Hi folks! A question about symptoms of illness:
We have a flock of 11 chickens (our first) and have made it 35 weeks without a single sign of ill health. In the last few days, however, I've noticed that one bird has loose stool (but is otherwise active and laying normally) and another (with a clean vent) seemed really dull and fairly inactive yesterday. Two things have changed recently that might affect them. 1. They've gone from being completely free-range (several acres) to being contained in a 40'X40' with a coop (have been contained roughly 2 months). 2. The weather has been uncharacteristically cold (windchill below freezing in GEORGIA!) They do have a heat lamp inside the coop to prevent the water from freezing.
My suspicion is that there could simply be a larger number of bacteria or parasites present than what they were previously used to because of the smaller area they're in? They are contained using electric poultry netting, so we are going to rotate the pen to another area today to see if it helps.
Any suggestions on diagnosis and treatment? Thanks!
We have a flock of 11 chickens (our first) and have made it 35 weeks without a single sign of ill health. In the last few days, however, I've noticed that one bird has loose stool (but is otherwise active and laying normally) and another (with a clean vent) seemed really dull and fairly inactive yesterday. Two things have changed recently that might affect them. 1. They've gone from being completely free-range (several acres) to being contained in a 40'X40' with a coop (have been contained roughly 2 months). 2. The weather has been uncharacteristically cold (windchill below freezing in GEORGIA!) They do have a heat lamp inside the coop to prevent the water from freezing.
My suspicion is that there could simply be a larger number of bacteria or parasites present than what they were previously used to because of the smaller area they're in? They are contained using electric poultry netting, so we are going to rotate the pen to another area today to see if it helps.
Any suggestions on diagnosis and treatment? Thanks!
