View Full Version : Yukky chicken problem tonight
I quickly ran out to close up the chickens tonight before supper. One of my Black Australorps has always been a bit out of breath and slower than the others. but tonight she seemed more withdrawn. I did a quick once-over and found...............a wound with tons of maggots in it. :0! YUK!!
Dear hubby came home and offered to help. So we brought her into the surgery suite (my bathroom) and cleaned it all out. I've read about this but never experienced it first hand. She had a hole under her vent about an inch deep and wide, filled with maggots. I pulled them all out with tweezers and then flushed the area with a solution of iodine and filled it with triple antibiotic ointment. I also started her on Baytril. I sure hope this takes care of it.
Her name is Weenie and she's a sweetheart. We cleaned her up and dried her with the hair dryer. She's back out in the coop in her own crate, so I can keep an eye on her.
Such is the life of a chicken owner. :)
What a good mother hen you are. Or vet. :)
Wow, you really go the extra mile. I still have horrid visions of finding some baby rabbits covered in maggots from when I was about 8 years old.....not sure I could do that for my chickens.
In sheep that's called fly strike. Keep it flushed, and give her some dietary extras. Keep us posted!
It was amazing how uninfected that area was. I guess the maggots eat the dead tissue, which was good. I wonder what would have happened next.......they go on to healthier skin? I'm sure they don't just leave.
I'm also thinking it might have something to do with her being a little less healthy than the others, and she sits alot. Sometimes she can't make it up to the top roost, so she sleeps in the nest box. I don't mind, since nobody lays eggs anymore (too old). Today I need to sprinkle some diatomaceous earth in the nest box to discourage bugs. I hope she does okay. She's a real sweetheart.
Wow -- how lucky Weenie is to have such a good chicken mama to care for her!!!!
Ewwww. Maggots are one of very few things that really make my skin crawl. I think Redfox is spot on, keep the wound flushed out and clean and give Weenie a little boost of vitamins. Not sure about chickens, but other animals (even humans) instinctively eat less when healing up. Its natural for the body to be less hungry to make sure energy goes to healing rather than digestion so don't worry if she doesn't seem to be eating much for a few days.
Thanks. Good advice!
I'm a little concerned about a few bumps in her skin, by where this wound is. I realize that I have very old chickens and maybe their skin is just sagging, but I hope those aren't other abscesses. I don't want to go poking around in them with a needle, if its just sagging skin.
In my experience, when a chicken gets an abscess, it appears to heal over, but forms a rock-hard core, which can still cause alot of problems. I guess as long as these other little lumps remain soft, I'll not mess with them.
I think I'll flush out the wound once a day with the betadine solution and fill it with triple antibiotic ointment. I'll give her high protein food and some vitamins and electrolytes too.
I'm glad this week is going to be warmer than usual. Seems like the cold is really hard on a sick chicken. I started out with 17 and I'm down to 4. Got alot of varied experiences with each of them being sick from one thing or another. But the fact that they died might say I'm not doing such a good job! :~)
Thanks again for the input!
CathyA....how is your chicky today?
Hi Float On.......thanks for asking!
Well, I've been giving her Baytril for about 8 days now. I'm thinking I should do it for 10. Every other day I tried to flush the area with a diluted betadine solution. No signs of any more maggots since her first treatment, thank heavens. She's been in isolation, so I can watch her better. I think her deep wound is healing, but she has several red lumps close to that area and I'm not sure what those are. Hopefully they aren't abcesses.
She started to get an impacted crop, so I had to start massaging that several times a day and take away her regular food for a couple days. I've been giving her a little oatmeal or scrambled eggs with alot of olive oil in it. I'm not giving her any more black oil sunflower seed, since it seemed to not get digested. She's still not pooping right, so I think she might have something wrong with her GI tract. But.......she seems to be acting okay. I will probably try to put her back with the others in a few days.
But I have the feeling she isn't the healthiest chicken, and her old age is probably getting to her too.
This is probably way more info than you wanted to know! haha But thanks for asking! :)
Oh.....funny thing........the other day my vet called me and asked for information on how much Baytril I gave her, since he had a turkey he was treating. Vets just don't seem to know much about chickens!
Glad to hear an update even though it's kinda gross what she was going through. I'm wondering if my favorite chicken had an impacted crop - she seemed to be gasping for breath and making an odd noise each time. Being stuck inside home alone I couldn't get out to her - just talking to her thru my bedroom window. My son found her dead that night. I was sad, she was a lovely chicky and laid bright blue/green eggs.
Your chicken probably didn't have an impacted crop.............probably something like laying an egg internally, or a broken egg inside her.
Sorry for your loss! It always seems to be the sweetest ones who die.
Sounds like she was an easter-egger (which is a mutt version of Araucanas). My easter-eggers have been the best layers and the healthiest of the other 2 breeds I've had (black australorps and buff orpingtons).
I'd love to get some Marans, who lay dark chocolate eggs. hahaha...........that's the color, not that they're real chocolate. Gee......wouldn't that be great?? haha
How's your leg doing, by the way?
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2025 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.