History repeating itself

[sara bb]

I have a a HiLine chicken she's about 8 months old & she developed the sticky vent about 2 weeks back & was off the lay, looks listless etc. I lost my Penny last Christmas Day to something similar so I followed Mr Apples advice & I've wormed Pebbles & she was back on track. Eating, happy, laying again but yesterday she declined. During this time she still had a runny bottom. Should I reworm her? Would she need another dose? She's 2.4kilos & I gave her .2mls. She's very similar to Henny in the fact that she's a wee bit of a scavenger. My other 2 birds aren't & eat only what I feed them. Would this be why she's ill?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Possibly but a runny bottom can be from things other than worms.
I had a few like that a couple years ago and was about to worm them but wisely thought better of it and had a fecal sample read by a vet. Turns out they had no worms but a clostridia bacterial infection which the vet gave me some tetracycline for. That solved the problem - trouble was they had just started laying and I had to throw away all the eggs from that flock for 6 weeks.
Moral of the story is that if I went with my first inclination and wormed them, it wouldn't have solved the problem and I would have been dealing with the issue for a long time till I wised up and found out what the problem really was.

Where are you located?

I recommend having a fecal sample read so you know what you're working with rather than taking a shot in the dark.

 

[shortgrass]

You might consider fermenting their feed, too.

I haven't seen any poop even NEAR runny since I started FF, and the probiotics might help her make the most out of her feed and help out her immune system in the process. Something to consider before assuming it's worms... It could be that her gut microbes are "off" and shes just not getting any nutrition from the feed...

 

[sara bb]

Thanks for your advice, I think I'll do the poo sample to the vet. She's a lot better but she still has a runny bottom. I regularly give my chickens sugar free natural yoghurt with a wee bit of wheat germ. I've heard the advantages of fermented food for both birds & humans alike. I wonder if I should try them with my home made sauerkraut. I'm in New Zealand.

 

[shortgrass]

If they're anything like mine, they would probably love it

I make my own saurkraut too lol... I use my own fermented food to kick start the microbes in my fermented chicken feed; absolutely works just fine!

Their favorite is actually beet Kvass... They go nuts for it

 

[sara bb]

So do you just add the beet Kvass to their usual food or feed it separately? I'd like that recipe too if you could?
Thanks for your advice

 

[shortgrass]

Yep, I add it to their feed when I'm mixing my grains with water to start a batch of fermented feed. They love just the beets too, separately, but the Kvass is more for speeding up the colonies of lactobacillus for me


Here's a thread with the recipe
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1043848/fermented-feed-we-can-eat-it-too