hens are shaking their heads, running green-tingued poo; dying.

[michelle43]

I need help fast. One dead hen, one lethargic decreased appetite, shaking her head, with a green diarrhea. Now all of my other hens are shaking their heads and I am noticing diarrhea in the coop. They are 8 months old, large breed (barred rocks, orpingtons, etc). I need help fast, I don't want anyone else to die. Have to treat myself. No vets in the area deal with chickens.

 

[Miss Lydia]

michelle, I am sorry no one has answered your post, please hold on and hopefully with me bumping you some one will be here to help. ........

sorry to have to welcome you under such circumstances

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Are your chickens shaking their heads about every 5-15 seconds, as if to shake off something on their necks?
If so, then it could be mites. Please note that when my chickens had the Northern Fowl mite, they were shaking their heads as I described, and I could never find one on the chickens. I found them on ME (and they bit me).
http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

Also, they might have worms:
"Heavily infected birds may show droopiness, emaciation and diarrhea."
from
http://msucares.com/poultry/diseases/disparas.htm

There are treatments for both. Mites and worms can kill chickens.
Here are treatments for you to look up on BYC search and google if you want:

Sevin dust 5% (garden dust)
Ivomec Eprinex pour on (kills internal and external parasites- mites and worms)
Ivomec Ivermectin pour on
Ivomec Ivermectin injectable
Wazine (some say that if you think it is worms give this first or the other wormers could kill your hens)
Permethrin poultry dust

There are egg withdrawal periods for some of these meds. (Tossing eggs.)

 

[LeBlackbird]

Sounds alot like what happened to me a couple years back. My 6 month old chicks started getting sick. They were lethargic, sleepy, not eating, and were pooing nasty bright green and sometimes yellow slime 0.o I couldn't find out what is was, nothing fit the symptoms! After I sent a dead chook to the local lab, I found out it was Coccidiosis! By the time we realized this, I had lost 20 birds! I couldn't believe this was happening to almost matured birds. And it didn't even have the most common symptom, blood on poo. If this is the case for your birdies, act quickly before you loose all of them!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

http://chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0
the "poo page" for you to diagnose poo

http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/coccidiosis.html
coccidiosis page since Blackbird12 mentioned it, although it is usually in younger chicks unless there is immunosuppression

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=426202&p=1
another head shaking thread

 

[michelle43]

Quote:
Yes, they are shaking their heads, and now I noticed that my Salmon Faverolle has lost all her feathers on her cheeks. So, how do i administer the Sevin....I have that in my garage. As for everything else, I don't have any of that. Thank you so much!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Sevin is very toxic, so what I (should) do is wear long sleeves, a mask, disposable gloves, and take a shower afterwards.

I put mine in an old sock (you can use old stockings too), tie the top in a loose knot, and shake it under the wings, near the vent, and basically powder puff the whole bird except the face.

You can also use poultry dust from the feed store (Permethrin usually I have found) that is what some prefer.

Retreat in about 10 days. You might have to treat even another 10 days later (I didn't though).

You want to kill the bugs that hatch from eggs, which are not killed by the sevin. Also you should treat the coop and clean out all old litter. You can use liquid permethrin spray (diluted) or just shake some sevin dust in the litter.

The songbirds bring these in to chickens- and so I have chosen to put my chickens on a schedule to prevent further problems. This has worked for me.

Also- I read someone on BYC saying they are from California and they have taken Sevin off the shelves there- I don't know if this is true, and I will continue using my Sevin anyway- but you might want to just get some poultry dust. You can search in the BYC search bar for sevin, and google it also.