Chicken math got me. Now I'm in a little predicament.

[silkieobsessed3]

Hey guys so I am a victim to chicken math and long story short, my fiance got me two sex links as a present with a small tsc coop and now, 5 months later, I have 19 chickens and 3 coops. anyways, I have a coop for my 4 "big girls " and a large coop area for my 8 silkies and one serama. I recently purchased 6 new silkies from a breeder near by because hey I got a new, huge coop and run so I could handle a few more fluffy butts.. sounded like a good excuse to me. Plus I have all hatchery silkies and wanted some that were show quality in case I wanted to breed.
So I saw an ad on Craigslist for these beautiful pictures of these silkies this lady bred. Top quality, absolutely beautiful birds. So I arrange a time and head over to buy 6 more silkies. I get there and the birds are the beautiful ones from the pictures but the living conditions were awful. I've never seen a breeding chicken farm before but I don't think it should look like this did. The lady had around 100 silkies in a small backyard, I couldn't see any full water or feeders, all empty! Poor babies. Her brooding area was a closet with about 100 more silkie babies of ALL ages in a 3x3 boxed off area. Also no full food or water containers. All empty! It was worse but I won't go into detail.
Dispite the living conditions, thesewere show quality silkies. Absolutely beautiful.
I felt so bad for these birds. They were so cramped and no food or water. I should have left empty handed, but my God they were beautiful.
Anyways, I picked out 3, 2 month old babies and 3, about 6 month old silkies. Honestly, I am just guessing. The lady didn't even knew how old they were.
So I get these birds home and they go right into my tsc coop that is empty and for quarentine. At least I did that right. First day, i gave them all an inspection. Right off the bat I can tell they are very malnurished. Skin and bones. I gave them all a bath with dish soap because they were filthy and smelled so bad. I blew them dry and noticed they had mites and lice eggs. UGH! I'm regretting my decision right about now. So I dusted them and their coop with DE and seven dust. Put them in coop with water with vitamins and food. They ate and drank right away.
So now it's 3 days later. They are looking much more active and no sighn of moving things on their bodies. Killed them all. YES! Eating and drinking better, still lethargic but grazing the grass under the coop and much more active than the first day.
I have been observing for hours each day. No one has runny beak or eyes, no one is sneezing or wheezing, no one is acting sick besides being lethargic (I really think because of how malnourished they are). They are seperate from my flock and I do shoe changes, wash my body before visiting each flock. Taking care of mine first. They are about 200 feet away with a tree line to block wind.
My question to you is, does malnurishment cause a bird to act like this. Plus probably the lice and mites. I plan on keeping everyone seperate for 30 days unless I see anything new come up. Anything else I should do? I dusted for the mites and lice, vitamins I'm water, I gave them yogurt and meal worms to hopefully fatten them up. Anything I'm missing?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Being lethargic could mean many things, from the stress of changing home to downright sick.

I personally have learned my lesson about bringing home older birds from multiple sources. Even with quarantine, each new bunch can still infect other batches with stuff they are carrying.

I would provide a good quality grower, and some daily scrambled eggs to help them grow a bit better. You don't necessarily want to fatten them up as young birds generally feel thin. Limit any extras to get them to eat as much grower as possible.

 

[silkieobsessed3]

Ok thank you. Each day they seem more active than the last and eating and drinking more. I really hope it was just the stress of the old situation plus the new move and not being sick. I've learned my lesson on this for sure, I just hope I don't pay for it by losing my entire flock.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I think many of us start in the same sort of way with chickens, it's too easy to get more, and it's an exciting hobby. I hope they all do okay for you.

I now only purchase day old chicks or hatching eggs from a single hatchery to minimize bringing in diseases, but sometimes you can't avoid some stuff.

Enjoy your new little fluffers, they sound like they are better off now.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Hiya I am up in Washington State where you able to report the place went to that so awful? gosh I hope so you did great getting a few of those out can you tell us where she is?

 

[silkieobsessed3]

I think many of us start in the same sort of way with chickens, it's too easy to get more, and it's an exciting hobby. I hope they all do okay for you.

I now only purchase day old chicks or hatching eggs from a single hatchery to minimize bringing in diseases, but sometimes you can't avoid some stuff.

Enjoy your new little fluffers, they sound like they are better off now.

Thank you so much! I have only had all hatchery birds besides my serama who was from a friends farm that I visit often and got him at a few days old. So I've never come across a situation like this before. It was shocking to say the least and I have 100% learned my lesson on that. Plus I think, hopefully, I'm completely satisfied with what I have now. And yes, they will think they have died and went to heaven with the amount of space and grass and food and water they are about to have. Unfortunately, for now, they are still in a small coop for quarentine but still have it much better than that did before.
I've read and read about what to look for in disease and sick birds but these babies really show no signs besides being extremely skinny.

 

[silkieobsessed3]

Hiya I am up in Washington State where you able to report the place went to that so awful? gosh I hope so you did great getting a few of those out can you tell us where she is?

She is in Arkansas right outside Jonesboro. I live in Memphis, TN so it was about 2 hours away. Yes, I did report her. I hope they do something but that's not up to me. I've read not to get any chickens you feel sorry for but my hearts too soft. I had to. Luckily all the birds I got were in the brooder area. She showed me her back yard where the adult birds were and I just wanted to run away. She had dead birds rotting in the back corner of her yard (not where the birds were but damn throw those things out or put away before someone comes to look at buying some from you! ) all her adult birds had to eat was rotting fruit. She had babies hatching under hens she didn't even know were sitting on eggs and the newly hatched chicks were squished to death. It was something nightmares are made of. I was speechless which I knew she picked up on since we had such great conversation up to coming over and buying the birds. I got my 6 out of the brooder where there were chicks with such messed up legs she just left with the rest they just crawled everywhere. I was almost in tears. I've never seen anything like that in person. Yes I called as soon as I left and reported what I saw. I think that situation scared me enough to where ill never buy chickens off Craigslist again. Sad thing is, is that they are really all beautiful silkies.

 

[pennyJo1960]

that is truly awful I would be as horrified to find such conditions also

 

[silkieobsessed3]

I'm so happy to report these guys are doing so much better after a weeks time. No more mites, the lice eggs are still attached to some of the feathers but I plan on dusting then again till they are dead. No one is sick. Everyone is starting to put on a little weight and do normal chicken things like take a dust bath together and sing and "purr".

 

[Natanya]

What those birds are subject to is straight up severe animal abuse and needs to be reported as a crime.