Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[Fancychooklady]

Something is wrong with my little pullet Pipper. I found her under our coop (a place with very low clearance) and unwilling to come out. I thought she might have gone broody, but we tempted her out with some food. I found her a few minutes later crouching low, dropping her wings (drooping one more than the other), and not wanting to move around much. I picked her up and looked her over, finding a very hard nugget of poo on her bum and took her in for a bath, hoping that it was causing her discomfort and that was it. I removed it fairly easily but Pipper did not improve at all. She began laying on the floor, slightly to one side. I felt her belly (which was soft) and could feel nothing near her cloaca at all. Her crop, however, was hard and round. I have no idea if it's impacted or if it's because she was just eating before I noticed that something was wrong with her. For the moment, I've separated her from the flock in our hospital crate in a heated room, have dried her, and have offered her water. I'm not sure what to do. I'm wondering if she possibly hurt her wing trying to get out from under the coop (to keep them from laying under there, we put chicken wire along the bottom and she'd pushed through a corner to sneak and lay some eggs). https://www.instagram.com/p/98BgG2rJ4a

Don't offer her any food. By the morning her crop should be empty, if it's not she probably has an impacted crop. Keep her warm and quiet.

 

[tandykins]

Don't offer her any food. By the morning her crop should be empty, if it's not she probably has an impacted crop. Keep her warm and quiet.

That was what I thought, so I only gave her water. I thought that way I will know if it's an impacted crop. She was still a bit damp so she's in the room with the brooder (which is heated) in warm, dry bedding. I just checked on her and, when I turned on the light, she was quite alert and bright eyed. At the moment I'm just waiting and seeing what happens - and trying not to panic.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Sorry, I am back with a couple more questions.

Turns out the whether to spray or dust the gals was moot because I ran out of surface spray before I got to the gals.

So, I sprayed everywhere I could in the coop, including the roosts and sure enough, some mites showed themselves where the roosts join and some were on the walls etc after the spray.

My questions:

I spray the same places every weekend with diluted Neem Oil; wouldn’t the drenching in Neem Oil also cause them to show themselves?

If that is the case, how come they were not there on Saturday but there were quite a few today?

If the Neem Oil was doing it’s job, they should be sterile and not able to reproduce so quickly?

Should I repeat the surface spray again and if yes, when?

The good news is that there is nowhere near as many as this time last year and as I hoped, I think we were onto this one early.

The bad news is that I am not sure the girls were very impressed with their dusting and may not love me in the morning .. good job the new order of meal worms is due to arrive 

I've done only a little research on neem oil, but it bothers me when they say ' that it renders them sterile but even the scientists don't know why. ' put simply , the science isnt there. in any case the pests that trouble chickens are likely to cause them a lot of grief before the oil has had any impact. Lice and mites come in on sparrows , rats and mice perhaps even crows. So as long as the bugs are being introduced anew , it's irrelevant that the existing ones are sterile.
I don't use pestene anymore. It contains ' rotenone ' , a product used in many garden pesticides since the 50's . It has been linked with Parkinson's disease .
I have nothing against natural remedies but I want them to work first time every time.

 

[Ashburnham]

I've done only a little research on neem oil, but it bothers me when they say ' that it renders them sterile but even the scientists don't know why. ' put simply , the science isnt there. in any case the pests that trouble chickens are likely to cause them a lot of grief before the oil has had any impact. Lice and mites come in on sparrows , rats and mice perhaps even crows. So as long as the bugs are being introduced anew , it's irrelevant that the existing ones are sterile.
I don't use pestene anymore. It contains ' rotenone ' , a product used in many garden pesticides since the 50's . It has been linked with Parkinson's disease .
I have nothing against natural remedies but I want them to work first time every time.

I used powdered sulphur - it's cheap, pure, natural and elemental.

 

[Fancychooklady]

I used powdered sulphur  - it's cheap, pure, natural and elemental.

Ash I buy sulphur by the kilo at our ag store . I sprinkle it in the nest boxes and on my angora goats after the shearer has been. I used to mix it in with Vaseline to apply on scaley leg mite , but found Vicks to be just as effective and much less fuss.

 

[locknest4]

Teila can you Google the bugs and see what you come up with? They sound alot like fleas to me.

Rodney I hope u find ur chick!

tandykins hope ur pullet feels better soon.

 

[satay]

Something is wrong with my little pullet Pipper. I found her under our coop (a place with very low clearance) and unwilling to come out. I thought she might have gone broody, but we tempted her out with some food. I found her a few minutes later crouching low, dropping her wings (drooping one more than the other), and not wanting to move around much. I picked her up and looked her over, finding a very hard nugget of poo on her bum and took her in for a bath, hoping that it was causing her discomfort and that was it. I removed it fairly easily but Pipper did not improve at all. She began laying on the floor, slightly to one side. I felt her belly (which was soft) and could feel nothing near her cloaca at all. Her crop, however, was hard and round. I have no idea if it's impacted or if it's because she was just eating before I noticed that something was wrong with her. For the moment, I've separated her from the flock in our hospital crate in a heated room, have dried her, and have offered her water. I'm not sure what to do. I'm wondering if she possibly hurt her wing trying to get out from under the coop (to keep them from laying under there, we put chicken wire along the bottom and she'd pushed through a corner to sneak and lay some eggs). https://www.instagram.com/p/98BgG2rJ4a

So sorry your girl is unwell.

 

[appps]

Oh dear, hope she improves as the day goes on :-(

 

[appps]

I've got a little integration dilemma. Yesterday one of my five week old escaped into the run with the big girls. They all either ignored it totally or moved away in a what the heck is that kinda way. It was quite an effort to catch it again. I'm thinking I might try putting them together to see how it goes (they pecked at mum on her return to the flock last time but ignored the chick) but I'm wondering if I'm going to regret it. Last time I just had to call mum back with some scratch mix to lock them up again, I can't do that with this little pair so it's going to be a nightmare if I need to catch them if it goes pear shaped.

Anyone integrate them this young and have a tried and true way to do this that doesn't involve all the chasing? I'm wondering about giving them just a section of run and then adding the big chooks one by one to that but then I worry about it being a smaller area for them if they need to escape. What I really need is a way to make 5 week olds come when called sigh

 

[Teila]

Good morning friends

Tandykins I am sorry to hear that Pipper is not well. I have a little experience with impacted crop but probably will not be as much help as others; Fancy for example. Anyways, I agree with Fancy, in that whether her crop is empty or full this morning after not having any food will definitely help in the diagnosis.

Dusty took sick one afternoon, very quiet, hiding under the coop, looking a little uncomfortable and out of sorts but the next morning she was fine. I think something she ate did not agree with her or caused a slight blockage.

I hope Pipper is much improved today

Fancy, as always, thank you for helping and good advice.

locknest4 the bugs are too small to really tell what they look like. They do not jump, so probably not fleas. I have Googled chicken lice, Northern Fowl Mites and Red Mites but while the pictures on Google are helpful, not being able to really see these things is not

The bugs that came out of the roost join when I hit it with surface spray could be red mites, but the bugs I found on me were smaller. A couple I found on the coop wall were smaller also and white, which research indicates they may have been juveniles and not yet ‘had a feed’.

So I am either dealing with a combined lice and mite problem or just some mites that recently arrived and have had babies.

Anyways, it is just a little frustrating that no matter how vigilant you are, how clean you keep everything and many prevention methods, they still get ya! I try to use natural remedies also but I confess to losing a little faith in their abilities, especially in this case.

I blame those Evil Black Butted B&*^%$’s !!

The good news, nothing moving in the coop this morning [the girls were in the run

]. A thorough examination of me after cleaning up the poop, taking down the nest box blocker etc only turned up one of the tiny monsters and the best news .. the girls are still talking to me

As I said, hopefully I caught them early this time around.

I have the IT Team Workshop today and tomorrow but I will strip everything down again on the weekend, give it a good wash in hot soapy water and hit it with another dose of surface spray.