I am stumped...

[turbo]

I am slowly loosing my flock of chickens....2 months ago chicken pox went through my flock, with some of them getting the really nasty kind that caused growths-sores inside their mouths, I lost 3 nice hens to this.

Now I am getting a sick chicken about once every month or so, the hen will be listless, stop eating, just stand around with no sign of sickness on the combs or eyes. They just kinda whither away slowly for 5-7 days until they die.

I have tried every kind of treatment I can think of, I have injected baytril, genomacin, tylan, you name it and I have tried it....even sulmat in the water, nothing helps. I have wormed them with ivecmectin too.

These are pullets that are laying, I feed a mixture of dried cat food, 16 percent layer and I even throw in a little rabbit pellets...could it be something that I am adding in their diet?

 

[miss_thenorth]

I'm no expert, but I think all they need is the payer pellets. Cat food is used sparingly for extra protein during molts etc. there is stuff in cat food that is not good for chickens. rabbit food should be for rabbits

Like I said --I'm no expert....

 

[turbo]

I was using this cat food that has fish meal and kelp in it, which is suppose to be great for chickens and ducks. I mix it with 16% layer, the cat for is like 30% protein, so I put a small handful in...should boost protein total to around 22% at the rate that I mix it. The rabbit pellets has alot of green and hay in it....good for chickens.

 

[silkiechicken]

I say maybe if you want higher protein, find a "layer suplement" and feed that. Cat food has lots of salt in it which is bad for the chickens are they don't use it like mammals do. Overmedication can also be a bad thing as most do wear down the system on the birds. Maybe a consistent diet of plain layer without extras can get things running smoothly again. Best of luck.

 

[turbo]

Well if I could get them to eat........but they wont

 

[greyfields]

I would treat again with the Sulmet.

 

[Rte.66_chicks]

When they get hungry enough they will eat the layer crumbles.Mine were getting scratch and crumbles until I learned that so much scratch was bad for them, and they sure didn't like it when I cut out the scratch-turned up their little chicken noses for several days.

 

[Chirpy]

I would agree that your first plan of action should be to cut out ALL foods except the layer pellets. No treats or anything until they consistently start to eat the pellets.

They won't starve them selves to death (at least I shouldn't think so) eventually they will eat the pellets.

Good luck and I'm sorry for all your losses.

 

[ruth]

I'm sorry to hear about your losses. I'm not sure what all those medications you mentioned that you have tried are for but I do know you should not give medications unless you know what you are treating and then only give prescribed doses for as short a time as necessary.

At this point I would try stopping all meds and get them back on layer pellets (I wet mine so the girls will eat them) and I would give them some scrambled eggs for the protein and vitamins they contain. You might want to try some poultry vitamins in their water or Poly-Vi-Sol added to water to help boost their systems.

Good luck.

 

[turbo]

I appreciate all the advice, maybe they are getting too much salt in their diet? My last sick hen, a pretty much irreplaceable white wyandotte standard hen who is gigantic is slowly just loosing wieght and standing around, her crop feels very empty and she is very light weight wise now. I will go ahead and just feed straight layer pellets and hope she eats. I did boil a duck egg for her yesterday and she picked around and ate a little.