hunched over layer and then dead

[marsh]

Greetings. This winter in the last 2 months I have had 3 and now a fourth is going to die of the same stuff. what am I dealing with? They all seem fine and then the first sign is they are hunched over- ruffled feathers- eats when food placed in front of her- very wet feathers by her rump area- walks slowly- falls a sleep on the floor and not on roosts- just kind of walks along and then falls asleep- not perky and fiesty- finds the heat lamps and just sits there and then they die. This condition last from 2 to 4 days. My chickens have a barn for wondering and then a sun area. We have been adding a bit of apple cider to the water. I do know that I do have the scaly leg mites and so I have been treating the hens with that by putting on vasaline but the ones that have died do not have this. Any ideas? thanks

 

[The Chickens' Maid]

What does their poo look like?

 

[marsh]

just runny- have not noticed anything- but I will try to pay better attention

 

[seminolewind]

Even without bloody poo there are 6+ types of cocci. I would be treating for that since it's the most common thing. Treat for mites as well and worms. How old are they? have you added new chickens?

 

[marsh]

how do you treat for cocci? and what is it? My chickens are ages 3 yrs to 8 months. Yes I did happen to add some new ones and did not bother to keep them in other quarters for a timeframe. This is not good on my part. So now I am paying the price. I will not be able to get to town til probably next Mon or Wed due to a grand weather front moving in here. Any home stuff I could try? This chicken is going down- so should I get her out of the chicken area? They have all been together and so they most likely are all in this together, as far as being exposed to whatever. I am going to look up this cocci business and see what I can figure out from that also. Any help is welcome. Thanks very much

 

[cocosandy]

get a bottle of Corrid and follow instructions to treat. then you can use it occasionally as a drench just to make sure they are OK. Keep their water clean and check your feed for mold or animal droppings...if your food is bad, get new high quality food. Give them a good vitamin, like the packet in the feed store or aviacharge and kickin chicken or an oil supplement.
get some dust for mites...not just DE but real poultry dust.
get some wazine for worms and pour on eprinex. Worm with wazine as directed and then in a week worm with the pour on eprinex. You could use injectable ivomec if youre comfortable with that instead but be sure to wazine them first or they might be overcome with the dying worms and their poison. Ive also used something called wormazole.
You can get this stuff at Randall Burkey online or some at you feedstore. There is also first state vet supply and a few others....if you google the names of the meds some of them will come up.

Be sure ot pay attention to the withdrawal times for not eating the eggs...some medicines go into the eggs for a couple of weeks after you give it ot them. Corrid is OK and so is eprinex, supposedly....but wazine has a 2 week withdrawal time.

good luck!

 

[marsh]

is there any natural ways to treat this cocci? I read about this grapefruit seed extract.
I am using apple cider and have tried to avoid a lot of medicine/vaccination stuff.
But if I need to use it I will.
The chicken was moving a bit better tonight- but I am not going to get my hopes up.
Thanks for any ideas

 

[cocosandy]

youre not supposed to use the apple cider vinegar all the time. It makes their systems acidic, and it can be too much. so that is an on and off sort of thing.
The natural stuff is preventative but not treatment. The grapefruit stuff is for the water and its just bacteria preventative. I use it in my parrots water but its a little expensive for chicken water because they need so much.
The corrid is the best for cocci and its not hard on them...there is no withdrawal time...and my friend who is organic totally uses it as an ok thing to use.
If you want to save your chickens, I would worm them and treat for cocci...and mites...with real meds, not natural.

I lost alot of chickens to worms because I was using all the natural stuff and not worming regularly. once you finally see a worm, there are too many.
It was sad how overwhelmed they were and how many came out. it sounds like your birds have something serious and if you dont treat with real meds, you may lose them all.
Keep the coop and water/food really clean and dont use apple cider vinegar all the time. read up on it because people will say they use it, but not how they use it. From what Im reading, its on for some weeks and a break.

Natural is OK as preventative but if you have a sickness you need to treat it with the real stuff. OK?
You can start with cayenne and DE in their food, check the amounts and be sure that the DE is food grade, but it wont eradicate worms if they are there, just some of them.

hope it all works out.
If you need links to where to get the treatments, just ask and Ill find them for you. I believe that Ive been getting most everything from randallburkey.

 

[marsh]

okay I know I have to do something- so I have been reading and trying to figure out what is what. I looked on www.jefferslivestock.com and there was a few products I was thinking of ordering. First Deccox

Medicated Crumbles
$6.97
by Manna Pro
OR Corid

Amprolium 9.6% Oral Solution
Any body have any thoughts or opinions or experience with these? Okay so if I am right about these- these are the de-wormers and they will kill most of the stuff inside my birds that is killing my birds? We sell some of our eggs- with these we should just throw our eggs correct? This is an antibiotic- so it is killing the bad virus or bug that is harming my birds. I just went back and reread the Coird Amprolium manufacturers directions and this states for calves- nothing about chickens. EXCEPT in the Randal Burkey Company they sell another brand of Corid/Amprolium 9.6% oral solution. Are they different?

Okay so this will treat the worms- how often do I need to do this? My birds are free range and come in every night to roost and for protection- This winter they have been in the barn alot due to the cold. Is it different for a summer and winter program?

The DE stuff I found on the Randal Burkey site. This would be after I do the Corid stuff then this is for maintance? Is this food grade? It sounds like it- anyways it states the ratio to food- would that be it? ALso going back to the jeffers site they had some WormGuard Plus- could I do this instead of the DE and would it keep out yucky sickness from my coop?

So far that is all I have researched. The chicken (Martha Finley) a barred Rock, is not looking good at all tonight. I have never had problems and we have had these girls for 3 and 1/2 yrs with no problems. This is just a bit frustrating.
Thanks for all the help so far.

 

[marsh]

Opps- do not use the deccox crumbles- these are just for broilers- not layers!