FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[subhanalah]

The chicken I have that is sick is my rooster, and he certainly is acting sick, all right. Now it appears another hen is coming down with the same thing, displaying the same white and green watery poop. Before the rooster got sick, his mother was sick from what appeared to be the same thing. Yes, she acted sick, too. She recovered after ten days on amoxicillin.

All my flock as been on FF for a good part of a year now. I thought FF prevented bacterial infections in the gut, which is what this appears to be, and was one of the motivating factors for me to start feeding FF.

The lab is working on the stool sample and says they will have the results in a couple days. I'll let you know what they find, although they warned me they may not find anything since the rooster has been on antibiotics and it can mask the pathogen.

when was the last time you wormed them? Worms ca use irritation, inflammation and damage to the chicken's insides and can cause a secondary infection to take over.

 

[azygous]

No worms. They've been tested and found clean of parasites.

 

[Chris09]

No worms. They've been tested and found clean of parasites.

If they have been tested and found clean of all parasites then I would take them off the fermented feed and see what happens.
If the fermenting is done incorrectly or gos bad then you can do more harm than good by feeding it.

 

[ak rain]

Hello I've added 4 ducks to my meat flock

Is fermented feed ok for them ?
Ak rain

 

[azygous]

The FF smells like it should, not spoiled smelling. It's fermenting as it has all along. I don't believe that is the problem, since none of the others are sick.

My rooster is finally showing signs of getting better now that he's almost finished with the ten-day regimen of antibiotics. Coincidentally, his mother was sick from this same thing and she fully recovered after ten days of antibiotics, and went back to eating FF again. That tells me it's a bacterial infection. Hopefully the lab can tell me what it is tomorrow. I'll keep you all posted.

One curious thing, though. These chickens that have gotten sick didn't want to eat FF while they were sick. The only way to get food down them was to offer them dry crumbles. What do you suppose is up with that?

 

[evemfoster]

The FF smells like it should, not spoiled smelling. It's fermenting as it has all along. I don't believe that is the problem, since none of the others are sick.

My rooster is finally showing signs of getting better now that he's almost finished with the ten-day regimen of antibiotics. Coincidentally, his mother was sick from this same thing and she fully recovered after ten days of antibiotics, and went back to eating FF again. That tells me it's a bacterial infection. Hopefully the lab can tell me what it is tomorrow. I'll keep you all posted.

One curious thing, though. These chickens that have gotten sick didn't want to eat FF while they were sick. The only way to get food down them was to offer them dry crumbles. What do you suppose is up with that?

I may be as simple as the chickens since of taste changed while they were sick.

 

[kpgoldstar]

Hello I've added 4 ducks to my meat flock

Is fermented feed ok for them ?
Ak rain

I have seen lots of posts about feeding FF to ducks. Seems like a few folks are doing it with good results.

 

[ak rain]

I have seen lots of posts about feeding FF to ducks. Seems like a few folks are doing it with good results.

Thank you kp my search was not coming up with clear results.
Sylvia

 

[Bobi9459]

I tried this a month ago, they loved it but to me I thought it went bad it stunk to high heaven now that I read more from here I started 2 small batches of just the crumbles for the babies and for the older ones last night And then started another batch today with the different grains again with crumble mixed. Now I understand it wasn't bad just didn't do all the stirring to keep the grey matter mixed in. We will see this time.

 

[azygous]

Has anyone dealt with or heard of Lymphoid Leukosis? This is the preliminary finding from the lab on examining organs from my rooster who died yesterday. It's related to Marek's.

Izzy's liver was huge and his heart had ruptured. I euthanized him yesterday when he couldn't seem to be able to breathe. I drove his body to the lab, almost 100 miles away, this morning, desperate for a reason for this illness that seems to be bringing down members of my flock.

At least FF can be completely ruled out as a cause for this. I never even gave it a thought, tell you the truth. The lab is still working on isolating a specific disease in the lymphoid group.

So, anyone ever dealt with this? Is there a cure? Sounds like my entire flock may be carrying it, even though they're asymptomatic at present.