About two weeks ago, I lost one of my hens Lily. She had had green diarhea for quite some time, and then she developed some form of ascites.
For about the last week, one of my other hens Aunt Francie has developed the same watery green diarhea with alot of white urates in it that Lily had. Her abdomen is fine, but she seems to be losing weight, and has become more lethargic. At first I had thought that she was just depressed by the loss of Lily? But for the last couple of days the other hens have been picking on her quite a bit, so I'm assuming they sense her weakness?
All of my chickens have been in sub-par condition for a long time, so I have been trying to make some changes to their feed and management. I also wormed them in May, but I have yet to see any results. The egg quality and number is still way down, and now I'm afraid that I have another hen on the way out. I wormed them first with Wazine, and followed up 10 days later with Albendazole. I'm not really sure if they got enough of the Albendazole though as it was a bit difficult to administer.
So anyways, I have no idea what is going on with my chickens. But I hope to see some positive results soon from the worming.
I'm wondering if I should seperate Aunt Francie away from the flock? The seem to be bullying her, and I think she would like some peace from that. Her comb is all pecked up. I had brought Lily in the house, but that didn't go over so well with the hubby, cats, and dogs. I was thinking that I could put Aunt Francie in the dog crate and keep it in the run during the day. At night I could take her out and put her on the roost with the other girls. This would keep the others from picking on her all day, but she would still be 'with' them. The dog crate is a large metal cage, and I could put shavings and individual food/water cups inside. I'm worried that by doing this, she will become further ostrasized by the others if she does recover.
Any ideas on this?
For about the last week, one of my other hens Aunt Francie has developed the same watery green diarhea with alot of white urates in it that Lily had. Her abdomen is fine, but she seems to be losing weight, and has become more lethargic. At first I had thought that she was just depressed by the loss of Lily? But for the last couple of days the other hens have been picking on her quite a bit, so I'm assuming they sense her weakness?
All of my chickens have been in sub-par condition for a long time, so I have been trying to make some changes to their feed and management. I also wormed them in May, but I have yet to see any results. The egg quality and number is still way down, and now I'm afraid that I have another hen on the way out. I wormed them first with Wazine, and followed up 10 days later with Albendazole. I'm not really sure if they got enough of the Albendazole though as it was a bit difficult to administer.
So anyways, I have no idea what is going on with my chickens. But I hope to see some positive results soon from the worming.
I'm wondering if I should seperate Aunt Francie away from the flock? The seem to be bullying her, and I think she would like some peace from that. Her comb is all pecked up. I had brought Lily in the house, but that didn't go over so well with the hubby, cats, and dogs. I was thinking that I could put Aunt Francie in the dog crate and keep it in the run during the day. At night I could take her out and put her on the roost with the other girls. This would keep the others from picking on her all day, but she would still be 'with' them. The dog crate is a large metal cage, and I could put shavings and individual food/water cups inside. I'm worried that by doing this, she will become further ostrasized by the others if she does recover.
Any ideas on this?