Hi guys, my first time posting here! I am based in the UK in Manchester.
I had a small backyard flock of 4 ex-battery girls- recently the head hen died. We took her to the vet to get her put down (she was at that point 3 days in the hospital pen and obviously very sick and unhappy) and looked at and feeling inside her vent the vet said she had tumors. All girls are about 3-4 years old.
2 weeks later another hen started showing the same symptoms- losing weight, listlessness, eyes shutting, stopped laying, staying still for longs periods of time and being very withdrawn-getting worse pretty much daily. After a couple of days I had her dispatched by a neighbour who worked on a farm, as I didn't want her suffering.
There is some Red mite in the coop I'm currently treating but i've got it very much under control in recent weeks, and there is no lice or mites on the birds themselves. They are happy roosting at night in the coop. They are also in a run pretty much all day unless I am out with them so i'm sure they are not ingesting anything suspicious. They are fed layers pellets, mixed grit available and greens etc.
Now another of my girls is showing similar symptoms- about a week after the last. I only have 2 remaining.
This is the chicken in question. Her poo is like this:
I've had a look around many websites and have only really come to the conclusion that this could be Mareks-as it seems to display like this in older ex-battery birds. They have been fully vaccinated though as they are ex commercial layers. My other bird is currently acting fine but I have noticed a hard lump of skin (tumor like) under her vent, difficult to see here but its the white bump pin the middle:
Has anyone else had experiences like this? It's my first try with hens and I really want to just give the ex batterys a decent retirement-it's been very disheartening to lose them this quickly and I'm concerned it is my husbandry skills that are lacking!
Any help would be appreciated! Thankyou!
I had a small backyard flock of 4 ex-battery girls- recently the head hen died. We took her to the vet to get her put down (she was at that point 3 days in the hospital pen and obviously very sick and unhappy) and looked at and feeling inside her vent the vet said she had tumors. All girls are about 3-4 years old.
2 weeks later another hen started showing the same symptoms- losing weight, listlessness, eyes shutting, stopped laying, staying still for longs periods of time and being very withdrawn-getting worse pretty much daily. After a couple of days I had her dispatched by a neighbour who worked on a farm, as I didn't want her suffering.
There is some Red mite in the coop I'm currently treating but i've got it very much under control in recent weeks, and there is no lice or mites on the birds themselves. They are happy roosting at night in the coop. They are also in a run pretty much all day unless I am out with them so i'm sure they are not ingesting anything suspicious. They are fed layers pellets, mixed grit available and greens etc.
Now another of my girls is showing similar symptoms- about a week after the last. I only have 2 remaining.
This is the chicken in question. Her poo is like this:
I've had a look around many websites and have only really come to the conclusion that this could be Mareks-as it seems to display like this in older ex-battery birds. They have been fully vaccinated though as they are ex commercial layers. My other bird is currently acting fine but I have noticed a hard lump of skin (tumor like) under her vent, difficult to see here but its the white bump pin the middle:
Has anyone else had experiences like this? It's my first try with hens and I really want to just give the ex batterys a decent retirement-it's been very disheartening to lose them this quickly and I'm concerned it is my husbandry skills that are lacking!
Any help would be appreciated! Thankyou!
