have some open, rotting wounds.

 

[casportpony]

Sorry for your loss. I agree with @nuthatched, those are maggots, and she died from Flystrike, possibly due to feces & urates building up around her vent.

In the future, if you find one that is acting off, catch them and inspect their entire body for wounds, swelling, & bugs.

 

[TheyBeChillin]

She died from fly strike, these are maggots. You and your other animals can't catch it unless you have some open, rotting wounds.

Okay, thank you! I have another hen that’s acting weird as well, however. We’ve received a lot of rain recently. Is she fine? She has sour crop which led me to think Matilda did too.

In the past three years I’ve had chickens I’ve never had so many issues consecutively happen. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[TheyBeChillin]

Sorry for your loss. I agree with @nuthatched, those are maggots, and she died from Flystrike, possibly due to feces & urates building up around her vent.

In the future, if you find one that is acting off, catch them and inspect their entire body for wounds, swelling, & bugs.

She was having some diarrhea around her feathers.

But, I was treating her for sour crop because she showed all the symptoms. I assumed once she was better that I’d wash the diarrhea off because I was concerned to stress her out while being sick. She had sour crop earlier in the year so she was already underweight from that, and I’ve been trying to put it back on. So I was concerned to stress her. But yeah that must have been it. It wasn’t horrible with diarrhea either, but that must have been where it occurred.

I would have checked her around 7:30 this morning to give her monistat cream. But not again until 12:30 or so.

 

[D13]

***Graphic Pictures Below***

I know I’m dealing with a parasite- I just don’t know what. I had a chicken pass away this afternoon. Over the past couple days, she hasn’t eaten or drank anything. Her crop felt like a wet balloon. I believed it to be sour crop and have been treating her with monistat cream, but she did not get better. This morning, she was relatively the same, but by this afternoon I went out to check on her. I discovered a bloody gaping wound with worms inside of it below her vent. When I examined the wound ( with
gloves ) I found it infested with these maggot-looking creatures.

As I examined it some more, liquid came up her trachea, and she died. After she died, I squeezed some more and liquid came pouring out of her mouth. She smelled like rotting flesh. I’m very worried about my other two chickens. And we also have dogs. Can the dogs catch it?? What parasite is this?

Please, please help!!!! I will deep clean the coop and run.

View attachment 4118096View attachment 4118097

This happened to one of my hens; it was awful.

I wouldn't say this is a parasite; I don't know if maggots count as parasites.

Don't worry about your other chickens, they should be fine as flystrike is not contagious (at least, not that I know of)
The best way to prevent this is to make sure your chickens butts are clean and don't have poop sticking to them.
This particular thing also usually only happens during hot and humid weather.

Very sorry for your loss.

 

[MysteryChicken]

This happened to one of my hens; it was awful.

I wouldn't say this is a parasite; I don't know if maggots count as parasites.

Don't worry about your other chickens, they should be fine as flystrike is not contagious (at least, not that I know of)
The best way to prevent this is to make sure your chickens butts are clean and don't have poop sticking to them.
This particular thing also usually only happens during hot and humid weather.

Very sorry for your loss.

Maggots can be counted as a parasite. On rare occasions the human eye can become a host for a Maggot, a popular example of parasitic Maggots is the Botfly.

If the fly lays eggs on a live animal, & the Maggots feed on it, it's a form of parasitism.

 

[D13]

Maggots can be counted as a parasite. On rare occasions the human eye can become a host for a Maggot, a popular example of parasitic Maggots is the Botfly.

If the fly lays eggs on a live animal, & the Maggots feed on it, it's a form of parasitism.

Thank you for that information, I will now do something very unrelated as a pallet cleanser

 

[TheyBeChillin]

This happened to one of my hens; it was awful.

I wouldn't say this is a parasite; I don't know if maggots count as parasites.

Don't worry about your other chickens, they should be fine as flystrike is not contagious (at least, not that I know of)
The best way to prevent this is to make sure your chickens butts are clean and don't have poop sticking to them.
This particular thing also usually only happens during hot and humid weather.

Very sorry for your loss.

Thank you
Matilda was one of the first four chicks I got. She was the friendliest and bonded the most with us. She will be missed

And thank you for what you said. I feel like if I was more attentive then I could have prevented it but I also know things like this happen. We live in north Alabama so it has been hot and very humid recently, especially yesterday.

 

[Eggcessive]

Very sorry for your loss. Fly strike is a very deadly condition that happens during warm weather where there are a lot of flies. It can happen a couple of ways, either by poop accumulating on the vent, or when there is a wound or peck injury below the vent. It is good to inspect or notice any poopy vents on the chickens, and to try to control flies around the coop and run in warm weather. There are fly traps available, permethrin spray which can last 30 inside the coop and is safe for chickens as soon as it dries, and some people use screen wire cut into strips that acts like a screen door.