This morning I noticed my five year-old EE Paloma had a dirty rear again (they eat All Flock, free range half the day, fresh water with occasional Rooster Booster when it's hot, I occasionally toss some of the Scratch & Peck Whole Grain Feed out as a treat), so I grabbed her for a quick bath.
I was horrified to find she had a wound flies had gotten to. At this point I gave her an Epsom salts soak, which removed a lot of the maggots, gently cleansed the area with baby shampoo (the gentlest thing I have), rinsed, gently patted her rear dry, trimmed the feathers, and sprayed with 1 tsp Permethrin mixed in with a quart of water as I have seen recommended here.
After that I sprayed her with Vetericyn, at which point I took a good look to see if any of those critters were beneath her skin, poor baby, and how bad the wound actually was. A few small ones began to emerge from the wound (ewwwww!), so I just gave Paloma another quick bath and repeated the entire process, dried her feathers, and put her into an old brooder tote in the garage with fresh litter, food, and Nutri-Drenched water (will switch to probiotics tonight, but that's what I had) before tossing mosquito netting over the whole thing to keep her safe. We will spray the coop tonight. I do clean up droppings in and out of the run daily, and we keep a clean coop.
Of course we also have a slightly lame rooster (hurt himself trying to punish our junior roo) and a broody hen so we are running short on chickfirmaries! What a week!
Anyhow. I am willing and prepared to continue this process for Paloma if she can be saved, but the poor thing is five, all of her fellow EE sisters (from our very first flock! *sniff*) have already gone ahead of her, and her best friend also recently had to be helped to wherever it is chickens go when they die. If Paloma cannot be saved, I don't want to put her through anything more, but if you all think her prognosis is good, of course I'll do my best for her.
I was horrified to find she had a wound flies had gotten to. At this point I gave her an Epsom salts soak, which removed a lot of the maggots, gently cleansed the area with baby shampoo (the gentlest thing I have), rinsed, gently patted her rear dry, trimmed the feathers, and sprayed with 1 tsp Permethrin mixed in with a quart of water as I have seen recommended here.
After that I sprayed her with Vetericyn, at which point I took a good look to see if any of those critters were beneath her skin, poor baby, and how bad the wound actually was. A few small ones began to emerge from the wound (ewwwww!), so I just gave Paloma another quick bath and repeated the entire process, dried her feathers, and put her into an old brooder tote in the garage with fresh litter, food, and Nutri-Drenched water (will switch to probiotics tonight, but that's what I had) before tossing mosquito netting over the whole thing to keep her safe. We will spray the coop tonight. I do clean up droppings in and out of the run daily, and we keep a clean coop.
Of course we also have a slightly lame rooster (hurt himself trying to punish our junior roo) and a broody hen so we are running short on chickfirmaries! What a week!
Anyhow. I am willing and prepared to continue this process for Paloma if she can be saved, but the poor thing is five, all of her fellow EE sisters (from our very first flock! *sniff*) have already gone ahead of her, and her best friend also recently had to be helped to wherever it is chickens go when they die. If Paloma cannot be saved, I don't want to put her through anything more, but if you all think her prognosis is good, of course I'll do my best for her.
