Coping with Blackhead

[casportpony]

Welcome to BYC!​

That looks like it could be fowl pox. "Blackhead" refers to them turning blue due to lack of oxygen (cyanosis), I think, not scabs.

-Kathy

 

[Macs farm]

from another post on BYC, it appears he's been beaten up by the other toms (8, and no hens). processed him and his liver and other organs looked very healthy. So saved him from further torture and we'll enjoy him tomorrow night for tea. 5kg's dressed, what's expected? He was about 7 months. Thanks for the reply and welcome. Regards Scott

 

[wncpalm]

Despite the terminology, head color is not a primary indicator of blackhead, and the behavioral symptoms of blackhead are more extreme than you are describing. But the liver will tell you for sure.

 

[casportpony]

from another post on BYC, it appears he's been beaten up by the other toms (8, and no hens). processed him and his liver and other organs looked very healthy. So saved him from further torture and we'll enjoy him tomorrow night for tea. 5kg's dressed, what's expected? He was about 7 months. Thanks for the reply and welcome. Regards Scott

That would have been my first guess, but I just assumed that you had ruled that out.

-Kathy

 

[GardienneWings]

I have found, over the years, that anytime someone loses poults or peachicks they "decide" it's Blackhead due to it's notoriety. I am constantly approached at swaps by people who say, "every time I try to raise turkeys, they all die one after the other, I think it's Blackhead." I explain that it could be but there are also many other things that can cause losses in poults.

Turkeys and Peas are very sensitive to many things, especially young to adolescent poults and peas. A poult can die quickly from stress, getting damp/chilled, internal parasites, bad feed, tainted shavings, diseases, etc. and often by the time you know something is wrong it's too late. Managing poults has a definite learning curve and everyone ends up finding what works for them or throwing in the towel.

Here, we have found that moving poults and peas to the ground too soon will cause us major losses. We suspected Blackhead in the beginning, but necropsies by the state vet lab showed no signs of it, nor any other specific cause. So management-wise, we have learned to keep poults and peas off the ground until almost full grown, deworm every 30 days with Wazine for roundworms and once they are starting to go onto the ground alternately with ivermectin (topically) and fenbendazole (and I have recently started using Valbazen). I also keep Sulmet and Tylan on hand for coccidia and sinus infections. Once the poults are 3/4 grown (12-14 weeks) they start going out to free range during the day then back up off the ground at night. We usually start with a day out & 2-3 days up then increase the time out until after a couple weeks they are out all days and up all nights, watching carefully for any sign of lethargy, etc. After about 2 more weeks they are allowed to stay out over night (usually on top of the raised coop or in the trees over it). After winter sets in and we have a few good frosts/freezes (usually mid December here) they go into the breeder pens with the adults. Taking the time to slowly introduce them to whatever is in our soil, that in the beginning killed almost all poults and peas I tried to raise, has worked for us. We can bring adult birds onto the property and have few losses, but all youngsters come in and go off the ground, even if they were on the ground in their original home.

I'm not saying this will work for everyone, but if my losses can save someone else a year or two of trial and error, and more losses, great! And yes, my turkeys and chickens are kept all together, We have 1 type of chicken and one type of either turkey or color of peafowl in each pen.

Val

 

[retlaw]

I have found, over the years, that anytime someone loses poults or peachicks they "decide" it's Blackhead due to it's notoriety.

Agreed.

The reason I had a vet come here and treat my hens is because I had my tom dye from blackhead.
A month latter I noticed a hen acting strange.
Sitting weird, head hanging,.I could walk right up to it and it wouldn't move (always ran away from me before) etc.
So I thought it has blackhead to.
Well the hens got treatment and its been a few weeks now and she is still acting like that.
So the hen looks like it did not have blackhead.

My conclusion is the hen wants to get bred and goes into the possession for getting mounted.
With no tom around any more she continues to do this and it looks like she has a health issue but after a few minutes she jumps back up and looks fine.
She certainly fooled me.

 

[wncpalm]

I have found, over the years, that anytime someone loses poults or peachicks they "decide" it's Blackhead due to it's notoriety. I am constantly approached at swaps by people who say, "every time I try to raise turkeys, they all die one after the other, I think it's Blackhead." I explain that it could be but there are also many other things that can cause losses in poults.

Turkeys and Peas are very sensitive to many things, especially young to adolescent poults and peas. A poult can die quickly from stress, getting damp/chilled, internal parasites, bad feed, tainted shavings, diseases, etc. and often by the time you know something is wrong it's too late. Managing poults has a definite learning curve and everyone ends up finding what works for them or throwing in the towel.

Here, we have found that moving poults and peas to the ground too soon will cause us major losses. We suspected Blackhead in the beginning, but necropsies by the state vet lab showed no signs of it, nor any other specific cause. So management-wise, we have learned to keep poults and peas off the ground until almost full grown, deworm every 30 days with Wazine for roundworms and once they are starting to go onto the ground alternately with ivermectin (topically) and fenbendazole (and I have recently started using Valbazen). I also keep Sulmet and Tylan on hand for coccidia and sinus infections. Once the poults are 3/4 grown (12-14 weeks) they start going out to free range during the day then back up off the ground at night. We usually start with a day out & 2-3 days up then increase the time out until after a couple weeks they are out all days and up all nights, watching carefully for any sign of lethargy, etc. After about 2 more weeks they are allowed to stay out over night (usually on top of the raised coop or in the trees over it). After winter sets in and we have a few good frosts/freezes (usually mid December here) they go into the breeder pens with the adults. Taking the time to slowly introduce them to whatever is in our soil, that in the beginning killed almost all poults and peas I tried to raise, has worked for us. We can bring adult birds onto the property and have few losses, but all youngsters come in and go off the ground, even if they were on the ground in their original home.

I'm not saying this will work for everyone, but if my losses can save someone else a year or two of trial and error, and more losses, great! And yes, my turkeys and chickens are kept all together, We have 1 type of chicken and one type of either turkey or color of peafowl in each pen.

Val

Thanks for your detailed comments about a "management protocol" for Blackhead-susceptible poultry like turkeys and peafowl. Although you do not have the Blackhead protozoa on site, your management methods should be readily adaptable to mixed poultry settings where Blackhead is present. And any such adaptation could incorporate the Blackhead prevention and treatment measures discussed earlier in this thread.

It does appear that Blackhead serves as a "bogeyman" that can be invoked whenever something goes wrong with our poultry. And the facts that most of the Blackhead behavioral or stool symptoms are not unique to Blackhead, and that the only definitive diagnosis for blackhead requires a necropsy, means that there can be a lot of casual misdiagnoses of Blackhead. So thanks for reminding us that there are many different diseases that can threaten young poults and peas, and for sharing your protocol to protect them.

 

[casportpony]

This thread has some good info:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/804570/coping-with-blackhead

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Oops, deleted.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

This link is not about blackhead, but it does have some info:
http://www.octagon-services.co.uk/articles/poultry/gamebirds.pdf

-Kathy