Essential oils and chickens

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I am a medical reference librarian, retired, and an essential oils sales rep for Doterra, an excellent company with an excellent product line. All of our oils are certified pure, therapeutic grade oils (free range and gluten free ;-).

As others have stated, do NOT use the cheaper oils you find at Walmart and such. They are made with artificial flavors/scents (like cheap perfumes) and are combined with petroleum based solvents. Because of the unique breathing system of chickens (they don't do it like we do), any use of harsh or artificial products/aromas can quickly compromise their health. But you probably already knew that.

So, I do a lot of research for a lot of clients on essential oils. Recently I had the opportunity to learn about EO's and Chickens.

EOs are used with commercial poultry ALL. THE. TIME. A search of any food or medical database will turn up thousands of articles on the application of EOs to commercial livestock production, including laying hens and poultry. Oregano is the most commonly studied, but new research emerges DAILY. I'm not kidding. Safe food production is a hot topic, and many essential oils already carry a GRAS (Generally regarded as safe.) rating. EVERY COUNTRY with a science team is looking at them.

So, the article I am taking to my doctor's receptionist, who has laying hens, is from the South African Journal of Animal Science, 2006 36(4) : 215-221. The researchers were looking at how to maintain the health of laying hens during the grueling, hot summers in Africa. They used a special diet, supplemented with mannan oligosaccharides, derived from yeast cell walls. They also added six essential oils: oregano oil (Origanum sp.), laurel leaf oil (Laurus nobilis L.), sage leaf oil (Salvia triloba L.), myrtle leaf oil (Myrtus communis), fennel seed oil (Foeniculum vulgare), and citrus peel oil (Citrus sp). They also tested current and traditional antibiotics and, of course, they had a control group.

FYI: Essential oils can be derived from different parts of plants. That's why the researchers specify which part of the plant that the oil is derived, erg, laurel LEAF oil, citrus PEEL oil. Most citrus oils are derived from the peel, which is maybe why they didn't specify what citruses were used for the citrus peel oil.

Conclusions: verbatim.

The observed results in the summer season indicated that the inclusion of 24 mg EO/kg in a layer diet significantly improved egg production, food conversion rate, and reduced cracked-broken egg ratio of laying hens (FYI: 480 were tested) over a period of 20 weeks.
 
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I know this is an older thread/topic, but I find myself with a similar problem right now. I have a small Malaysian Bantam (silky hair-feathers only on wings), her eyes became weepy and the clear stuff is sticky which seals her eyes closed when she sleeps. She suddenly has yellowish chunky stuff that I assume in in the nasal passage?.. but also comes out from her eye ducts when they're pressed while I clean her face.
I have no idea what this condition is. And I admit, I need more education in the ailments chickens can get. But I would love some positive advice.

Now, with her problem in mind, I decided that simply wiping ehr face clean wasn't enough. I felt she needed her 'hair' cleans of the sticky clumps where she'd rest her head whilst sleeping, so I'm giving her daily warm baths with a little bit of Apple cyder vinegar in the water. I bring her indoors alot so the windy/cool England weather doesnt make her worse.
Daily, I'm giving her .5ml Breath Free to help her breathing a bit. Today, I'm taking things a step farther... I make organic Neem Soap and Neem Cream/ointment, and I thought "Well, she's sick and possibly dying as it is... so maybe I should try to treat this with a little bit of my Neem Cream and see if this helps her." I placed a light smear of the cream from above her eyes down and around her nostrils.( careful not to get anything in them). Then I placed a small glass jar of hot water with 2 drops Lavender EO and 2 drops Tea Tree EO and pea size amount of my neem cream about a foot away from her and turned on my heater-fan 5 ft away, to gently blow the hot mix of vapors towards her. She has fresh water with 3 drops apple cyder vinegar set in front of her for drinking.

I don't know what else I can do. I'm not huge on all the chemical drugs.... but does her illness sound like it needs it? :(
This is "Darling".
 
How is she doing now?

Have you tried mixing epsom salt and a drop of Frankincense in her bath? That's always the first thing I do when one of my hens comes down sick. They sit in their bath for 15-20 minutes, enjoying a nice rub down by me. The salt pulls toxins out of their body, and the Frankincense puts life back into them.

You could also try giving her a drop of Oregano and olive oil (by syringe into her beak if she won't drink it).

Good luck.
 
Thank you! I'm all out of frankincense, but I do have the epsom salt. I'll order a new bottle of the Frankincense and get some of that Oregano EO as well.... or would soaking 1/4 a tspn of oregano in roughly 3 tbsp oilive oil work the same? Hmm... I think I'll buy the EO for it to have on hand either way. I will definately give her a bath with the epsom salt and EO like you suggested.

She looks a bit better right now. Her eyes aren't sealed shut at the moment (we'll see if that remains improved when I get up in the morning). I'll rinse her face again before i go to bed, and reapply the neem cream as well. My neem cream has Lavender, Tea Trea, lemongrass, coconut oil, cocoa butter, neem oil and a few other more exotic oils... her face does visually look healthier to me, so I'm hoping my cream fixes her ailment. :)
 
UPDATE!!!! My little Darling is doing incredible!!! I didn't want to over treat and cause just as much trouble, so I stuck with just using my Neem Cream.
I got up this morning to take her out of the box and let her perch on a chair.... and to be honest I was expecting her eyes to be sealed shut. But that was not the case at all!
Her eyes are free of sticky stuff and the swelling around her eyes has gone away as well. Her nose holes don't look overly blocked or oozy either, just a VERY tiny amount of dried flakey stuff which I'm not sure if its the cream I put on her last night or if its just a tiny amount left from her illness. But it was dried up and didnt seem to be causing any issue for her.
I've cleaned off her nose/beak and also given her eyes a gentle clean with warm water, just to stick with the routine. I'll continue to use my neem cream cream for a solid week to be on the safe side... but do I dare say I have successfully treated my hen back to health?! I'm blown away how well my cream has worked on her! Especially because I made the cream for my some who has eczema! Sorry for the rambling, my mind is just so blown right now. From weepy, yellow chunks of pus coming out of her eye ducts that I assume are connected to her nasal passage, lethargic behaviour...... to perking up, free of pus chunks, and no sticky eyes! Incredible.

Here is a pic of her this morning! :D


 
Hi all! This is a lot of helpful info here, but I'm wondering about application. I have a 4 week old poult (turkey) with a tear in her rear nail. I can tell she was bleeding, but isn't anymore. This is new today, so we wanted to leave it a day to give an opportunity to heal on its own. I would like to put something on it for healing and antibacterial properties, but not sure of what/how much/application.

Also, in preparation to receive over 100 meat chickens, I'm interested in illness prevention and oil tips from the group: anyone have experience in preventing pasty butt, aggressive behavior, preventing illness with eo's? I do YL oils and have quite a bit in my arsenal. What oils and how do people use? AND go!
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For the once bleeding nail, I'd simply clean it and put a drop of Tea Tree (Melaleuca Alternifolia) on it once in the morning and one at night. If you don't already have it, YL's AnimalScents Ointment is a MUST have for wounds, etc.

For illness prevention, you can't go wrong with Tea Tree, Frankincense, Oregano and DiGize oils. Simply put 1 drop, with a bit of olive oil in 1 gallon of drinking water every so often, depending on the issue, of course.

For aggression, spritzing Lavender water in their coop and even on their bodies every couple of days would probably help immensely.

Good luck!
 
Interesting post! I have 3 chickens with pasty butts after we moved the flock, and I am going to try a coconut oil with oregano, teatree and lavender EO mix to apply to their bums after a nice epsom salt soak. They are also being fed yogourt and AVC in small doses in their water, will let you know how that works out :)
 

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