Wound with maggots and bad smell

[momdeb]

Hello
I did the same as you wrote but could not get to some of the moving worm like things as they seemed to go into her skin. I could not get them. I only discovered this late today after giving our hen her second dose of panacur dewormer.
I brought her to the vet who checked for egg prolapse because she walked with a waddle and seemed so uncomfortable..tail feathers downward/poopy bottom area. I cleaned her before too but never pulled back her feathers...I just washed her as gently as I could -- rinse. I never thought to inspect because I never would have thought. I'm so sad because I think that she's suffering. She has a great spunk to live and eat...she pecks around all day and races to come if she thinks that there is food.
Could the maggots be coming from the inside out? or can they embed in skin? I spoke with an on call vet earlier...when I just discovered the maggots(I think that they are maggots from photos that I've looked at). I thought that maybe the panacur was working and the worms were dying and just trying to get out of her intestine.
Now, she's in a bin with bedding and covered. I rinsed her for a second time but now, she's shivering. I put some yogurt on my finger and dabbed it on her beak ...she tasted it. She was strong enough to burrow her head down to reject any more from me.
I didn't put antibiotic on where her skin looked raw and featherless(where the wormy things were). She is such a good hen. I'm going to bring her to the vet the first thing tomorrow morning. I don't understand why the vet didn't see this. I wonder how long it takes for maggots to form like that.
I'm happy that your hen is well.
Thank you for posting your experience because it helped me. I went to give her a second bath and was glad I did because I removed many more that were probably making her so uncomfortable. I feel awful. I think of the many times that she sat with me in my home/on my lap for the past couple of weeks and I didn't notice anything. I didn't look properly. Chickens are not as simple to care for as many people say, that's for sure.
Thank you, again. Any advice, please let me know.

 

[Tentoumushi]

I read the link by threehorses? And she squirted ivermectin onto the wound (do not inject, just squirt it onto it) and as soon as I did the maggots started crawling out, falling off into the bath tub where I had out Lucky Ducky while cleaning her wound. After a while I rinsed her off, dried and sprayed more Vetricyn on her and let her stay in the tub a few more days to make sure flys didn't lay anymore eggs in the proud flesh. Her neck is almost completely healed. There is a narrow section 1"x1/4" that feathers haven't grown back on yet but I think in a couple more days you will never know she had been injured so bad.

If you don't have any ivermectin or Vetricyn try squirting peroxide on the area. Maggots don't like it either. I think up suffocates them. Hope your hen heals soon!

 

[gerilaurine]

I have rinsed with saline and iodine, doused with peroxide and my friend is getting me some of that screw worm spray. She is in a kennel in the house covered with a blanket so nothing will get in! UGG, this is so new to me! Thanks for all your input

 

[ange]

What about flies in the coop? How to,rid them

 

[pickwick]

Can you tell me if the screw worm spray is also safe for geese?
thanks,

 

[lauracupp]

Can somebody tell me how to contact threehorses? Can't seem to get all the maggots out of a wound on my hen.

 

[SeanTheIrishman]

Quote:

NOT true - this is a myth.

Screw worms (which are still prevalent in the states) will not only eat living flesh, they're known for landing in sheeps' eyes and starting the wound - not even waiting. They just need moisture.

Only an entomologist can tell the difference in their larvae - so never EVER leave maggots in the wound.

Smothering the wound in honey can get them to come out - and any remaining honey after you clean and clean is ok, it won't harm.

I'm going to post an article below in case you need help. I'd cleanse the wound with hydrogen peroxide this one time, straight, as Purple said - you want to burn the germs and whatnot. Then clean out with iodine mixed with water into a weak-iced-tea-colored solution. Don't rinse, pat dry - you want the iodine to continue to kill germs. Dress with Swat, or with neosporin and then spray screw worm spray on top (best thing ever to have in your chicken cabinet).

Then monitor.

be sure that the duck has vitamins/electrolytes in its water for the next two days. If you choose to do antibiotics, go with the penicillins (like Penicillin G procaine) as they're waterfowl safe and appropriate for wounds. Packaged antibiotics from the feedstore don't do anything for wounds.

I'll also attach instructions on how to use Penicillin G Procaine for waterfowl/chickens after the (very long) wound article. On the wounds, you should only need to do the above - the rest is included just in case you need to refer to it or someone else does.

Just make sure that you keep the duck up for 2 days so that the wounds can dry up - to prevent more maggots. And you might still have some as they don't all hatch at once. Be sure to check every inch of the duck's skin, literally, as they hide puncture wounds very very well in their down.

For feeding, if she won't eat, try dampening the food the first day or so - that's what I had to do when my geese were attacked.

OK the 2 attachments:
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WOUND TREATMENT FOR POULTRY by Nathalie Ross

Here's my usual way of doing wounds. It's worked for some pretty extreme wounds, including one 2x1 wound that went all the way down to the silver covering of the spine of one bird.

First, gather materials:
VetWrap or similar self-adhesive wrap.
gauze wrapping type bandages or squares (depending on what you have to bandage)
non-stick pads (depending on what you have to wrap)
antibiotic ointment (neosporin, Swat for horses if you have flies around)
hydrogen peroxide (h202)
iodine
warm water
a needleless syringe - preferably a big one like 30 cc's
suture material if you need it (this ideally should be left to a vet)
a small pair of scissors like cuticle scissors are helpful
large scissors
(duct tape in some cases)
a good safe blood clotter. I prefer Clotisol as it's not poisonous and clots IMMEDIATELY even in high blood situations. You can even use it inside of beaks. It's water based, lasts ages for a small bottle. Seriously - ages. You can pretty much only get it online, but it's a must-have for a cabinet. Once you use it, you won't go back.
q-tips
papertowels
clean clothes that can be stained

DECIDING WHETHER OR NOT TO TREAT BY YOURSELF:
First, an important note. It would be ideal if, as poultry owners faced with an injured bird, that the bird be taken to a qualified veterinarian who can not only dress the wounds, access the damage, but also prescribe the correct antibiotics and follow up as necessary. This, first and foremost, is what I recommend for any wound situation that is more than minor. Please take that to heart.

If instead you decide to treat the wound yourself, here are some basic instructions on how to do so. Note that every wound, every case, is different. Use your common sense and imagination on determining when this protocol must be flexed to fit your situation.

PREPARATION:
First, examine the bird and find all wounds. Use your big and little scissors to trim feathers away from the area. Try to only take as many as could touch the wound, no more - they need feather protection and the feathers won't grow back til next moult. Also be careful, if wing feathers are near, not to cut the living flesh part inside feather quills.

If the wounds are under the wing, sometimes you can simply wrap the wing in a t-shirt to keep whatever touches the wing clean. Baby tshirts would be great for this. Neck part at the top of the wing, fitted with a little duct tape on the cloth (not tight please) and just tie the other end of the tshirt.

Make sure to look very carefully against the skin for puncture wounds. There might not be look, and puncture wounds are tricky and hard to find. Note the location and severity of all wounds.

Cleansing:
Take your syringe and fill with H202 (straight) or h202 slightly diluted with water. Use the syringe to vigously clean the wound area including in the wounds. If the wounds are puncture wounds, use diluted water/h202, not straight. You only use h202 the first time as it tends to burn tissues and keep them from healing if you continue. But it's great for bubbling out bits of dirt from inside the wound. Do this cleansing about three times per wound.

Follow up by rinsing out the h2o2 with a water/iodine mixture made to be just the color of slightly strong iced tea. You want it warm. Fill your same syringe that you used with the h2o2 and flush the wounds rather vigorously.

At this time, if there are any pieces of flesh that need to be removed, remove them. This is where I use a q-tip dipped in a bottle-cap full of clotisol (so you don't contaminate the original bottle).

Doing this on a table that's ok to stain is best. I've done this on my truck's tail gate as I can clean it afterwards. Place a lot of papertowels under the birds for these two cleansing phases to keep the drainoff from going everywhere.

Use another clean papertowel to dry the wound. You want to leave some iodine solution inside the wound - it doesn't have to be skin-dry. Just dry enough for some ointment to stick.

DRESSING:
Once the wound is well cleaned, then you'll want to dress it. I use Neosporin and q-tips most often for this job. If there are flies in the area at all, I will use Neosporin inside the wounds (ointment) and use Swat wound ointment for horses instead. (It has fly repellent that's safe for poultry in it.) I fill punctures with neosporin. If they're deep, I stick the top of the tube into the wound (and throw away the tube after I'm done with everything). Pack it. You usually want air in a wound, but puncture wounds can sometimes heal on top first and leave a pocket inside. The antibiotic ointment (not creme) is a little insurance against too much bacteria and thus abcesses.

If the wound is one that absolutely must be stitched, then pack it with the antibiotic ointment. If you're using a flyproof ointment, wipe the wound and then use the fly-proof on top. Otherwise just wipe slightly so there's a little antibiotic ointment on the important top part of the wound. You don't want to stray too far from just the wound, keep the bird dry.

On closing wounds with sutures. Puncture wounds shouldn't be sutured. Bad bacteria love a place where there's no oxygen. Suturing closes the wound and encourages festering within. As much air as you can get to a wound, the better, except that the interior of punctures should have some antibacterial action going on.

I've had some serious wounds in my flock before. The only time I've sutured was when a very large flap of skin was torn from the front of a neck (read as 3 inches by 10 inch flap). Another recent case involves a possible rather large hole in a crop which, should it leak food, should be sutured. Otherwise try to leave things open. Poultry can regrow an amazing amount of skin back if there's muscle underneath. New skin will granulate and grow in to fill in gaps that would surprise you.

On the areas that are just uncovered, I usually use antibiotic creme (versus ointment) because it's water based. Sometimes I'll just put a thin smear of antibiotic ointment, however, if that's what I have. Or fly-preventative ointment if there are flies in the area.

DRESSING WITH BANDAGES:
If at all possible, try not to cover with bandages. The average bandage keeps air out and moisture in and not in a good way. If you must bandage (a dirt floor area, extreme fly issues, etc) then try to keep the bandage to a minimum and very airy. That's why I'm not a big fan of nonstick bandages. They tend to trap moisture and cause a very warm airless area. But sometimes you have to use them. If so, cover the wound with the bandage. Wrap twice with very gauzey gauze wrap. Then put one layer only of VetWrap over. If you must secure (to keep the bandage from falling, for example) you can use very thin strips of duct tape like you would tape a birthday present. Using as little as possible, but a very strong tape like duct tape, helps let the air in.

Sometimes I've even used just one layer of a very clean paper towel rather than use a non-stick. Afterwards, if you have to remove it, you can soak with warm water and pick the bits out if it sticks. Gauze tends to embed in wound seepage.

Think out of the box when it comes to covering areas that are wounded. With my geese who had multiple puncture and surface wounds on their chest, and a high fly area, I used one white sheet that I formed into a sort of front-bib and tied behind their back. T-shirts are also awesome to cover a bird's body. Buy the appropriate size, slip the neck over their neck, their legs through the arm holes, cut two holes through which you slip their wings. Gather the bottom end (cut so that you don't cover their vent) at the top of their back and duct-tape the cloth to make it stay fitted. T-shirts are very airy, cheap, washable, and absorbent.

SUTURES:
If your bird requires stitches, suture material with thread attached can be found at many feedstores or purchased online ahead of time. The size you want is for dogs and cats. Sutures aren't stitched like a pillow case, but each stitch is its own knot. The semi-circular needles of suture needles are ideal for going into and out of the skin. Note: stitching is not easy - skin is tough, usually the needle is slippery, and it's rather tough to do. Overestimate the amount of suture material you need as you'll make knots and cut off the excess bit sticking up.

MAINTENANCE:
Many wounds, if properly cleaned and dressed and left airy, do not need much maintenance. Oddly, one of the best ways of telling whether or not a wound is doing well is by using your nose. Smell the wound at the time of cleaning. Wounds have a particular almost sweet but not cloyingly sweet smell. Remember the smell. Then smell the wound daily to see if you smell rot. If you do, there's not enough air to the wound and possible infection going on.

Wounds will seep a little - that's natural and the body's way of dealing with wounds. Usually the seepage will be mostly clear and smell of wound. However, if there's any opaqueness to it, or clotted texture, that's infection. Also there will be some natural inflammation as the body tries to bully off the bad bacteria and bring in healing materials to the wound. However excessive inflammation, discoloration (especially black or green), should be noted.

If a wound needs cleaning or examining, take off what bandages you can gently. If they stick to the seepage from the wound, use warm water to soak the bandage parts remaining away from the drainage.

Then examine the wound, determine what needs to be done, and redress from the iodine stage onward.

ANTIBIOTICS:
Many wounds do not require additional antibiotics other than topical (on the skin) antibiotic dressings. However in the case of animal bites that weren't caught immediately, cat bites, and wounds that have been sitting or are particularly deep, it may be a good idea to treat with antibiotics. If you make this decision, please be sure to get one that is appropriate for wounds. The packages at the feedstore are not.

Penicillin G Procaine (Aqueous Pen-G) is commonly found at many feedstores in their fridge section. It's awesome to keep in your own fridge for a rainy day. It's a very thick antibiotic and requires a thicker gauge needle. I would use no thinner than a 22 gauge, preferably something more thick at a length of .75 to 1 inch. At many feedstores, you can buy 3 cc syringes that are together already with needles. These are nice to have on hand as well as that 30 cc syringe that you'll use to flush wounds.

Instructions on how to give an injection are available separately as well as how to treat with antibiotics. If you do choose to use injectable antibiotics, be prepared to go the entire recommended course. Penicillin G Procaine is a concentrated penicillin (they're not all created equally) and only is required to be given every other day. Based on the type of antibiotic you expect to use, buy that many syringes plus two.

HEALING:
Birds in healing mode need help being stabilized, nourished, and hydrated. We all know how delicate birds can be, but it's surprising how resilient they can be at times. However, wounds will often depress a bird or cause them to go into shock. A stressed or shocked bird may not be able to digest foods they're commonly given. For that reason, I recommend only giving easily dissolved feeds when a bird is in the first stages of recovery. Think crumbles, pellets, etc. You don't want to make a drastic change in their diet ever, much less when they're already stressed. If a bird is reluctant to eat, try wetting the pellets/crumbles. You can also add a boiled egg yolk (one per six cups of food) mashed into the crumbles. I like to also give probiotics (yogurt, Fastrack, Probiocs, acidophilus, or whatever I have available) during this time to combat a secondary intestinal disorder from stress and change of way of eating. Yogurt is simple. You can mix 1 tablespoon per two cups of feed.

The added protein in an egg yolk helps the bird to heal. Adding a capsule of vitamin E to that mash (one per 2 cups of mash) also helps healing. If the birds are stressy, or not able to eat normally, I'll use a vitamin/electrolyte mix in their water for the first few days. I never ever use an oral antibiotic for wound treatment. Period.

CONCLUSION:
It's unfortunately common that poultry are victims of predation and wounds. They are delicate and, with their ultra-fast metabolisms, can die readily if they decide to. Remember that an injured bird can often have internal injuries we never see. If you lose them, just remember you tried your best. However you might be surprised, with proper wound-care, how many of these birds recover to absolutely normal lives. Just be patient as healing takes a while. Usually separate the birds, but if they can be near their peers they take heart from it and will do better.

Good luck with your flock, and I hope this information has been helpful.
Nathalie Ross
(Please do not reproduce without permission of the author. The author is not a veterinarian and does not intend to dispense information that at all should replace the advice of a qualified avian vet.)
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USING PENICILLIN G PROCAINE ON POULTRY by Nathalie Ross

Antibiotics in the water actually aren't the ones that work for infected 'wounds' - you'd want penicillin, amoxicillin, that type of drug - which usually means an injection. The ones in the water are usually for respiratory or enteritis and will just cause problems if misused. Word to the wise. smile

If you do penicillin, you can buy it at the feedstore from their refrigerator. I use penicillin G procaine, as apparently does Opa.

The thing with penicillin is that it's very thick, the particles in the solution are quite large, so you need a larger needle to really do it right - 18 gauge (usually cat/dog needles used on chickens are 25 gauge). Buy the 3 cc syringe - if it comes with a needle, usually they sell 18 gauge screw-on spares. Just right before you give the injection, change the needle out. Shake the pen for what seems like ages til the stuff on the bottom is all in the liquid. Then pull your dosage. Recap the needle and let that syringe just come to nearly room temperature (put the big vial back in the fridge). Then you'll give the shot in muscle - not under the skin. The breast is a good spot - lots of meat, not lots of bone to hit. Not lots of blood vessels. Get air out of the syringe, clean a spot with a tiny bit of alcohol on a bit of tissue. Put the needle in and pull its plunger *out* first - to make sure you're not in a blood vessel. If you are, move the syringe. It doesn't have to be in far by the way. If you don't see blood, push the plunger in and then remove the syringe from the bird.

Pen G procaine is given daily for no more than four days and the dosage for a chicken (under 10 pounds) is listed as less than 1/4 cc if the Penicillin G Procaine is 300,000 I.U. (which is most often is) for animals from 1-10 kg (each kg = 2 pounds, so 1-20 pounds). The dosage is actually listed as 1ml (cc) per 100 pounds of body weight, but giving 1/10th of a cc would be troublesome and it has a high safety margin.

This was so helpful. You went above and beyond. Many thanks