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

[lemurchaser]

That's a pretty nasty wound. You need to start some antibiotics for her.

Also, if possible, I would soak the wound for as long as possible. Gentley wash the soaking wound and try and get some of the black dead tissue off. Trim away the feathers so nothing touches the wounds and keep her in a clean cage with towels. It sounds like you are doing everything to help her. The maggots can't breed in the wound, so there is a finite number of them. You'll get them all eventually.

 

[1ElvisFan]

I am using Terramycin in her water and will keep that up for 5-7 days. I'm afraid to cut the feathers away in case they are blood feathers. I'm soaking her for about 15 minutes at a time in warm salt water, she's kinda upset at first but she settles in quickly, I imagine it is soothing to her. And watching all the maggots float up and DIE is soothing to me. I'm trying to find her vent but if you press too hard at her back end she gets excited.

I don't think thats bone sticking out in the one picture, though it looks like it, I'd feel it if is were and all of it is skin covered. I may have to try the needle nose pliers trick, they'd work a lot better. I need my daughter to help me since the hubby is useless and she gets home at 3:00. I'll soak her and spray her by myself, but the plucking is a 2 person deal.

I'm trying to understand what Beekissed said about the iodoform gauze. If I understand him it needs to be bandaged on her, that'll be tough since it would cover where she poops.

Not sure if I mentioned it but she IS in the house and will remain inside in a clean cat carrier on clean towels with food and medicated water until she's either better, or gone. Once she's healed enough to go out she will be in her own pen so she won't get picked on.

Thanks to all of you for ALL the help and suggestions, I'll keep this thread up at all times, I've learned a lot here, even after having birds for 4 years, I've never dealt with anything like this before and I'm both terrified and grossed out but I feel her pain and want to help her in any way I can.

 

[1ElvisFan]

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

I thought of that and have looked and felt around but I see no holes of punctures... so without a puncture, packing it will be tough, I'll going to keep soaking, spraying and removing the dead tissue and blood as best I can, when she starts fighting too much I stand a good chance of either hurting her or sending her into shock

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.

Actually it will be a 2 day wound tomorrow, not fresh but not exactly old either, it just advances to this stage so quickly, but the flies here are terribly. I'm wondering if she didn't have a small wound I didn't notice under the feathers that I didn't know about. The reason I say this is because of the size any quantity of the maggots.​

 

[dlhunicorn]

Dont pack anything until you are SURE all those maggots are out...the eggs have been laid iN the flesh (and one of the articles I posted in that thread someone gave a couple pages back explained they DO 'eat" the healthy flesh!)

Main thing now is to treat to get the emerging maggots out of your bird (the articles say this can take a few days because it takes time for the eggs to hatch and only then can you get them out). >>> that means a very high dose saline flush (dissolve a tsp of salt in a quart of water that has boiled for five minutes >>>this irritates the maggots and they will come "out" giving you the opportunity to remove them...perhaps a paint brush brushed along as they come out will help ....?) I also remember reading that you will need to do this every few hours. Once you dont see any more coming out you can dip her bottom in a bath to rinse the salt off and then if it were me I would alternate application of neo with GRANULEX V which will help healing and granulation issues (see link below>you can find this product in the horse section or in a petstore):
http://www.bullwrinkle.com/ShoppingPages/granulex.htm

There is a very real risk of septecemia and you need to apply a larvacide and give an antibiotic:
http://www.ivis.org/advances/Disease_Factsheets/screwworm_myiasis.pdf
"...Screwworms are fly larvae (maggots) that feed on living flesh.....Female flies lay their eggs at the edges of wounds or on mucous
membranes. When they hatch, the larvae enter the body, grow and feed, progressively enlarging the wound. Eventually, they drop to the ground to pupate and develop into adults. Screwworms can enter wounds as small as a tick bite. ......The larvae hatch and burrow into the flesh, where they feed on living tissues and fluids ........Screwworm larvae do not
generally crawl on the surface, and tend to burrow deeper when disturbed. Sometimes, there may be large pockets of larvae with only small openings in the skin. .........
.......Untreated animals may die in 7 to 14 days from toxicity or secondary infections. Because repeated infestations can occur, up to 3,000 larvae have been found in a single wound.....Larvae that are removed from the wound must be placed in alcohol preservative or destroyed. If any larvae leave an infested wound and mature into adults, screwworm can become established in an area..... Larvae should be removed from the wound with tweezers before the wound is treated. The larvae should be collected from the deepest parts of the wound; more superficial larvae may be other parasites and not screwworms. Any eggs on the edge of the wound should be carefully removed with a scalpel. ......

.....Although some wounds may be surgically excised, most are treated with a suitable larvacide and allowed to heal without closure......

>>>>Elvie look at your feed store for a product (usually for sheep or calves) which I have seen that you can spray on (lavacide) for screw worm strikes >>>if you do not find one you can apply a dilute (.01% ivermectin or ivomec Eprinex topically to the wound.)​

 

[LilPeeps]

I've heard that ivomec would kill off the maggots.

 

[vwoods]

We had a baby deer that had an infestation of maggots in a wound. The animal rehabber who picked the baby up at our house to rehab her used an ivermectin/permethrin solution on the wound to kill the maggots. It then had to be debrided ( dead tissue removed) and sutured by a vet. Don't know how much you want to spend on your hen but maybe just killing the maggots would be a good start. Ive also heard that the maggots release some kind of toxin that is harmful? Don't know if that's true or not. Please post an update to let us know how things are going.

 

[DuckLady]

Hey Elvie, how is the hen this morning?

 

[d.k]

* Try a strong salt water solution, about 3 days in a row. Soak her butt in it, if you can or sponge it on the area. Or, pick the critters off and drop em in the salt solution. You might also consider a dose of ivermectin. That oughta do the trick, too.

 

[GloriaH]

Go to the feed store and get a can of Screw Worm spray. It is made for situations just like this. It is made for wounds the have maggots. I use it on all my animals and poultry and wouldn't be with out it. You need to get them out of there. Just keep flushing and spraying and it should do the trick. Hope all goes well for your chickie...Gloria

 

[mangled]

Once you get the maggots out, you could try packing the wound, but that's a pretty difficult thing to do.

When we dealt with any type of tunneling wound in the hospital, we used a sterile dressing, I always called it Curlex, I don't know if that's the correct name, but you simply soak the sterile Curlex in sterile saline, and slowly push it into the wound where it is open. The Curlex absorbs the fluids out of the wound, and when it is pulled out, something I would do NO LESS than once a day, it gently debrides the wound.

I'll argue the benefit of the maggots one more time. While they are terrible little creepy crawlies, they do provide a benefit by consuming the necrotic (dead) tissue. I've seen some terrible infections in diabetic amputations that were bordering on gangrene that maggot therapy cleared up in a matter of weeks instead of months, with no surgical intervention or antibiotic therapy. They're wondrous nasty little things.

We removed them and put a new batch in every 24 hours, beyond that, they're going to grow exponentially, and in their larval stage are only eating dead, or rotting tissue. It's when they advance beyond that little larval stage that your trouble is going to begin.

Google maggots and wound care. There is some amazing information out there.

Good luck with your little chickie - we're pulling for her.
Em