Any ideas on why chickens are losing weight ?

[chicken legs]

After 2nd treatment with Ivermectin, they are all losing weight & have runny poops. I can't figure out for the life of me, why I have such ill chickens. We have sprayed down the coop numerous times. We throw permethrin in nestboxes and floor of coop afterward. We have sprinkled the permethrin in the dirt of their dustbath holes in the ground. We have used wood ash on floor of coop as well. The coop rests on pavers on the ground and I notice that the bottom 2 inches of the plywood is often wet. The pavers floor has pine shavings on it. They free range maybe 4 days out of the week. I have done nothing to treat external (on the body mites) assuming that the ivermectin going into their body system (& permethrin) would have remedied the external mites . Any thoughts or ideas are greatly appreciated. What do you do to treat for external mites? and why do you think they are losing weight and have runny rears? Thanks

 

[dlhunicorn]

Too much of a good thing ...is a bad thing. (You might be overdoing the permethrin. Like most helpful substances it can be toxic when used improperly.) Follow the instructions carefully (I personally only use the liquid to spray down the coop (not the bedding as they occasionally ingest this > have no idea on the risk of using it in a dust bath).
Please review the type of permethrin you are using and instructions for its use in poultry housing and on the birds themselves.

regarding the ivermectin: (did you use the ivomec Eprinex and then repeat after ten days in the case of worms?) .... it is primarily a wormer and altho effective on a few types of (external) lice/mites it will not treat all the different ones (some are very obnoxious to get rid of even with all the best treatment meds and sprays).
Go to your petstore and ask for the spray they use ON cage birds (like canaries /pigeons and such) and use that on your birds (preferably the non-aerosol one and protect their nares and eyes when using)

What are you feeding them and some details on their environment (temps and so) treats etc. and breed and age would be most helpful.

 

[Miltonchix]

Quote:
DITTO!! You are over dosing them.

 

[chicken legs]

Finally got a bag of DE today as I hate chemicals but did what Avian Vet prescribed and thought I would try what he suggested to hold me over until this bag of DE arrived. I followed his directions to the letter. His prescription, for which I had to wait 4 days and finally pay him for, was to put permethrin in all the aforementioned places. Now, I just noticed today, that it is not all the chickens but the one that narrowly escaped a raccoon last week. We gave her a look over then but maybe not close enough. She is the only one I saw with runny poops and perhaps wrongly extrapolated it to the whole flock. I will be so glad not to use all these chemicals. Thanks for the thoughtful advice.