My little feathered buddy is sick.
I have a juvenile male Rhode Island Red. He is approx 3-4 months old. Generally very active. He has a harem of chicklettes. 4 RIR females about 1-2 months old all VERY healthy. and 2 Silver Wyandotte females, also about 1-2 months old and VERY healthy.
They have one additional coop-mate. A laying hen RIR approx 6-9 months old. She is extremely tame and friendly. She initially had to be kept apart from the younger chicks, as she would harass all 7 of them. But lately is totally accepting of the entire flock.
All came from (2) different small local chicken farms with hundreds of birds at various life stages. (Not backyard operations, but not commercial.)
Symptoms: Both the Hen, and the little Rooster have had coughs for the entire time I have had them. (About 1 month.) They each came from separate farms about 30-45 mins apart. They each had the cough on day 1. The chicks were also split between the two farms, and not one chick has ever coughed except during a dust bath treatment. All the chicks are delightfully healthy. Both the older chickens have a cough and blackening beaks.
The coughs vary in intensity/frequency, but they do a short cough/sneeze/headshake and it sounds like there is some phlegm in there. There is off-and-on snot around one or both nostrils. Usually a yellow color. Lately I noticed that the hen gets a black crust around one of the nostrils. Some times there's fresh yellow snot around one or both.
The rooster had a terrible smell from around the time that I got him. after about 3 weeks, I tried bathing him. A lot of scaly junk and dirt came off and he generally smelled a LOT better. Once he dried and wasnt so pissed off at me, he was clearly better off. Peppier. Cleaner smelling. Feathers seemed fuller. Yes, he damn near went into shock and I had to keep him active but he came out OK.
During this bath, I noticed he had a SWARM of mites on him. I checked the rest of the flock. They ALLLLL have a deep mite infestation. They dont seem to have any irritated skin. But the VOLUME of mites on them is intense. I began powdering them with diatomaceous earth. I bathed one of the Wyandottes to see if it could help. Mostly it just stressed her out. She also did the shock game and I had to keep her warm and alert for a couple hours to make sure she did didn't die. In the end, I got the mites all over me, and she still has them on her and she could have died, so I have no plan to try and bathe the others.
It has been a few days. Powdering with diatomaceous earth seems to stress them out almost as much as a bath. The mites are still here... it has only been... 3 days? So, mites may still die off. May be too soon to tell. But the chicks do NOT like getting dusted! I don't BLAME them! It gets in their eyes and airway and such. They seem healthy after a couple of hours though. Just stressed and boogery after I dust them!
Apologies for my rambling! I am going to attach some pics of the troubled bills. I appreciate any help with diagnosis and treatment!
kc
K9SPY
I have a juvenile male Rhode Island Red. He is approx 3-4 months old. Generally very active. He has a harem of chicklettes. 4 RIR females about 1-2 months old all VERY healthy. and 2 Silver Wyandotte females, also about 1-2 months old and VERY healthy.
They have one additional coop-mate. A laying hen RIR approx 6-9 months old. She is extremely tame and friendly. She initially had to be kept apart from the younger chicks, as she would harass all 7 of them. But lately is totally accepting of the entire flock.
All came from (2) different small local chicken farms with hundreds of birds at various life stages. (Not backyard operations, but not commercial.)
Symptoms: Both the Hen, and the little Rooster have had coughs for the entire time I have had them. (About 1 month.) They each came from separate farms about 30-45 mins apart. They each had the cough on day 1. The chicks were also split between the two farms, and not one chick has ever coughed except during a dust bath treatment. All the chicks are delightfully healthy. Both the older chickens have a cough and blackening beaks.
The coughs vary in intensity/frequency, but they do a short cough/sneeze/headshake and it sounds like there is some phlegm in there. There is off-and-on snot around one or both nostrils. Usually a yellow color. Lately I noticed that the hen gets a black crust around one of the nostrils. Some times there's fresh yellow snot around one or both.
The rooster had a terrible smell from around the time that I got him. after about 3 weeks, I tried bathing him. A lot of scaly junk and dirt came off and he generally smelled a LOT better. Once he dried and wasnt so pissed off at me, he was clearly better off. Peppier. Cleaner smelling. Feathers seemed fuller. Yes, he damn near went into shock and I had to keep him active but he came out OK.
During this bath, I noticed he had a SWARM of mites on him. I checked the rest of the flock. They ALLLLL have a deep mite infestation. They dont seem to have any irritated skin. But the VOLUME of mites on them is intense. I began powdering them with diatomaceous earth. I bathed one of the Wyandottes to see if it could help. Mostly it just stressed her out. She also did the shock game and I had to keep her warm and alert for a couple hours to make sure she did didn't die. In the end, I got the mites all over me, and she still has them on her and she could have died, so I have no plan to try and bathe the others.
It has been a few days. Powdering with diatomaceous earth seems to stress them out almost as much as a bath. The mites are still here... it has only been... 3 days? So, mites may still die off. May be too soon to tell. But the chicks do NOT like getting dusted! I don't BLAME them! It gets in their eyes and airway and such. They seem healthy after a couple of hours though. Just stressed and boogery after I dust them!
Apologies for my rambling! I am going to attach some pics of the troubled bills. I appreciate any help with diagnosis and treatment!
kc
K9SPY
