- Feb 18, 2010
- 5
- 0
- 7
Hello all,
My hens are a mess! I've had my girls for about 18 months and everything was going great until the last month or so. Prior to now, I've had an issue with a sick favorolle and run-in with scaly leg, but nothing major. First, some background: I purchased my girls as pullets, all 6 of them coming from the same farmer (an americauna, a turken, two wyandottes, a favorolle and a leghorn). I've got a great big backyard that the landowner (I rent) has divided with chain link fence so about one third is entirely fenced for a dog-run. When I moved in, this became the chicken-run. Within this fenced third of the yard I built a smaller, chicken-wire enclosure that is about 17ft. x 9ft. x 6ft. tall and put my coop in there so the birds would be completely protected when they go in to roost at night. I let them out of this smaller enclosure first thing in the morning and they have the run of the larger enclosure for the rest of the day. At dusk, after they have filed into the smaller enclosure and into the coop, I simply shut the door behind them. The point is, they are almost completely free-range birds. This has its problems of course. About two weeks ago I noticed the early stages of scaly leg again (those free-range birds are always getting into it) and started my usual treatment of tea tree oil applied as an antiseptic followed with petroleum jelly to coat the legs and smother the mites. Late last week I went to treat them a third time and I began noticing feather loss first on one wyandotte, then the other, then my turken. When I noticed the first wyandotte was losing feathers I thought maybe she was just having a partial molt but now I'm beginning to suspect otherwise. The cause of my suspicion: after the last treatment I contracted ringworm. I'm afraid my girls have it and when I was out there handling each one I picked it up.
From other forums on this site I've learned that you can, in fact, contract ringworm from chickens, but I'm not sure how to diagnose it in the birds themselves, or what to do about it if it is ringworm. Does anyone have any images of what a chicken affected with ringworm looks like? Is the feather loss typical of ringworm? Effective treatments? I'm not seeing any of the signature marks on their balding patches, but their skin is a bit red and irritated. Also, I'm not seeing any mites (the scaly leg is on its way to clearing up). Suggestions? Thanks.
-Sam
My hens are a mess! I've had my girls for about 18 months and everything was going great until the last month or so. Prior to now, I've had an issue with a sick favorolle and run-in with scaly leg, but nothing major. First, some background: I purchased my girls as pullets, all 6 of them coming from the same farmer (an americauna, a turken, two wyandottes, a favorolle and a leghorn). I've got a great big backyard that the landowner (I rent) has divided with chain link fence so about one third is entirely fenced for a dog-run. When I moved in, this became the chicken-run. Within this fenced third of the yard I built a smaller, chicken-wire enclosure that is about 17ft. x 9ft. x 6ft. tall and put my coop in there so the birds would be completely protected when they go in to roost at night. I let them out of this smaller enclosure first thing in the morning and they have the run of the larger enclosure for the rest of the day. At dusk, after they have filed into the smaller enclosure and into the coop, I simply shut the door behind them. The point is, they are almost completely free-range birds. This has its problems of course. About two weeks ago I noticed the early stages of scaly leg again (those free-range birds are always getting into it) and started my usual treatment of tea tree oil applied as an antiseptic followed with petroleum jelly to coat the legs and smother the mites. Late last week I went to treat them a third time and I began noticing feather loss first on one wyandotte, then the other, then my turken. When I noticed the first wyandotte was losing feathers I thought maybe she was just having a partial molt but now I'm beginning to suspect otherwise. The cause of my suspicion: after the last treatment I contracted ringworm. I'm afraid my girls have it and when I was out there handling each one I picked it up.
From other forums on this site I've learned that you can, in fact, contract ringworm from chickens, but I'm not sure how to diagnose it in the birds themselves, or what to do about it if it is ringworm. Does anyone have any images of what a chicken affected with ringworm looks like? Is the feather loss typical of ringworm? Effective treatments? I'm not seeing any of the signature marks on their balding patches, but their skin is a bit red and irritated. Also, I'm not seeing any mites (the scaly leg is on its way to clearing up). Suggestions? Thanks.
-Sam
