Have you ever had chickens that never got sick?

[Three Stents]

All these posts about chickens getting sick. The list is fairly long on all the disease, illness that chickens get. Is it envitable?

 

[AinaWGSD]

I'd venture to say that most of my chickens over the past 15 years have never been sick. I've had two cross beak chicks, one valgus deformity, one chronic soft egg layer with salpingitis, and one unfortunate pullet with a vestigial left ovary that became cystic. This fall I had two hens develop bumblefoot, but other than that all the sickly chickens I've had were pretty much physical defects they were born with.

 

[Eggcessive]

A lot depends on where you get your chicks. Getting healthy chicks from a hatchery, as long as there is not a glitch in delivery or the hatch, would give you the best chances on having healthy chickens. Adding chickens from other places is always a gamble. Quarantine any new birds for at least a month to look for symptoms of a disease, or practice an “all in all out” method in raising chickens. Unfortunately many of us decide to add to our flock or get some new breeds, and then we end up with a an illness. Once a disease is introduced into a flock, it is there until the last bird is alive.

 

[Susan Skylark]

How do you define ‘sick?’ Every living being is constantly under assault by environment, other organisms and even itself (cancer, autoimmune…). The immune system and cellular growth can fix or minimize some of these issues, but disease and death is inevitable for every living thing. You have no doubt had a cold, your houseplants have died mysteriously, your cat drags in a dead mouse (whether he killed it or not!)…. If you mean catastrophic flock disasters like bird flu, then no, happily most flocks go forward without losing 90% of their birds in 3 days. But every flock has sporadic outbreaks of coccidia or mites or a deformed chick or a fox or an egg bound hen or mareks or whatever, it doesn’t mean you are doing something wrong only that you have living organisms around. You only see so much death and destruction here because people are asking for help in the midst of crisis, you rarely hear anything when things are going well. Just like cancer rates skyrocket when we develop a test for a certain type, the actual cancer rates are the same, it is only our ability to detect them that has changed and thus our perception. Just like everyone now dies of heart disease, cancer or diabetes in their 70s+ while a hundred years ago it was infectious disease and accident while making it to 50+ was a great accomplishment. Modern medicine and better living/working conditions have eradicated most of those old school mortality factors allowing us to die of other stuff instead, our bodies basically wear out: organ failure or cancer, whereas most people didn’t live long enough back then to wear out, the rates were significantly lower both because of shorter lifespans and nobody was diagnosing or recording cancer rates and heart disease back then (at least on a population level). Life is dangerous, nobody gets out alive, so you should probably enjoy the journey! To which our animal friends can contribute significantly, even if they add their own stress and sorrow but that is the price of love and life too!

 

[Debbie292d]

I chose to raise/breed silkies who are more prone to vitamin deficiencies and diseases like Marek's.

In nearly a decade, we've lost one to liver disease (vet affirmed), and other than treating one with a persistent URI (upper respiratory infection), a few other losses were just happenstance. I don't count the several splayed legs and neurological issues over the years, or other physical ailments some have come up with. Those are few and far between, and we just treat them.

Sticking to clean, secure, well-ventilated coops, fresh water, good feed, healthy treats to a minimum, and plenty of room per bird in the coop/run are the basics. Occasional probiotics and vitamin boosts can help.

 

[Eggcessive]

I think people think too that chickens will live for many years without problems. In the old days, people butchered their older chickens for meat and got new chickens when they did not lay well. They are bred to lay as many eggs as possible, sometimes daily, so then people will see reproductive issues that may end a life prematurely. Also, I think some people just jump in a get some chickens not knowing anything about them, or realizing that they can get sick, learn about illnesses, or that some people will sell you sick birds.

 

[redinator]

All these posts about chickens getting sick. The list is fairly long on all the disease, illness that chickens get. Is it envitable?

I think it has more to do with people only posting the best/worst parts of chicken keeping. Over winter I didn't really post much because everything was 'run of the mill'.

I wasn't hatching/buying chicks, integrating, no one got sick/injured so there wasn't really anything to post about.

 

[fldiver97]

Most of my chickens have been healthy. In the beginning I lost a couple to predators and had a couple that were injured by owls. I learned about predator proofing my coop and runs and safer ways to free range. A bumble foot and an impacted crop over the years and last year a hen had water belly (ascitis). She was pretty sick and I treated her but thought she likely would not survive. She did and is doing great.
I did lose a hen that was egg bound despite care and vet involvement.
Yes, there have been a couple of chickens that suddenly died for no apparent reason when they were under 5 years old but overall I think the other posters are right about breeding and environmental issues. I’ve had chickens for about 17 years now. Each loss is hard, even if it’s a geriatric chicken. But again, I don’t think my illness/injury and ‘sudden’ death issues are higher than expected and most of the sick or injured ones recovered (fortunately). Experience helps, you learn over time

 

[kattabelly]

I expect you'll get similar answers here as when you started another very similar thread recently.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

No sickness in my flocks.