Arizona Chickens

[DesertChic]

She was fine one minute and laying in the grass, unable to keep her head up the next.
I brought her in the house in a box and was hoping for the best. Sometimes they get through it.
Basically they shake/seize, can't hold their head up, their eyes open and close and their legs stick straight out behind them and their breathing either speeds up or slows down. She stuck with us for a few hours so I had some hope.
I saw one stung once that just shook her head scratched at it and kept going, it didn't phase her. I also saw one stung that immediately dropped dead. Over the last 7 years I've lost 3 or 4 to scorpions and nursed 2 back.

Wow....I'd no idea. Is there any treatment that can be used? I know that our vet has had us treat out dogs with Benadryl when stung by scorpions or even bitten by a rattlesnake. Do you know of any similar treatment for chickens?

 

[Beckyhsinglsc]

Quote:
Some people give Benadryl but I'm pretty sure that the chicken's reaction to scorpion venom is not an allergic reaction. When my daughter was stung(at 12 years old) they told us that benadrly wouldn't help unless she was having an allergic reaction which has different symptoms. If a person is stung and no allergic reaction is present, you just have to wait it out. My daughter was anxious and had twitches in her face but got over it in just a few hours. The place on her knee where she was stung was numb for a few months.

 

[Diannastarr]

Quote:
Some people give Benadryl but I'm pretty sure that the chicken's reaction to scorpion venom is not an allergic reaction. When my daughter was stung(at 12 years old) they told us that benadrly wouldn't help unless she was having an allergic reaction which has different symptoms. If a person is stung and no allergic reaction is present, you just have to wait it out. My daughter was anxious and had twitches in her face but got over it in just a few hours. The place on her knee where she was stung was numb for a few months.

golly i guess its a good question for a Vet that treats chickens, what to do in that case , i have never seen a scorpions here in Bisbee AZ , but then again i keep Arizona king snakes here for the last 15 years , they are good at killing all kinds of things especially rattle snakes, and I have never seen a rattler here either thank goodness , but all my elderly neighbors say they have plenty of rattlers in their yards , so my snakes have killed or kept the rattlers out ..? the snakes are never a threat since they only hunt at night ,and since i usually use predators to rid my land of pests , so one actually helps the others, and im still hoping for a few crows , been trying to attract them to come live here, and now that ive been thinking about it , i will build a few bat houses & put them up ,so the bats will come live here & eat up any bad bugs that may be here but never seen ,as they will help me keep my land safe for my family & animals alike , so thank you very much for all your important & informative information ...! so sorry again for your loss, very sad indeed, take care

 

[desertmarcy]

golly i guess its a good question for a Vet that treats chickens, what to do in that case , i have never seen a scorpions here in Bisbee AZ , but then again i keep Arizona king snakes here for the last 15 years , they are good at killing all kinds of things especially rattle snakes, and I have never seen a rattler here either thank goodness , but all my elderly neighbors say they have plenty of rattlers in their yards , so my snakes have killed or kept the rattlers out ..? the snakes are never a threat since they only hunt at night ,and since i usually use predators to rid my land of pests , so one actually helps the others, and im still hoping for a few crows , been trying to attract them to come live here, and now that ive been thinking about it , i will build a few bat houses & put them up ,so the bats will come live here & eat up any bad bugs that may be here but never seen ,as they will help me keep my land safe for my family & animals alike , so thank you very much for all your important & informative information ...! so sorry again for your loss, very sad indeed, take care

If you want to see if you have scorpions around, go out at night with a blacklight, you can buy a blacklight flashlight; scorpions fluoresce bright green. It's kind of fun to look for them that way. I have never heard of kingsnakes eating scorpions but I have seen a scorpion with a cockroach in it's grasp, so they have some benefit. Heck, my place is a regular scorpion banquet with all the roaches around here!

 

[DesertChic]

Okay, I know this is off-topic but, is there any kind of poultry that eats ants? I've got A LOT of large black ants as well as those not-son-wonderful fire ants all over my back yard...and my chickens don't eat any of them. In fact, the ants have been carrying off the spilled feed while the chickens are still eating it. I've got some Horned Toads in my yard, but the ants are just too abundant for them to keep up with.

 

[houdiniduck]

I too feel your pain on your loss! My Rooster Fearless, one of my first 4 chickens got nailed by a scorpion before he killed it and fed it to his girls. Sadly, he passed on after about a half hour, in my arms. That was Sunday, today my gold laced wyandotte Copper was dead when I came home from work.... No idea if it was a scorpion too, but we really don't have that many in our yard. Pest control hubby does a sweep at least twice a week with the black light.

Had someone told me a month ago I would be having a rooster shortage, I would have laughed in their faces... UGH. SO, I am ISO an adult rooster (breeding age, not too old) for my girls. I am in east mesa. Let me know if anyone has any roosters....

edited to add: I have read/heard that benadryl might help if caught fast enough.

 

[DesertChic]

I too feel your pain on your loss! My Rooster Fearless, one of my first 4 chickens got nailed by a scorpion before he killed it and fed it to his girls. Sadly, he passed on after about a half hour, in my arms. That was Sunday, today my gold laced wyandotte Copper was dead when I came home from work.... No idea if it was a scorpion too, but we really don't have that many in our yard. Pest control hubby does a sweep at least twice a week with the black light.

Had someone told me a month ago I would be having a rooster shortage, I would have laughed in their faces... UGH. SO, I am ISO an adult rooster (breeding age, not too old) for my girls. I am in east mesa. Let me know if anyone has any roosters....

edited to add: I have read/heard that benadryl might help if caught fast enough.

What breed of rooster are you looking for?

 

[houdiniduck]

What breed of rooster are you looking for?

probably should have put that. I am open to see what people have, I need a standard or large breed. no cochins or bantams.

 

[Sill]

She was fine one minute and laying in the grass, unable to keep her head up the next.
I brought her in the house in a box and was hoping for the best. Sometimes they get through it.
Basically they shake/seize, can't hold their head up, their eyes open and close and their legs stick straight out behind them and their breathing either speeds up or slows down. She stuck with us for a few hours so I had some hope.
I saw one stung once that just shook her head scratched at it and kept going, it didn't phase her. I also saw one stung that immediately dropped dead. Over the last 7 years I've lost 3 or 4 to scorpions and nursed 2 back.

There are several species of scorpion here and the potency of their venom varies. So you can have one chicken stung by a scorpion and be OK while another can be stung by a species with a more potent venom and drop dead. It just depends on what kind got your bird.

Okay, I know this is off-topic but, is there any kind of poultry that eats ants? I've got A LOT of large black ants as well as those not-son-wonderful fire ants all over my back yard...and my chickens don't eat any of them. In fact, the ants have been carrying off the spilled feed while the chickens are still eating it. I've got some Horned Toads in my yard, but the ants are just too abundant for them to keep up with.

Horned toads are the best, you just need more! I pour boiling water on ant colonies. Non toxic and it works great. Wait until the hottest time of day, boil water in a tea pot and pour it down the main hole of the colony. Be careful not to splash yourself or get it on surrounding plants. It will kill a lot of ants but you will have to repeat it daily to get enough starve the queen. Even doing it once will noticeably cut down on the number of ants in a particular colony.

 

[AZKat]

Ducks will eat ants. I've also had decent luck killing ant hills off by covering the entrances with DE.It can take a few weeks, and the ants will sometimes move the entrance, so you have to be vigilant. If they are getting into the feed, I'd treat the run and area around the feeder as
d well.