Is there a systemic treatment to kill fly-strike maggots?

[Carolyn252]

I've soaked her bottom in a deep dishpan of warm water with blue Dawn liquid soap. Many maggots came out in the water. After rinsing her off, I set her on the patio table. Sitting next to the table, I was at the perfect height to see her raw quarter-sized wound where the maggots had eaten away her flesh. I picked them off with a flat edge tweezer every time one of the little wrigglies suddenly showed itself poking out from inside the wound. Must have picked off about 60 or 70 of them. I lifted a loose edge of the wound and peered underneath, dozens more maggots hiding in there. Tweezered them out of there as best I could. SPRAYED THE WOUND WITH VETERICYN. Little bantam frizzled cochin hen sat still and calm throughout. Used the hairdryer after and then set her in the sun. When she was rested and dry, I eyedroppered some nutri-drench water onto the top of her beak; she then snapped her beak in quick little clicks and drank the stuff. Gave her some dried meal worms and she ate about 5 of them. I did all of that for three days in a row. Still found more maggots in the wound each day. She's keeping herself away from the other eight hens, but seems alert and is walking ok. I have no idea how many more maggots are inside her body. IS THERE A SYSTEMIC TREATMENT THAT I CAN BUY THAT WILL KILL THEM ALL AT ONCE?

 

[Eggcessive]

You can spray permethrin or Screw worm spray on her wound. Some also will use SWAT horse ointment on the wound, and you can use plain Neosporin ointment as well to try and smother them. If you have any Epsom Salts, you may want to soak her in a bath with that before applying anything else.

I don’t know of any systemic treatment for flystrike. Here is a good link that has a lot of suggestions:

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/flystrike-in-backyard-chickens-causes/

 

[Eggcessive]

Screw worm spray contains permethrin:

 

[ChocolateMouse]

You can try to put some vaseline over the opening and they may try to come out that way because they quickly run out of air and can't breathe, so they go try to wiggle thru the vaseline on the wound to get air. This is how I have dealt with it before but I haven't had so many under the skin before.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

Ivermectin, it will work swiftly.

 

[coach723]

If you don't want to use the chemicals, then you really have to be vigilant and check for new hatched maggots several times a day. Even with the spray, you still need to check. The eggs are not visible and will continue to hatch until all are gone. You also need to keep her where more flies cannot get to her and lay more eggs, until she's healed. Also You can try using a small squeeze bottle, like a condiment bottle, with a small pointed nozzle (like a mustard bottle), or a large syringe, that you can squeeze to get a bit of force out of, and use that and saline to flush the wound a bit more forcefully (not hard enough to do damage to tissue, and you don't want to push the maggots farther into the wound where you can't get them) and it may help you flush more of them out.

 

[rebrascora]

Are you able to post a photo of her wound? It is sounding like her abdominal cavity may have been breached with that many maggots inside her. If that is the case, she may be goosed.
I would be inclined to flush her with very dilute Chlorohexidine (Hibiscrub) or sterile saline to clean her inside and try to swill them out, because the chances of her getting an infection in the abdominal cavity are high. You do not want to kill those maggots inside her as they will rot and make things worse, so they need to come out.
I second keeping her inside away from further flies or the problem will perpetuate. You can give her a few drops of Nutri Drench concentrate direct into her beak to give her a boost. If they have eaten into her abdominal cavity and breached her gut, there is probably no hope. You might want to clip her feathers around the wound so that you can see everything clearly and keep it cleaner. There will be a reason why she has suffered fly strike. Soiled butt feathers usually set it away but there is often a health issue that causes the feathers to become soiled in the first place.... usually some abdominal swelling due to a reproductive issue and/or Ascites.

 

[Carolyn252]

Ivermectin, it will work swiftly.

A moment ago #8

Carolyn252 Mother of Chickens

New Thank you EVERYONE ! I went to amazon just now and ordered the ivermectin paste 1.87% for horses. It will arrive day after tomorrow. I'll put a quarter-of-a-pea sized glob in her mouth and hope for the best.
Am wondering: is the one dose enough? Is a second dose based on symptoms (still seeing live maggots in the wound) or based on a schedule (repeat at some specific interval). If on a schedule, when should I repeat and how often. Toss the eggs for a while, or forever? THANK YOU.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

Should be enough to kill them in one dose, and I would not dose her again with it.

As for egg withdrawal, Ivermectin is fat-soluble and is sure to get into the eggs for a long time. The withdrawal time in cattle for slaughter at the prescribed dose is ~48 days. Since you will undoubtedly be dosing your chickens with a higher dose using horse paste, I would be conservative about it and expect there to be measurable ivermectin residue in the eggs for 3 months. This is why it's not labeled for chickens. It works great though for all kinds of parasites.
This paper may be helpful.
http://www.farad.org/publications/digests/122015EggResidue.pdf

 

[Folly's place]

She needs to be indoors away from any exposure to flies. permethrin will work, and aggressive removal of every maggot and egg. It's awful!
Why? Usually there's a wound or severe illness that lets it all happen.
Mary