Turkey babies with hole under vent and worms

[yoopergirl1211]

I'm so grossed out I don't know what to do. I just had a turkey hatch out four babies. They are two days old and I just noticed two of them moving slowly. They have a round wound under vent just a circle with no blood or skin and its full of tiny worms or maggots. I'm guessing theres nothing I can do but what happened! Trying to get a picture. Worried about the other two as well. No blood and they are alert just not keeping up as well.

 

[yoopergirl1211]

 

[R2elk]

I'm so grossed out I don't know what to do. I just had a turkey hatch out four babies. They are two days old and I just noticed two of them moving slowly. They have a round wound under vent just a circle with no blood or skin and its full of tiny worms or maggots. I'm guessing there's nothing I can do but what happened! Trying to get a picture. Worried about the other two as well. No blood and they are alert just not keeping up as well.

Chicks, keets, poults can hatch without the egg sac completely absorbed and closed off. It sounds like some type of fly or insect found the area and laid eggs which quickly hatched and are now eating your poults alive. Some possible things to try.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/wound-with-maggots-and-bad-smell.231156/

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

Good luck.

 

[yoopergirl1211]

Thank you. I was worried they were born with some kind of worm if thats possible. Not much makes me feel like getting sick but this is awful. Poor poor babies. Im going to try and save them but they are so young!

 

[R2elk]

Thank you. I was worried they were born with some kind of worm if thats possible. Not much makes me feel like getting sick but this is awful. Poor poor babies. Im going to try and save them but they are so young!

Good luck.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

That is from fly strike. It's awful! I would use something right this minute to try to kill the maggots.

 

[yoopergirl1211]

Okay so the babies are pretty strong actually I thought they'd be on their deathbeds. Im washing and using hydrogen peroxide. Trying to find tweezers. I can't believe I'm managing this. Is there anything else to kill them with or just keep checking and filling hole with ointment

 

[Eggcessive]

Do you have betadine or chlorhexidene? Don’t use peroxide. Even soapy water, Vetericyn wound spray, can help. In older chickens many use an Epsom salts soak. Plain Neosporin or Triple Antibiotic ointment are very good to smear on them to help with infection, and to smother maggots. The links provided in post 3 by R2Elk are good to read. Permethrin 10 spray can be used to kill the maggots and flies. I would bring them inside away from flies. This is very serious, and I hope that you can save them.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

Agree. Don't use peroxide, and spray those maggots with something containing permethrin. Horse fly spray or flea spray are readily available. Maggots get very big very fast, (like overnight) and will literally eat your birds to death. In that photo, there are a lot of them and they are actively eating. The faster the better.
For what it's worth, I have had very little success with picking them out of wounds. It stressed the chicken out terribly and hurt her, and I could never find them all, there were too many. Spray them. It won't take much to kill them all at once.

Good luck.

 

[yoopergirl1211]

I've been meaning to update this. I actually saved one. The one with the smaller hole and less maggots died but the other one with a nickel sized hole and over 15 maggots survived. I didnt have anything at hand that anyone mentioned so I just picked out with tweezers and rinsed and repeat. I packed it full of antibiotic ointment and crossed my fingers. And he survived! Still can't believe it honestly. Thanks everyone!