St. John's Wort

[chooks4life]

Thanks for sharing your experiences deemathes, hope it works out for you.

I second the colloidal silver suggestion, there's crap stuff that does nothing but when it works it's miraculous lol. I was quite on the fence about it, pretty wary and sour on it because while the antiviral, antibacterial, etc properties of silver have been known for a long time, colloidal silver manufacturing is riddled with quackery...

But I have recently started using it for a few things, after giving one brand a test run (what's the chances? I got a working brand the first time LOL) --- and it's working amazingly well.

(I'm not using it for Marek's but it seems like it would help for that too).

Good luck and best wishes.

 

[chicknmania]

Where do you get Colloidal Silver? I'm wary of it as well, I've heard a lot of controversial stuff about it. And how do you use it.

Only asking because, sadly, we have another hen with Marek's. She's eight years old, and a favorite. She was doing well with the HP until last night, she had a setback.

I'm getting sick of this.

 

[chicknmania]

As it turns out, my hen may not have Marek's at all. On an impulse, I took a fecal sample to the vet today. She has Capillary worms. Not a bad infestation, but they are there, enough that he was sure they are affecting her health. Weird that the HP had a positive effect on her in the beginning. Anyway, I'm deworming her, starting tonight, and we'll see how she does. Just wanted to post this as a possibility in suspected Marek's cases. And she may still have Mareks...this just complicates things.

 

[deemathes]

As it turns out, my hen may not have Marek's at all. On an impulse, I took a fecal sample to the vet today. She has Capillary worms. Not a bad infestation, but they are there, enough that he was sure they are affecting her health. Weird that the HP had a positive effect on her in the beginning. Anyway, I'm deworming her, starting tonight, and we'll see how she does. Just wanted to post this as a possibility in suspected Marek's cases. And she may still have Mareks...this just complicates things.

Keep us posted!!! I would be wonderful if that were the root of the whole thing! I know it is uncommon (but not impossible) for an older bird to show up with Marek's (at least that is what I read) so I was hoping you would find otherwise with her! Thanks for posting, so helpful!!!

 

[chicknmania]

Well, there was no dramatic improvement. There was a little. She was very bright this morning, and when she saw breakfast coming, she made the noise they make when they find something really tasty. I have never, ever heard her do that before. She was never broody, so she never had chicks, so no reason really for her to ever make that noise. She is still very weak and rocky, though.

The bad thing is, now I have another hen sick with idenitcal symptoms. She's been in hospital pen anyway, because of her bad scaly leg mite problem. She's pretty much gotten over that and I was getting ready to release her. The past few days, I've noticed she was a bit off, but thought it was just from the heat. Now she's off her legs.

Although in a pen in the barn, she was in an area where the others could perch on top, if they wanted to, so I'm thinking she probably was exposed to someone's droppings. Which would not have been a big deal under normal circumstances, and she herself was not contagious, so I didn't really think about it...

I'm just going to go ahead and deworm her too. I have ordered Levasol for the flock. Capillary worms are horrible, and very hard to get rid of.

 

[chooks4life]

Colloidal silver most health food shops sell. Most of them are now nanoparticles but I chose one that wasn't simply because while a lot of new research is showing nanoparticles deliver medicines including silver very directly because the immune system cannot cope with such tiny particles, well, that's exactly the problem. The immune system cannot easily remove them or do just about anything with them, so they can bioaccumulate like just about nothing else can. I'm a fair bit wary of them at the moment.

Capillary worm treatment... There are actually natural treatments research has found very effective, including more effective than chemical wormers of artificial types, I can go through my bookmarks and find it if you're interested, but the plants used may be harder to source than the usual chemical wormers such as cited by this, and it sounds like you need to act fast rather than spend time sourcing possibly difficult to get plants:

, especially in young growing birds.


Treatment
An affected flock suffering from any of the above parasites will need treating immediately with Flubendazole which is a anthelmintic belonging to a group of chemical compounds called benzimidazole carbamates which are effective in controlling intestinal parasites.
Flubendazole is available in a powdered pre-mix form, or ready mixed into poultry feed.

To me it sounds like you could possibly benefit from some decent soil testing. If the animals are sick and the husbandry, diet and breeding does not account for it, the soil is usually the culprit. It's a major influence. Do you lime (calcium carbonate) the ground at all?

Best wishes.

 

[chooks4life]

Liming the ground can to a heck of a lot to control parasite and coccidia burdens, it's well worth doing on a regular basis.

Oh, also, it's not strange that the HP helped her even if she doesn't have Marek's, it helps with a huge spectrum of things. I would keep up with it just in case, myself. If it seems to help, keep going, seems wisest to me.

Good luck.

 

[chicknmania]

I've read everything there is about Capillary worms, i think. We can't easily lime the ground because for one thing we have nowhere to put the birds while we do it, and we would have to catch them all...a challenge especially in catching the peafowl. And we can't lime the ground outside, it's too extensive, since they freerange. I have ordered Levamisole for the flock, and treating my three caged hens with Fenben (panacur suspension). I'm afraid YinYang is not improving like I'd hoped, and she may have permanent damage. Vet pointed out is the almost constant rain we've had this spring and summer that is helping in bringing out the worms. We had similar weather last year.

Trying to stay on topic on this thread, so I will switch to parasite threads for more discussion about this, but basically, YinYang hates the HP, and when it stopped helping her, I decided to give her a break, and stop treating her with it. It was becoming torture for her, and I felt she has enough to deal with as it is.

 

[chicknmania]

Bluebell, Hen number 2, was much better today. Back up on her feet and acting normal. But YinYang is not. I'm sad about her.

Trying probiotics in addition to everything else we've tried.

 

[chicknmania]

I'm so sad, I think our YinYang is dying Once again I'm highly suspicious that she has Marek's, it looks like it more all the time. She is still eating but can't stand up. I'm giving her scrambled eggs for dinner and a bath over the weekend if it is warm enough. We are having constant rain and falling temps. Living in a swamp basically. She now kicks all the time when I pick her up and I remember this from our pullet who had Marek's. On Monday I will have her euthanized if she has not improved. I would do it sooner but I don't think a vet will be available, who has a cone. I don't want to euthanize her by injection, it's horrible too. She is one of the last ones that we started out with as chicks when our kids were growing up. She was born in a bator. She's always been a pet. It is becoming torture to try to give her the HP, she just hates it. i may try to give it to her in a bread ball and see, although you're not supposed to do it that way. This is the down side of chicken keeping.

(and no way would I be a good farmer...)

Bluebell is back to normal, thank goodness. She's completing her course of dewormer, as is Bitsy.