Penelope is one of our OG chickens. Last week Donny noticed that she was walking funny, almost like she was drunk. He thought for sure that she was going to die by morning. The next morning when he went out she was walking normally so we just thought that she must have gotten into something but was fine. On Wednesday when I was mowing the backyard she was sitting just inside the coop. When I was putting the mower up she had moved to right into the doorway which was unusual for her. I picked her up and noticed that she had poop caked to her butt.

My first thought was that she was egg bound. I took her in and gave her an Epsom salt bath. I checked her to see if she was egg bound but that didn’t seem to be what was wrong. We’ve had chickens twice and have never had any of them have these symptoms. I gave her another epsom salt bath that night and ready that wet cat food could help her regain strength.

We put her in a laundry basket and she did eat some of the cat food. During her next bath we noticed that she had maggots on her. After a Google search we realized that she had fly strike. That’s when an animal gets poop stuck on them and flies lay their larva in the poop and the maggots start eating the animal. We immediately went to Tractor supply to get some supplies to try and help her. We were told to get ivermectin. Because it’s made for horses we only give her the size of a pea. We also bought some Betadine and antiseptic ointment. You need to get the one without pain killer in it because for some reason it hinders the healing.

After administering the ivermectrin, we loaded up the warm water with Epsom salt, got the Betadine ready to go and started bathing her. To say we were not prepared for what we were finding was an understatement. The maggots did not like the Betadine and started crawling up her body. We were pulling them off left and right. Then Donny had the most brilliant idea: permethrin. I did a quick Google search and it’s safe for chickens. In fact, a lot of chicken owners dip their flock to keep bugs off. He went outside to get it and mix up some more. As soon as we sprayed it on her they maggots started dying. There were over a hundred on her. We worked almost an hour making sure we got every last one off of her.

She was exhausted. We didn’t know if she was going to make it through the night. Fly Strike can be deadly to chickens. But as Donny said, “she was going to die if we didn’t do something”. The next morning she was still with us but still not moving around much. Fly Strike causes the chickens to become incredibly weak and not able to walk. We gave her fresh food and water and she ate a drank a little bit.

Donny gave her a thorough examination and there wasn’t one maggot to be found.

She is still getting a bath a day and wound care, but still not one bug to be found. We moved her into a large tote and added some hay. She has been eating, drinking and moving around so much more.

We’ll be keeping her inside until she is strong enough to return to the coop. I know that permethrin is probably not the way most people would handle a fly strike, but it worked so well for us and Penelope is feeling so much better. If we wouldn’t have done anything she would have 100% died. She is also my favorite Chicken and only 2 of 7 that actually has a name so she’s pretty special.