I had a hen with a terrible sounding respiratory illness and used the advice and recipe I found buried in an old post and it worked! I’m going to share it here with key words that I hope help it show up when others search.
The Recipe:
1 tsp honey + 2 drops Thieves or Onguard + 1 drop Oregano (optional)
• Give honey & essential oil mixture orally
One of my 9 month old EE hens came down with a frightening respiratory illness. She was doing a high pitched coughing, shaking her head, extending her neck, gasping like she had gapeworms and wheezing so loudly it could be heard from 20 feet away when I went to lock the coop one Sunday night around 8:45 pm. I isolated her in a kennel in the garage and was scared I was going to lose my only blue egg layer. No stores were open and the VetRx I had put on her the day before when I had first caught her sneezing had not seemed to fully relieve her. Her symptoms had escalated frighteningly fast. I scoured BYC and found a recipe for 1 tsp honey plus 2 drops Thieves to make a natural remedy that worked overnight on the poster’s sick hen.
I did not have Thieves oil but I did have OnGuard. I decided to use it and if I needed to make up a Thieves blend, I would. (Thieves is Lemon, Rosemary, Eucalyptus, Cinnamon & Clove oils together. Adding thyme and oregano oils makes “Thieves Plus”.)
The first night I mixed the 1 tsp honey + 2 drops Onguard and administered it orally using a baby spoon. The hen seemed to actually like eating it once I spooned it onto her tongue. The next morning she was doing remarkably better. Her cough had stopped and the wheezing had become almost non-existant. She would still occasionally shake her head. That evening I mixed up 1 tsp honey + 2 drops OnGuard + 1 drop Oregano and dosed her again. I had two more hens that I caught lightly sneezing or head shaking so I dosed them, too.
48 hours later my EE hen has not one single symptom of illness. The other birds I dosed are breathing normally as well. It has been such a great relief!
Note: Even though 1 tsp is 5 ml, getting all that into a hen’s beak is going to take two “doses” if using a baby spoon. The second night I used a syringe and gave her 2 ml/2 cc or about 1/2 of a teaspoon of the honey mixture, slowly dispensed on the tongue and then let her swallow. All the hens I dosed would stop and hold still as soon as the sweet honey touched their tongue. Using a syringe was MUCH easier and dosing at the front of the beak so the hen didn’t choke worked well and was quite easy since the honey was thicker. I used locally produced wildflower honey, not grocery store honey. Molasses might be okay to use, too, especially since NutriDrench is molasses extracts.
I hope this helps others who find themselves with a sick hen late at night!
P.S. When using essential oils on my hens, I have stuck to a general rule of using the “food” oils made from citrus, spices, and herbs. Because these herbs and spices are already found in chicken products (Scratch & Peck Herb Blend, VetRx and others), I felt comfortable using them. I also have used lavender, eucalyptus and Idaho Balsam Fir diluted with no ill affects on my hens. Thieves & OnGuard are blends of oils from citrus, spices & herbs.
The Recipe:
1 tsp honey + 2 drops Thieves or Onguard + 1 drop Oregano (optional)
• Give honey & essential oil mixture orally
One of my 9 month old EE hens came down with a frightening respiratory illness. She was doing a high pitched coughing, shaking her head, extending her neck, gasping like she had gapeworms and wheezing so loudly it could be heard from 20 feet away when I went to lock the coop one Sunday night around 8:45 pm. I isolated her in a kennel in the garage and was scared I was going to lose my only blue egg layer. No stores were open and the VetRx I had put on her the day before when I had first caught her sneezing had not seemed to fully relieve her. Her symptoms had escalated frighteningly fast. I scoured BYC and found a recipe for 1 tsp honey plus 2 drops Thieves to make a natural remedy that worked overnight on the poster’s sick hen.
I did not have Thieves oil but I did have OnGuard. I decided to use it and if I needed to make up a Thieves blend, I would. (Thieves is Lemon, Rosemary, Eucalyptus, Cinnamon & Clove oils together. Adding thyme and oregano oils makes “Thieves Plus”.)
The first night I mixed the 1 tsp honey + 2 drops Onguard and administered it orally using a baby spoon. The hen seemed to actually like eating it once I spooned it onto her tongue. The next morning she was doing remarkably better. Her cough had stopped and the wheezing had become almost non-existant. She would still occasionally shake her head. That evening I mixed up 1 tsp honey + 2 drops OnGuard + 1 drop Oregano and dosed her again. I had two more hens that I caught lightly sneezing or head shaking so I dosed them, too.
48 hours later my EE hen has not one single symptom of illness. The other birds I dosed are breathing normally as well. It has been such a great relief!
Note: Even though 1 tsp is 5 ml, getting all that into a hen’s beak is going to take two “doses” if using a baby spoon. The second night I used a syringe and gave her 2 ml/2 cc or about 1/2 of a teaspoon of the honey mixture, slowly dispensed on the tongue and then let her swallow. All the hens I dosed would stop and hold still as soon as the sweet honey touched their tongue. Using a syringe was MUCH easier and dosing at the front of the beak so the hen didn’t choke worked well and was quite easy since the honey was thicker. I used locally produced wildflower honey, not grocery store honey. Molasses might be okay to use, too, especially since NutriDrench is molasses extracts.
I hope this helps others who find themselves with a sick hen late at night!
P.S. When using essential oils on my hens, I have stuck to a general rule of using the “food” oils made from citrus, spices, and herbs. Because these herbs and spices are already found in chicken products (Scratch & Peck Herb Blend, VetRx and others), I felt comfortable using them. I also have used lavender, eucalyptus and Idaho Balsam Fir diluted with no ill affects on my hens. Thieves & OnGuard are blends of oils from citrus, spices & herbs.
