First Aid Kits

[Pocahontas7799]

What are the most important medications, vaccines, and supplies needed for starting a new flock. I want to have a list of things to buy so I am prepared for everything possible when I bring my chicks home.

 

[chooks4life]

Well, I can basically only offer natural info, but these are great staples to have on hand no matter your preferred treatments:

Activated charcoal for poisonings, vitamin C powder for the same (but Vit C also works for many diseases, viruses, venoms, infections, etc as well).

Cold pressed olive oil for flushing blockages out, or a similar oil. Artificial or petroleum derived oils should be avoided since they are harmful, you want their mucosal membranes to stay in fine health, not become stiffened and inflexible, because that's precisely what causes a lot of binding cases. Cold pressed olive oil in the diet on a regular basis has meant I've never had a single egg binding case, highly recommend it. Cooked oils/fats/proteins in pellets contribute to inflexibility of mucosal membranes which contributes to all issues such as binding or crop or reproductive tract.

A good set of scalpels or similar for emergency crop operations etc.

Salt, and/or epsom salts (never used the latter but it's something many folks swear by).

Sodium bicarb for causing emergency diarrhea when necessary, lol...

For emergency issues involving female reproductive tracts, like egg binding, calcium/magnesium combinations are important but raspberry leaf tea will do it too, though if she's prolapsed the raspberry leaf should only be given once she's holding normal configuration if you know what I mean as it can trigger contractions. When given to a normal female or one who is holding proper configuration it will tone her reproductive tract and help it stay where it should have in the first place.

Raw honey for emergency nutritive organ/system support (contains minerals, vitamins, enzymes, protein, antibiotics, and a long list of other goodies including probiotics and electrolytes, can be a real lifesaver for animals in shock or those unable to eat normal food, especially babies).

100% pure Stockholm Tar for disinfection and treatment of various things such as golden staph infections, gangrenous mauling wounds, bumblefoot, scaly leg mite infestation, any wounds and cysts just about, foreign body extraction, and pain relief.

Lime powder (pure calcium carbonate) to keep the soil sweet, alkaline, and the pathogen and parasite levels under control.

Some needle-less syringes for applying oral or ventral treatments (the latter application sort could do with a rubber muzzle or similar) --- i.e. for eggbinding or crop binding/gizzard binding cases.

There's a lot more but that should do for an emergency kit, I guess.

Best wishes.

 

[Pocahontas7799]

Thank you! I really wanted to stay as organic as possible so this is helpful! I just would hate for one of them to get ill and I couldn't help because I wasn't prepared. I really don't know the success rate of organically raised chickens so I wanted someone's experienced advice.

 

[chooks4life]

You're welcome, it's great to hear you're keen on natural/organic methods as well.

When you don't have enough knowledge or resources to utilize organic/natural measures it's best to use whatever you can, so it's good you're looking for overall info. In my earlier animal keeping days I used conventional things as well, but the more I've learned the less I've needed to. Still it's often the best starting place for newbies. Hopefully those with more experience with conventional treatments will chime in soon.

The success rate for organically raised animals, in my experience, exceeds conventional ones by a long shot, not even in the same ballpark. Depends of course on a few things; your levels of knowledge, access to resources, and willingness to put in the time and effort required. Conventional/commercial style intensive raising would be more successful than it is, even if ultimately it's still shorter term lifespan wise and the health levels are overall much poorer, if there wasn't such a cull-& replace response to easily treated problems.

Best wishes.

 

[Pocahontas7799]

I have been on the hunt for organic, GMO free feed that wont cost a fortune to ship. Scratch and peck feed was one I was looking at but I was hoping to find something a little cheaper or even something local to where I can just pick it up. I want to have healthy happy birds more than anything. When I was younger we raised bantams and the only issue we had was scale mites. A good long dip in olive oil and they were cured! I do a lot of research on chickens and it sticks like glue but all the information is conflicting so it's hard to tell what is right for me. I don't know if I should vaccinate, or give medicated feed. It's really hard to make a decision for the well being of an animal and my family. After all, I'm the one eating their eggs! It's been a good 8-9 years since I have had chickens and a lot has changed since then.

 

[chooks4life]

I have been on the hunt for organic, GMO free feed that wont cost a fortune to ship. Scratch and peck feed was one I was looking at but I was hoping to find something a little cheaper or even something local to where I can just pick it up.

I want to have healthy happy birds more than anything. When I was younger we raised bantams and the only issue we had was scale mites. A good long dip in olive oil and they were cured! I do a lot of research on chickens and it sticks like glue but all the information is conflicting so it's hard to tell what is right for me.

I don't know if I should vaccinate, or give medicated feed. It's really hard to make a decision for the well being of an animal and my family. After all, I'm the one eating their eggs! It's been a good 8-9 years since I have had chickens and a lot has changed since then.

Medicated feed is unnecessary if you're willing to take the time to add raw garlic to their food. Freshly minced is best, you can feed from hatching onwards. A clove per bird per day is the average but you can use dried raw granulated garlic inbetween boosters of raw garlic too, go over or under that dose and it'll be fine. I soak their grains and mix through herbs, garlic etc and they can pick out more or less depending on their needs.

The single greatest thing you can do for them is give them good nutrition, probably, if their immune system is supported it will take care of itself. Too many people balk at the idea of anything more than a dirt-basic and denatured commercial diet for them and scrimp financially when they could afford a little better, then suffer the attendant diseases of poor health and spend so much more in the long run on medications etc, and lose birds, which could have been prevented by giving them a decent diet in the first place. Poor health is cheaper in the short term but far more expensive in the longer term and the damage often takes generations to completely remove from a family line.

Best wishes.

 

[Pocahontas7799]

Wow! So much info! Haha.

What I think is right for me is...
Free range of my yard all day since I'm a stay at home mom.
Organic, non GMO food.
Organic, GMO free, heirloom scraps from my garden.
No vaccines, medications, or contamination.

Sometime I don't think it's possible because if I buy chicks from a nursery, I have no idea how good of biology the mother or father had. But then again I think about all the preventive and natural methods you take to keep your chickens from having problems like you said. Still, I feel like I will literally have to go on a long tiresome hunt for healthy chicks. I must add my neighbors across the street has 6 hens and they have never had a case of Marek's and the woman who lived in our house before us built it in '57 and never had chickens. So I'm pretty sure my soil is clean. So I kind of want to avoid that vaccine.

I'm all about taking the natural route for everything to be healthy. So this really would be easy for me. Plus, I have a huge soft spot for animals so I could never not give my 110% on giving the best care like nature intended for my chickens. I just have never done this all organic chicken raising so I don't know how well it goes. But it sounds promising! Just look at the feed that most people pass off as "healthy". It looks so processed and depleted of nutrients. The scratch and peck feed looked so much more appetizing in comparison. It was amazing. I am so grateful for you taking the time to give me this information. It has truly cleared my mind of doubts. Thank you!

 

[chooks4life]

Wow! So much info! Haha.

What I think is right for me is...
Free range of my yard all day since I'm a stay at home mom.
Organic, non GMO food.
Organic, GMO free, heirloom scraps from my garden.
No vaccines, medications, or contamination.

Sometime I don't think it's possible because if I buy chicks from a nursery, I have no idea how good of biology the mother or father had.

The more natural the family unit and environment your choice of hatchery allows, the less likely your chooks will be like I've described, but unfortunately such hatcheries are hard to come by. Instincts are rather easily meddled with and bred out via incarceration in unnatural environments, familial unit breakup, etc, and it's a generational problem which will take generations to fully eradicate.

Thing about Marek's is that it's so ubiquitous that experts reckon you should consider all birds infected until proven otherwise. It's not some horrific epidemic super-disease, unless you're the sort who practices isolating and biosecurity of a degree that means your birds have never even been exposed to the avian equivalent of the common cold --- coddled immune systems are weak, just like non-exercised muscles, and that's the sort of poultry owner who does everything to avoid Mareks' only to end up losing their entire flock to it. Wild birds can carry it, the wind can carry it, so can clothes, shoes etc... It's a matter of when, not if. Conversely mongrel or less overprotected flocks are highly resistant.

Chances are all backyard bred chooks you meet are resistant, though they may be carriers, but that's not a real concern unless you get in non-resistant or susceptible birds, often such as one gets from hatcheries. Mongrels are highly resistant overall for obvious reasons. Hatchery birds, less so, often completely susceptible.

I'm all about taking the natural route for everything to be healthy. So this really would be easy for me. Plus, I have a huge soft spot for animals so I could never not give my 110% on giving the best care like nature intended for my chickens. I just have never done this all organic chicken raising so I don't know how well it goes. But it sounds promising! Just look at the feed that most people pass off as "healthy". It looks so processed and depleted of nutrients. The scratch and peck feed looked so much more appetizing in comparison. It was amazing. I am so grateful for you taking the time to give me this information. It has truly cleared my mind of doubts. Thank you!

You're welcome, glad I could help. Organic gets a bad rap sometimes but massive commercial companies are taking it up with success, it's not even commercially nonviable for large scale enterprises as was once believed, once you've done the research to know how to treat things naturally. No need for doubt, only education. Best wishes with your journey.

 

[Pocahontas7799]

This helps a lot. I need to do some more research and stock up on my knowledge. I will be looking for some local farms selling chicks and keep my fingers crossed I find one who raise their chickens the way you described. I really do get what your saying and it makes so much sense. I was raised to play in the mud and go through illness without medical intervention. I have seen first hand people with weaker immune systems from antibiotics and vaccines. Why would it be different with chickens? All of this information will come to good use for me, and don't think you're saying too much. This is exactly what I need. So thank you again!

 

[chooks4life]

Glad it helps. As more people learn and share this sort of knowledge it has a ripple-on effect that benefits us all (and our chooks too of course), I'm still finding new info all the time.

Feel free to PM me or whatever if you have more info you'd like to ask about or share. I'm still learning too.

Best wishes.