Bloody eggs and dead chicken.
I received a chicken from a co-worker that was about 10 months old. She was bright and cheerful and got along fine with the 1 other chicken I had. I have had her for about 2 months. This morning she was laying in the pen and laying next to her was a pale bloody egg. Her vent was all gooped up and there were 1/8" white larva crawling all around her vent. She couldn't have been dead long because she was still warm.
Two days ago she had passed a bloody egg as well. She hadn't produced an egg for 3days before that. Any help would be appreciated.
It is likely that she had some type of internal problem that caused the death. She could have had a retained egg that became infected or some other issue involving the oviduct resulting in the passing of the bloody eggs. Without a necropsy it is all guesses. The important thing is that is does not sound very likely to have been anything infectious to worry about. Sometimes these things happen.
Poor thing... at least the disease is not something infectious...
It looks like you have missed an important part that Archerman said. The 1/8" (that one eighth inch larva, i.e., something living crawling around her vent. This sounds like a problem to me. An infestation of some sort of parasite. Would someone with more knowledge than me venture a guess as to what it was?
Thanks Mary. That is a concern of mine as well. I only have one other chicken in the coop
But she seems to be doing fine. She has laid every day since I got her last August.
I did not miss it. The larvae were very likely fly larvae, aka maggots, that were feeding on/near the cloacal tissue or discharge. Maggots that small are likely just a few hours old and there are several species of live-bearing flies that will find a meal like that irresistable. Maggots can also be present on chickens while still live- as long as there is a potential meal.
Jungle, in the part of the USA I live in if you find larva on a live bird, or just died one you better find out what the problem is as our flies here only lay eggs in dead or nasty gunk and they take a while to hatch...don't know the time frame but, I'm sure it is more than a few hours.
It does happen, Mary. All a bird needs to do is have a small internal injury, such as laying an oversize egg ( the bloody egg you mentioned, or a prolapse ) & the flies move in. I've seen a bird litterally eaten alive. It's not pleasant.
I've seen it also. It takes very little time for a fly egg to progress to larvae stage. The hotter and more humid the surroundings, the more likely it is to occur. And, it's not always a bad thing. Maggots will consume necrotic material.
I have also seen it happen quickly. I had a bird with a puncture wound on the back of the neck. Even though I was cleaning it out twice a day I couldn't completely get rid of the fly larvae (aka maggots) - they kept coming back. Ended up getting some ointment from the vet that basically smothered the larvae while helping to heal the wound.
I stand corrected. I have probably never seen it as I live in a very dry climate, humidity rarely over 15% and temperatures rarely over 95 in the worst heat of the summer. I did know that fly larva ate neurotic tissue. They have been used where a person has gangrene to remove the nasty tissue. Because it is considered "Yucky" I don't know if they are still used.
Yes they do eat necrotic tissue. Maybe they eat neurotic tissue too, but I've never read anything about that. The problem is, once they have eaten all of the necrotic tissue on a wound, they will then happily eat live, healthy tissue as well, usually to the point of killing the animal, or at least probably making it wish that it were dead. In those controlled medical situations where they were used to clean up necrotic tissue, once the wound has been cleaned, the maggots are removed and the patient is not exposed to flies in the environment that will continually lay new eggs to hatch. Minor detail but obvioulsy an important distinction.Originally Posted by Mary
I only have one other chicken in the coop. She seems to be doing fine. She lays beautiful big brown eggs daily. I was worried that she might be sick. I have been hesitating
on getting another bird to keep her company.
It sure doesn't sound like anything contagious to me.
If you give your birds adequate calcium, it does help because calcium is needed for muscle strength. Weak muscles interfere with the expelling process in birthing. Good calcium levels will not solve all egg laying problems, but low calcium can cause egg laying problems. At least that is one thing you can do: have a dish of oyster shell out for your hens.
Interesting write up on the use of maggots to remove necrotic tissue from a wound. Thank you for sharing.
People never believe me when I tell them that my sister is treated with maggots for her wounds. She is dibetic and picked up a 'super bug' [antibioatic restant S aures] duringg one of her visits to the hospital Her strain is even resistant to the antibiotic whose use is restricted to be used as a last resort. All the instruments used on her are destroyed after use and the doctors don't like taking the risk of cleaning her wounds manually so they let maggots do the job. Their risk is limited to catching the maggots and disposing of them. Both her and her doctor are taking part in a clinical trial of a new vaccine that allows the body to fight off the infection. It is double blind but she is fairly sure she is in the group getting the vaccine and it works since she has now completed 18 months without a out break before she averaged a outbreak every 5 months with her longest period was 9 months. Very old and the newest biology seems to offer her a better life!
GD, I am glad to hear that they are still using older methods like the maggots where they are beneficial. It is sad the many things that they don't do that were beneficial. My husband cracked ribs last fall and they would not even x-ray him incorrectly diagnosing him with strained muscles. They declined to wrap his ribs. He suffered greatly for 2 weeks when I took it upon myself to wrap him with vet wrap, also known as coban. It allowed him to heal enough that after a week he was able to fly to a funeral he needed to attend. Before wrapping him he was in to much pain to travel. When I was nursing I cared for an elderly man that had broken his collar bone that the doctor refused to brace with the figure 8 brace (or anything) that was used on my daughter. He suffered unnecessary. I was taken off of his case because I spoke up for him. So, I find it wonderful that someone is doing things of value to help your sister.
She is on the dragon half of the family and bipolar to boot so she is likely to be crying her eyes out or kicking butt depending where she is in the cycle, sort of hard to ignore. Plus she has gone thru the system so many times that she tends to know the drill better than the young doctors. This last time she had to break in a new one that wanted to cut on her. She said you haven't read my file have you? Dr.X {old Dr.] left a complete set of notes on how to use maggots and why they were safer for all concerned. I don't like the little buggers eating dead tissue that used to be ME and they itch like crazy just before it is time to remove them, but it is better than the risk of spreading this superbug to you or someone else in the OR. Then she gave him references to her strain [named after her]of staph. He came back later and did it her way. Young doctors tent to have big egos.
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I have known a lot of doctors with big egos, young and older alike. Many of them have forgotten they are not "gods" and that there is a real God in charge who does things His own way and if we are smart and observant enough to learn them and work with Him we benefit a lot in the process. Glad your sister stands up to them. A wise thing to do when you have enough knowledge to do so. Sadly most folks I know bow before the gods of western medicine and allow them to do what ever they want. Sadly I have seen many botched jobs and some needlessly lost lives. I do understand the bipolar. Had a sister-in-law with it and a husband that suffered depression. They can be a barrel of fun or terrible to be around depending on what they are experiencing at the time.
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