I can't keep my flock healthy.

[coach723]

It's not effective mixed in the water, so I wish that would not be posted. To make it more manageable, if you have easily identifiable breeds, you can treat one group of one or two breeds, and then do the next group when you are done with the first, may make it a little more manageable as long as you can easily tell who is who so that no one is missed.
4 foot high is very high for a roost, I try to not have any jumps that are more than 18 inches. Particularly for any of the heavier breeds. There is always somebody who will jump or fly rather than use a ramp. You could also try stacking square hay bales underneath, so they can use them as stairs and it will discourage jumping. Even a hard landing onto the ground could cause a tiny injury that could let the bacteria in.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Good advice from @coach723
The only thing I will add, is you mention you treated the coop with Permethrin, but you didn't say anything about the birds themselves. If you have mites, then you'll want to treat both (housing and birds). Do this in 7 day intervals to break the lifecycle.

One other thing. Something to consider which may make it easier. You feed different feeds? You can feed everyone an all flock feed. From baby chicks to adults, just provide oyster shell free choice for your layers. This way you don't have to buy separate feeds. This is dependent on your budget and what's available. It's not something you have to do, just look into it, it may be less stressful for you.

I'm sorry things are chaotic. Hopefully it will get better soon.

One other thing. I don't know much about Turkeys, so you may want to ask Casportpony about the Poult to see if she has some treatment suggestions.

 

[ccredeur]

It's not effective mixed in the water, so I wish that would not be posted. To make it more manageable, if you have easily identifiable breeds, you can treat one group of one or two breeds, and then do the next group when you are done with the first, may make it a little more manageable as long as you can easily tell who is who so that no one is missed.
4 foot high is very high for a roost, I try to not have any jumps that are more than 18 inches. Particularly for any of the heavier breeds. There is always somebody who will jump or fly rather than use a ramp. You could also try stacking square hay bales underneath, so they can use them as stairs and it will discourage jumping. Even a hard landing onto the ground could cause a tiny injury that could let the bacteria in.

Thank you for the suggestions. Im thinking I will have to reconsider my roost heights.
As far as the worms go, I know exactly who it was. I haven't found any worms in any other droppings. So Im thinking maybe I was seeing bubbling? Or perhaps she pooped on bugs and thats what was moving? When I went back to check it out I couldn't find an actual worm. We just saw wiggling movement like tiny hairs. But no more since and i've been checking like crazy.

 

[ccredeur]

Good advice from @coach723
The only thing I will add, is you mention you treated the coop with Permethrin, but you didn't say anything about the birds themselves. If you have mites, then you'll want to treat both (housing and birds). Do this in 7 day intervals to break the lifecycle.

One other thing. Something to consider which may make it easier. You feed different feeds? You can feed everyone an all flock feed. From baby chicks to adults, just provide oyster shell free choice for your layers. This way you don't have to buy separate feeds. This is dependent on your budget and what's available. It's not something you have to do, just look into it, it may be less stressful for you.

I'm sorry things are chaotic. Hopefully it will get better soon.

One other thing. I don't know much about Turkeys, so you may want to ask Casportpony about the Poult to see if she has some treatment suggestions.

So its been a minute since i've updated this thread. I was in touch with an admin from my crossbeak group who suggested I put denagard in the turkey's water. I did this and now, about three days later, her swelling is gone. I also cleaned out her nostrils to make sure it was clogged. Shes still sneezing like crazy. But Im going to keep this up and see how we are in a couple more days. Shes running around and eating. So fingers crossed.

Mites: I did spray the birds down- under the wings, around the vent, and behind the neck. The bottle says repeat in 28 days. Im going to check them real good this evening and see our progress. The chickens in my hospital room got treated with a drop of ivermectin last night because they had them and I honestly don't believe we treated them with the spray. We will see what gets rid of them.

The only different feeds I give is flock raiser for my babies and layer pellets for my adults. I have oyster shell available at all times but they don't touch it. I do save my egg shells and feed them back. And a few times a week we break the days fresh eggs for them and toss them on the ground. They gobble them up, shell and all.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

The chickens in my hospital room got treated with a drop of ivermectin last night because they had them and I honestly don't believe we treated them with the spray.

Ivermectin pour on is dosed by weight, not drops, so one drop is likely not going to do anything unless this is a 1-2wk old chick.
Pour on dose is 0.09ml per pound of weight, applied to the base of the neck, must make contact with the skin. Repeat in 10 days.

Egg shells are great to give back, but it's always a good idea to provide oyster shell free choice.

Glad the turkey is improving with the Tiamulin. Could be MG you are dealing with then since that's what it's used for.

 

[ccredeur]

Im looking for help. Advice. I guess anything. I can't seem to keep my flock healthy. I have a flock of around fifty. Ranging from brooder to adult. I have gone through every problem imaginable. We've had respiratory illness, bumble foot, mites, and now worms. And the illnesses aren't mild. They're so extreme. The bumble foot is probably the worst. My hen is so bad off that she can hardly walk.

Ive got an entire pharmacy for them now. Im a self proclaimed chicken vet at this point. Yesterday I found worms in my teen's poop and I about lost it. I am ready to toss in the towel. I don't understand why they keep getting sick.

Here is the run down on my coop/run:
I have two large coops. Both are walk in. One is 4x8x6 and the other is 8x8x6. I've changed the roosting bars three times. Thinking maybe they were causing the bumble foot. They now use really thick tree branches. Big enough that they're feet are flat. I clean the coop every Saturday or Sunday morning. Give or take a week if I have something to do on that weekend. I use construction sand as litter in both coops. Poop boards under where they roost. There is plenty ventilation. It was insulated in the winter and I now have box fans in each coop for the blistering heat. They have acess to three waterers that we dump and rinse every other day or as needed. The teens eat flock raiser (nutrena? or purina? I don't remember right now). The adults get 20% layer pellets from our feed store that I believe is purina. Or they get the producers pride pellets from tractor supply. Whichever place we stop. But they have been eating the teens crumble. They get scraps as we have them in the evenings. They have free access to oyster shell.

Their run is a large 30x40 fenced area with two trees for optimal shade. We have aviary netting covering the entire top because we had an issue with a hawk. They are in there all day while we are at work and free range supervised in the rest of the yard. But they spend majority of their time in the run. The run is obviously mostly dirt. Mud when it rains. There are things for them to roost on. I have a forage box with wire for them to have greens. (though they don't let that last too long before pulling them out). Their food stays in the coops. They have access to it all day and night. I ordered some port holes today to make feeders I can close up though. I'll have that done this weekend. They have a kiddie pool filled with dirt, sand, and first saturday lime.
I also put the FSL down in the coops and sprinkle on the roosting bars. It also goes into their water bowls to keep algea down.

They get loved on every single day. I sit outside with them for an hour at least every single afternoon and usually all day on weekends. They are let out the coops at 6am and go to bed around 8pm.

When they all got that respiratory virus they were given shots of duramycin for three days. It cleared up. The bumble foot hit three of my girls. One healed up fine after one treatment. One is healing currently with no issue. She had a mild case on both feet. The other one isn't doing too hot. It's very infected. Her whole foot is large and pink. I've lanced three areas now four times over the course of two or three months now. It starts to heal then gets worse. Im getting a large amount of infection out. Usually fluid infection (pale yellow) and then large chunks come out. I get what I can out, then I clean with vetericyn, pack with neosporin and prid. Cover with guaze and wrap with vetwrap. She is staying in our feed room which is air conditioned with a concrete floor. I change the bandage every two days. I just brought her in there indefinietly this last time I treated her. She is NOT a chicken who likes being indoors. This last time I poured peroxide in the wound as well. This morning she was walking around and even singing an egg song. She laid an egg yesterday. She was pooping green monday. I gave her a shot of penicilin after I cleaned her up. But we forgot the bottle out on the counter and the feed store is out, so she hasn't had another dose.
She is not pooping green anymore and is eating and drinking. Shes getting around a little better.

I found mites on them a week ago so I've treated the coop with permetherin spray and increased the amount of FSL Im using. I have to recheck them,

Now, yesterday, one of my lavender orpingtons pooped pretty watery stuff. I checked it out and what do you know? I see movement. There were the tiniest of worms in it. I ran inside to see what I had to treat them. I have safeguard goat dewormer 10% oral suspension. I will be adding that to their water as soon as Im confident that its appropriate and the right dosage.

So. I am at my witts end. Im sure sour crop is next and I really might just abandon ship. Please help. What am I doing wrong here?

Also want to add- I have a cross beak EE. So add that to my list of chicken disasters.

ALSO ALSO I almost forgot. I have a turkey poult with a swollen face and who sneezes now. Found that yesterday. HAAALP.

Attached are pictures of the coop and run and everything else I can find for y’all to get an idea of what I have going

Im looking for help. Advice. I guess anything. I can't seem to keep my flock healthy. I have a flock of around fifty. Ranging from brooder to adult. I have gone through every problem imaginable. We've had respiratory illness, bumble foot, mites, and now worms. And the illnesses aren't mild. They're so extreme. The bumble foot is probably the worst. My hen is so bad off that she can hardly walk.

Ive got an entire pharmacy for them now. Im a self proclaimed chicken vet at this point. Yesterday I found worms in my teen's poop and I about lost it. I am ready to toss in the towel. I don't understand why they keep getting sick.

Here is the run down on my coop/run:
I have two large coops. Both are walk in. One is 4x8x6 and the other is 8x8x6. I've changed the roosting bars three times. Thinking maybe they were causing the bumble foot. They now use really thick tree branches. Big enough that they're feet are flat. I clean the coop every Saturday or Sunday morning. Give or take a week if I have something to do on that weekend. I use construction sand as litter in both coops. Poop boards under where they roost. There is plenty ventilation. It was insulated in the winter and I now have box fans in each coop for the blistering heat. They have acess to three waterers that we dump and rinse every other day or as needed. The teens eat flock raiser (nutrena? or purina? I don't remember right now). The adults get 20% layer pellets from our feed store that I believe is purina. Or they get the producers pride pellets from tractor supply. Whichever place we stop. But they have been eating the teens crumble. They get scraps as we have them in the evenings. They have free access to oyster shell.

Their run is a large 30x40 fenced area with two trees for optimal shade. We have aviary netting covering the entire top because we had an issue with a hawk. They are in there all day while we are at work and free range supervised in the rest of the yard. But they spend majority of their time in the run. The run is obviously mostly dirt. Mud when it rains. There are things for them to roost on. I have a forage box with wire for them to have greens. (though they don't let that last too long before pulling them out). Their food stays in the coops. They have access to it all day and night. I ordered some port holes today to make feeders I can close up though. I'll have that done this weekend. They have a kiddie pool filled with dirt, sand, and first saturday lime.
I also put the FSL down in the coops and sprinkle on the roosting bars. It also goes into their water bowls to keep algea down.

They get loved on every single day. I sit outside with them for an hour at least every single afternoon and usually all day on weekends. They are let out the coops at 6am and go to bed around 8pm.

When they all got that respiratory virus they were given shots of duramycin for three days. It cleared up. The bumble foot hit three of my girls. One healed up fine after one treatment. One is healing currently with no issue. She had a mild case on both feet. The other one isn't doing too hot. It's very infected. Her whole foot is large and pink. I've lanced three areas now four times over the course of two or three months now. It starts to heal then gets worse. Im getting a large amount of infection out. Usually fluid infection (pale yellow) and then large chunks come out. I get what I can out, then I clean with vetericyn, pack with neosporin and prid. Cover with guaze and wrap with vetwrap. She is staying in our feed room which is air conditioned with a concrete floor. I change the bandage every two days. I just brought her in there indefinietly this last time I treated her. She is NOT a chicken who likes being indoors. This last time I poured peroxide in the wound as well. This morning she was walking around and even singing an egg song. She laid an egg yesterday. She was pooping green monday. I gave her a shot of penicilin after I cleaned her up. But we forgot the bottle out on the counter and the feed store is out, so she hasn't had another dose.
She is not pooping green anymore and is eating and drinking. Shes getting around a little better.

I found mites on them a week ago so I've treated the coop with permetherin spray and increased the amount of FSL Im using. I have to recheck them,

Now, yesterday, one of my lavender orpingtons pooped pretty watery stuff. I checked it out and what do you know? I see movement. There were the tiniest of worms in it. I ran inside to see what I had to treat them. I have safeguard goat dewormer 10% oral suspension. I will be adding that to their water as soon as Im confident that its appropriate and the right dosage.

So. I am at my witts end. Im sure sour crop is next and I really might just abandon ship. Please help. What am I doing wrong here?

Also want to add- I have a cross beak EE. So add that to my list of chicken disasters.

ALSO ALSO I almost forgot. I have a turkey poult with a swollen face and who sneezes now. Found that yesterday. HAAALP.

Attached are pictures of the coop and run and everything else I can find for y’all to get an idea of what I have going on.

I wanted to update on our crisis here:
I started the poult on denagard per recommendation of an admin from my cross beak fb group. She’s been getting it roughly three days now and her swelling is gone. She is still sneezing a lot. But she’s running around with a normal face, thank goodness.

The bumble foot. She’s still so swollen. Still won’t put weight on it. I’m changing the dressing every two days. Prid and neosporin. The incisions are healing well. But that swelling won’t budge.

I’ve got Tylan50 now at home. So I guess I’m going to figure out if that will work or not.

 

[Stephine]

First of all - breathe! You have 50 chickens, there are bound to be some problems, it just comes with the territory.
Now: you have 50 chickens in coops large enough to hold about 25 ( at 4sqft per chicken). Overcrowding is real and leads to real issues. If you have stellar circulation (recommended is 1 sqft of open ventilation area per chicken, high in the coop, no drafts in their roosting area) AND the chickens are out every day from dusk till dawn, you might be able to make this work since tour run is large enough. But it is not ideal unless the weather is always mild where you are. So increasing coop space is first.
Sand is hard to land on, I second the recommendation for pine shavings in a thick layer to cushion the landing and lowering the roosts. We have 2x4s, wide side facing up, sanded smooth.
For mites and such - I have found the easiest way to deal with that is to make a cotton baggie filled with elemental sulfur (make sure it is about 99% pure) and hang it where the hens will bump into it (mine is in the pop door, so their backs touch it every time they go through). This way they self dust, no stress for anyone and the sulfur is highly effective.
Worming: I use panacur horse dewormer paste, it is safe for chickens. About a pea sized portion per hen plus a few extra portions for inevitable waste mixed into days ration of feed. I put it in the mash I make from their leftover feed dust, add a bit of yoghurt and oats to make it really attractive. Make sure you have enough stations everyone gets what they want. Everyone will eat more or less according to their size, so the dosing “self adjusts” in a way. Dosing is a bit of a crap shot anyway and this method is simple and works well for me.
Finally: a lot of people rave about Ropa complete, it’s an oregano oil supplement with added vitamins and such. It’s added to the drinking water. I would give it a try for a flock that seems off.
Hope this helps! and don’t worry too much, with 50 chickens you will have issues here and there, they are all normal. These measures should keep them to a minimum though and make your life easier!

 

[ccredeur]

First of all - breathe! You have 50 chickens, there are bound to be some problems, it just comes with the territory.
Now: you have 50 chickens in coops large enough to hold about 25 ( at 4sqft per chicken). Overcrowding is real and leads to real issues. If you have stellar circulation (recommended is 1 sqft of open ventilation area per chicken, high in the coop, no drafts in their roosting area) AND the chickens are out every day from dusk till dawn, you might be able to make this work since tour run is large enough. But it is not ideal unless the weather is always mild where you are. So increasing coop space is first.
Sand is hard to land on, I second the recommendation for pine shavings in a thick layer to cushion the landing and lowering the roosts. We have 2x4s, wide side facing up, sanded smooth.
For mites and such - I have found the easiest way to deal with that is to make a cotton baggie filled with elemental sulfur (make sure it is about 99% pure) and hang it where the hens will bump into it (mine is in the pop door, so their backs touch it every time they go through). This way they self dust, no stress for anyone and the sulfur is highly effective.
Worming: I use panacur horse dewormer paste, it is safe for chickens. About a pea sized portion per hen plus a few extra portions for inevitable waste mixed into days ration of feed. I put it in the mash I make from their leftover feed dust, add a bit of yoghurt and oats to make it really attractive. Make sure you have enough stations everyone gets what they want. Everyone will eat more or less according to their size, so the dosing “self adjusts” in a way. Dosing is a bit of a crap shot anyway and this method is simple and works well for me.
Finally: a lot of people rave about Ropa complete, it’s an oregano oil supplement with added vitamins and such. It’s added to the drinking water. I would give it a try for a flock that seems off.
Hope this helps! and don’t worry too much, with 50 chickens you will have issues here and there, they are all normal. These measures should keep them to a minimum though and make your life easier!

Thank you for the suggestions! Im going to throw shavings down in the coops. Im having a hard time finding delivery sand so Shavings is my only option. We've had it before. Its just easier for me to scoop poop than blow out the entire coop.
So the coops are made with fence panels. So there is a bit of space between each fence board and space where the panels meet the roof. We live in south louisiana so its HOT. During the winter we put tarps inside on three walls to stop the drafts from getting in but also allow for ventilation. It worked wonderfully.
We actually are going to be extending our room to about double the size. We got hot wire yesterday to keep the goats out and we have to fix some of the fence they broke so we decided to just extend it. When the last set of babies are ready to join the adults we feel like everyone will be crowded. And a new coop is never out of the question. They are let out at 6am every morning and are tucked away after dark when they've all went to bed. They go into the coops to cool off and we keep some food in each to keep it out the elements.
I guess I do need to remind myself that it is fifty of the suckers. I just love them so much that when one is sick or hurt I get so scared for the rest. I want them to be happy.

 

[Newclucker91]

What kind of tree is in that area? And have you checked the surrounding grasses for something toxic? It could lower their immune e response and make them susceptible to infections

 

[mydaisy]

Aww, you are being the best chicken momma you can be and it shows that you care about them.
This is only an observation so it's just a suggestion - I see chicken wire that they walk on to get to the water. No judgement! But after dealing with chicken wire lately myself, maybe the birds are getting cut on their feet by some obscure piece jutting out that might be causing the infection to set in? Just a suggestion.
Also, I AM NOT A VET or an expert on worms, but that picture looks like a tape worm to me, in which case the normal de-wormers might be ineffective. They would need something with praziqauntel in it (like zimecterin gold you can get at any feed stores).
But please, get a second opinion on the worm, I am just going by what it looks like to me. Good luck and don't give up.