6 underweight hens, still lay, still eat, still getting thinner

[PennyPew]

1) What type of bird , age and weight.

Silkie. 9 months. 28 oz
Wyndotte. 9 months. 4.9 lbs
Plymouth Rock. 5.9 lbs.
Easter Egger1 (Americauna looking) 9 months. 3.9 lbs
---
Seabright 1.5 years. 23 oz
Easter Egger2 (Americauna looking) 1.5yrs. 3.9 lbs

2) What is the behavior, exactly.
They all keep losing weight, breast bones getting more and more pronounced.
They all (except Silkie) walk around like normal, lay normal, eat normal. SOMETIMES I see them breathing with mouth open, but weather has been in 80-90's here.
Additional info:
- Silkie went "broody" 6 weeks ago. She lets me pick her up and put her by food and water. She eats and drinks, moves, eventually goes back to nest.
- EEgger1: Has had pasty butt on and off for 2 months. I cut some poo off 3 weeks ago and her butt has seemed fine since.
- All others:


3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
Breast bones seem to be getting more and more pokey for past 6 weeks now.. Just weighed them last night (see above).

4) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
No

5) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
Spring Cleaned the coop 6 weeks ago. Found lots of rotted food (incl some mushrooms?) under layers of straw that were sopping up the excess of rain we had this winter. I shoveled it all out, cleaned, added fresh dirt etc. While I was cleaning the ladies kept scratching and pecking at the dirty soil though.

6) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.

Free feed layer ration, have access to calcium rocks. Let them roam the yard 1-2x week (have to lock dogs away). Fresh Water
Also eat shrimp shells, random wilted lettuce, veggies (maybe the lettuce was off?), tomatoes, carrots, etc. (NEVER potatoes, avacados)
Have been feeding them scratch 1-2x day in effort to distract them from Silkie when I take her out. They (mostly Plymouth) peck at her, no bald spots / blood... when I try to put her by water, so I distract them with treats so she can get some food.

7) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
All is normal. firm. white spots occasionally. (I compared it to a chicken poo picture site) Just the EEgger1 had pasty butt issues.

8) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
6 weeks ago, Piperazine in Water.
This week, put cayenne pepper into treats twice. (rice, shrimp shells) as I read it may assist in one of the parasites. Figured it wouldn't hurt since it wasnt a medication ?

9 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?

I've yet to find a chicken vet here. (Austin is to metro perhaps? If anyone knows of one it would be appreciated

The vets I've talked to wont even analyze stool samples, so I'm kinda on my own.

I'm guessing I need to give them some medication ? Wormer? I prefer to not use the meds, but the diminished weights (some of them are hard to hold since their breast bones are so pronounced) has me very worried. These hens are more pets than farm animals to me. These are my first set of hens, so I know I must have done something wrong... I'm very open to criticism just as long as I can figure out how to help them get better again!

11) Describe the housing/bedding in use
Ground: fresh dirt (dug from gardening holes in rest of garden. (winter had the gunky straw I cleaned up)
Housing: large fenced in pen area. Have net over top, but the little, wild birds still manage to get in and steal food / water in the chicken area. The net just keeps the grackles out. The housing area is wire fencing as Texas gets hot, so they get plenty of breeze and it is under a tree.

 

[sourland]

A second worming ten to fourteen days after the first would have been a good idea.

 

[dawg53]

I'm not so sure it's worms....since you wormed them 6 weeks ago. After using piperazine, they've should've perked up in a few hours and started eating more and acting like a chicken should. However, sourland is correct in that a follow up worming with ivermectin pour on or safeguard was in order about 2 weeks after the first worming. Since it's hot where you live, chickens will slack off eating and sometimes open their mouths and open their wings abit to cool off. I recommend you provide them with plenty of fresh water,change it out daily. I'd provide them with plain yogurt,some scrambled egg,canned beef catfood all mixed in their feed,made as a mash and give it to them for a few days. You'll be providing them probiotics and protein in that mixture. Inspect them closely for lice/mites, especially around the vent area. Cayenne pepper is a worm preventataive but not a worm killer,but it's ok to add it to their feed. Their layer feed should be at least 16% protein. I'd lay off feeding them the vegetables,shrimp shells, and scratch for awhile and see what happens,plain rice is ok with their layer feed.

 

[silkiechicken]

Weather is in the 80's and 90's and they are laying well. Nothing to worry about. They do best in temps below 70 and will eat less when it is hot. Most hatchery hens will be "underweight" compared to what books say because they are optimized for laying, which goes along with less body weight. Birds under 2 years also have not reached full bone density or their "full adult" weight most of the time too.

No need to treat for this and that if they are eating, moving, laying, and other wise acting healthy.

 

[PennyPew]

This is a delayed response as I've been unable to get to a computer for a while...but I did want to make sure I checked back in with everyone.
First of all, thanks so much for all the advice; It is fantastic knowing there are so many nice folks willing to share their knowledge!

Here is what ended up happening.
-Administered Ivermectin under their wings on the skin using a syringe, and tossed their eggs for 2 weeks just as a precaution.
- Gave rice and cayenne, laying ration pellets, reduced the scratch. They weren't much much interested in the cat food: wet or dry.
-Completely taken out all bedding material on the ground, replaced it with 120pounds of diatomacious earth.
-Within 2 days their behavior drastically changed, to the extent it is unlikely I'm just imagining it. For example: Silkie stopped all "broody-like" behavior, and Americauna stopped all overly-needy behavior (jumping on my lap MUCH more than usual...looking for food scraps b/c she was always hungry due to parasite?)
-Within the week the clucking improved, Silkie stopped getting picked overly picked on. She is still on the bottom of the pecking order, but all the other hens are don't go out of their way to attack her with a vengence. They are ALL more active then they were before the meds.

A month later, and they are doing just amazingly well!

They have all put on weight, and are more active than before: in spite of the heat.

I'm guessing that maybe there was some broodiness that coincided with illness. Even though they were fortunately still laying normally, I think since I am lucky enough to work at home. Since I can spend a LOT of time around my hens, the subtle difference in behavior was apparent before it was advanced to the point of not laying. Is that possible? Regardless, I'm happy to have them hopping around like normal again, and for all the help that got them back to normal. Hopefully the new substrate will keep things going well.