Wound with maggots I can't get rid of **NOW WITH PICS**

[rooster-red]

Quote:
Do not use anything that contains an ingredient that ends with the suffix "cane" It will kill your bird.
Please read all ingredients on anything that is marketed for pain relief, as it may contain one of these substances, and chickens go into a toxic shock situation when these things are used on them, killing the bird.

 

[1ElvisFan]

I have already discontinued the Neo with pain relief (I ran out) and am using just a triple antibiotic ointment now. I'll continue using just that. I was thinking of putting some aspirin in her water with the Terramycin but hesitated since it's a blood thinner. I'll keep all that in mind if, God forbid, there ever IS a next time though. Thanks all.

Dog bite? Whatcha think?

 

[rooster-red]

Seems like most of the chickens I've seen with dog bites were in the rear area, so it probably is a dog bite.

 

[cjeanean]

I would have to second the use of saline.....that's the best stuff for healing/cleaning wounds on people, and although I'm not too sure about poultry I'd definately give it a shot....I have no idea what got ahold of her!!!! I can't even venture a guess, that looks so horrible!!! Were you able to get the maggots out of her??? That's what I'd be the most concerned about, I can't stand those things. Are they inside her vent??? It looked like her vent is affected by the wound, and that would suck if they ended up crawling around inside of her. Keep us posted!!!!

 

[DuckLady]

Elvier, you need to flush and flush and tweez and tweez. Dollars to donuts her insides are full of maggots. THEy need to come out ASAP.

 

[1ElvisFan]

I have flushed and flushed and flushed, we can't get ahold of the nasty things with tweezers, they keep slithering away. About the time I swear I've got them all more pop out. Now if they ARE inside of her and I can't get them all since they won't surface, then what? They'll eat her from the inside out? I'm so completely lost aside from what I'm doing already and I don't know what more I can do if anything. How the heck do I lure Maggots OUT?

 

[Break an Egg]

I've heard cases where a man goes into an ER and has a head wound with maggots in it, the doctor removed them all, and he died the next day.

Maggots only eat the dead and rotting flesh, they won't eat healthy flesh. They can't stay in there forever, they have to grow up and be flies.

 

[Beekissed]

I would use some bag balm for your ointment. Great healing properties as well as a mild insecticide to prevent flies laying eggs on wounds, might also be thick enough to smother the suckers. Sounds to me like the wound has a puncture or tunnel. May be good, after flushing, to pack with iodoform gauze. If you can't find any at the drug store you can do the same with a wet-to- dry type dsg. Soak small piece of gauze with saline solution, pack in already flushed wound, cover with thicker, dry piece of gauze and secure. When you pull out this packing, it will have dried and will pull out any dead tissue with it, leaving only granulated tissue behind. It sounds as if this wound is well-advanced as opposed to being a fresh wound, and would most likely benefit from packing. This helps the wound heal from the inside out. When you no longer get maggots and dead tissue from the wound, you can just apply the bag balm to prevent further infestations and to moisten the wound bed. Bag balm has been used for many, many years to heal wounds and cracks on cows udders and we used to use it to prevent further skin breakdown on the bottoms of the elderly in nursing homes.

 

[Nugget]

TerryLacy is right on, you need to flush with saline, and pull them out. Next to nothing will kill a maggot, and peroxide will destroy delicate healing tissue. In the meantime the chicken needs to be kept where flies aren't until it has healed, and that may mean in your house. Otherwise more flies will lay more eggs.

That wound looks horrific. If that's bone sticking out you're going to need lots of luck for it to heal. She should be seen by a vet, surgery may be needed to get that closed. She needs antibiotics too!

 

[mangled]

When I have dealt with maggots in a sterile, health care situation, we flushed the wound exclusively with sterile saline, i.e., salt water. They will only eat the necrotic (dead) flesh, but they MUST MUST MUST all be gotten out. We had to count the maggots as we were removing them from wounds, to make sure we got them all.

The saline basically helped them detach, but in the situation you're facing, I'm sure injecting the wound with salt water would definitely not be something you want to do.

Regular tweezers are difficult to use, if you can get your hands on a set of medical tweezers, that taper down to a point, almost like needle-nose pliers do, that would help you get a hold of the buggers.

The betadine/iodine/providine suggestions are good suggestions. It may help flush the maggots out. Peroxide is good to use initially, but using it daily, as a routine of wound care can actually do more damage than good, especially on a wound like that.

Good luck-
Em