Firstly, hello everyone! Glad to meet folks who know that chooks can be so much more than livestock. I'm a dedicated chook-keeper, who intends to always maintain a flock for the rest of my life, hence the name.
Anyway this thread is to invite discussion on illnesses, cures, and unexplained recoveries. I've had some bizarre things happen, and have seen poultry recover from what seemed to be surely fatal diseases and injuries.
OK: I'll start with: dead chook that wouldn't rot. This may be gross or distressing to some, hope it's not, but if you think it is or may be, please skip to my next paragraph. I've an interest in the veterinary aspects of things and so have tended poultry and other animals beyond the point where they were declared hopeless and in need of culling... Thankfully with the majority of cases being saved and going on to have good lives. So, regarding the chook that would not decay. He appeared to be an ancona mix, a bantam cockerel I got from a suburban breeder. He started doing diarrhea the same day I got him, and soon was wasted and dying. His breathing slowed down to the point where it was so slow I figured he'd be getting brain damage. I tried a prayer on him. Shortly afterward he perked up, recovered, and went on to sire many good offspring. About a year later though it was back to the wasting and this time he didn't recover. No diarrhoea this time though, I couldn't find the cause or the cure. I suspected leucosis, but what happened with his corpse made me think maybe he'd eaten severe poison or a Mortein'd cockroach or something radioactive. Something very unusual anyway. He was a beautiful, very friendly rooster. When he died I left his body in the forest, since burying it would be pointless due to the incredible, unbelievable quantity of feral pigs, dogs and the goannas crammed into a tiny remnant patch of forest on our property. (The feral pack produced over 40 pups per conglomerate litter, and the pig herds were comprised of razorbacks and wild ex-domestics, which strangely did not interbreed, and numbered around 50. The forest was only about 25 acres and housed a flock of around 120,000 fruitbats at the most). I usually bury my deceased pets but I do believe it's in the natural order of things for them to either decompose underground and become one with the earth again, or to be consumed by a scavenger and thereby become one with the earth. It wouldn't be natural for them to be kept back from the cycle of life in a non-biodegradeable container underground, for instance, though I do understand the emotional distress that can accompany the desecration of a beloved pets' resting place. Anyway. He didn't rot. I left him in a quiet place, sure that a goanna, rat, dog, pig or at least the flies and insects would do their work, but no. Flies laid eggs; none hatched. No ants touched him. No carnivorous birds either. Not one creature touched him. No fungi, molds, or anything touched him. He literally, over the course of over half a year, mummified in tropical and wet environs, and drifted away molecule by molecule in the wind. Never seen anything like it before or since. Not one of my other animals failed to return to the earth once their spirit had flown, so to speak. And I've lost many, because I take on damaged, sick, rejected, orphaned, needy animals of all sorts.
OK, onto the less upsetting paragraph. Interesting cures I found: Slippery elm bark powder for bacillary white diarrhea. Garlic for basically everything! But especially parasites and coccidiosis --- never lost one chick or adult to it. Apple for diarrhea. Raw potato for liver failure. Cayenne or tabasco on bread or other food for tapeworm and other worms. Pine Tar, aka Stockholm tar, for basically everything, too... Cysts, all sorts of wounds (even those that are below the surface with no 'mouth'), mites on legs, beak membrane torn off, any infections, even golden staph infections... It's also a potent painkiller; when you apply it to a wild animal the first time it's a struggle, the second time they calm down as soon as they realize it's Pine-Tar-Time, and even help you apply it! Absolute lifesaver for otherwise fatal cases. Had a rooster and a hen whose crops were torn out by foxes; the rooster lost wattles and had his throat also torn from chin to chest; he got gangrene --- went blue and purple and green --- pine tar fixed it no problem, and the hen too. They live fine without their crops. He was breathing (and crowing) out of a hole in his chest. His throat sealed up properly. Water was flowing out whenever he drank for a bit. Also it works for amputations, terrible splintered-bone ones where the limb's been twisted and crushed. Honey for depressed or very distressed animals, especially babies... It's a nerve and heart tonic as well as a great food, full of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes as well as antibiotics of the right kind. Kelp to bring out true genotype and cause it to show in the phenotype, and to allow full health and intelligence. I've had animals over 2 years old who were 100% pure white, purebreds, who when kept with kelp for a year became black, red, yellow, spotty, etc... And produced offspring nothing like their previous, but far better. Everything changed color --- eggs, legs, beaks, feathers, crests, eyes, etc. Also: raw (unpasteurized, unhomogenized) milk, with the fat scraped off the top, with a teaspoon or so of honey, given in a cup or force fed if necessary to turkeys/chooks dying of blackhead. They can be flopping around in their death throes, and that still saves 90 per cent of them... Right as rain in 24 hours, generally after only one dose/cup. Having said that, as long as I've given chooks garlic, I've never seen one even get under the weather with blackhead, TB, etc. You rarely need to force feed it, it's the one thing they are desperate to consume. Strange. The only natural food I found that stopped turkey chicks dying from TB was hard boiled eggs mixed with dandelion. As per the teachings of Juliette de Bairacli Levy. Garlic and Kelp seem to be the golden rules of chook health in my flock. Oh, and once a half-grown pullet skinned her entire thigh. I used Lucas's Pawpaw ointment with a top coating of petroleum jelly and she was fine. That was by far the most time and labor intensive treatment of all the ones I've briefly mentioned, and it wasn't time or labour intensive... Just had to apply it once every day or two. And it looked ganky. But healed quick.
I'm gonna stop now, sorry about the brick walls of text... lol. Of course, these are just my views and experiences, I'm not an accredited professional.
Anyway this thread is to invite discussion on illnesses, cures, and unexplained recoveries. I've had some bizarre things happen, and have seen poultry recover from what seemed to be surely fatal diseases and injuries.
OK: I'll start with: dead chook that wouldn't rot. This may be gross or distressing to some, hope it's not, but if you think it is or may be, please skip to my next paragraph. I've an interest in the veterinary aspects of things and so have tended poultry and other animals beyond the point where they were declared hopeless and in need of culling... Thankfully with the majority of cases being saved and going on to have good lives. So, regarding the chook that would not decay. He appeared to be an ancona mix, a bantam cockerel I got from a suburban breeder. He started doing diarrhea the same day I got him, and soon was wasted and dying. His breathing slowed down to the point where it was so slow I figured he'd be getting brain damage. I tried a prayer on him. Shortly afterward he perked up, recovered, and went on to sire many good offspring. About a year later though it was back to the wasting and this time he didn't recover. No diarrhoea this time though, I couldn't find the cause or the cure. I suspected leucosis, but what happened with his corpse made me think maybe he'd eaten severe poison or a Mortein'd cockroach or something radioactive. Something very unusual anyway. He was a beautiful, very friendly rooster. When he died I left his body in the forest, since burying it would be pointless due to the incredible, unbelievable quantity of feral pigs, dogs and the goannas crammed into a tiny remnant patch of forest on our property. (The feral pack produced over 40 pups per conglomerate litter, and the pig herds were comprised of razorbacks and wild ex-domestics, which strangely did not interbreed, and numbered around 50. The forest was only about 25 acres and housed a flock of around 120,000 fruitbats at the most). I usually bury my deceased pets but I do believe it's in the natural order of things for them to either decompose underground and become one with the earth again, or to be consumed by a scavenger and thereby become one with the earth. It wouldn't be natural for them to be kept back from the cycle of life in a non-biodegradeable container underground, for instance, though I do understand the emotional distress that can accompany the desecration of a beloved pets' resting place. Anyway. He didn't rot. I left him in a quiet place, sure that a goanna, rat, dog, pig or at least the flies and insects would do their work, but no. Flies laid eggs; none hatched. No ants touched him. No carnivorous birds either. Not one creature touched him. No fungi, molds, or anything touched him. He literally, over the course of over half a year, mummified in tropical and wet environs, and drifted away molecule by molecule in the wind. Never seen anything like it before or since. Not one of my other animals failed to return to the earth once their spirit had flown, so to speak. And I've lost many, because I take on damaged, sick, rejected, orphaned, needy animals of all sorts.
OK, onto the less upsetting paragraph. Interesting cures I found: Slippery elm bark powder for bacillary white diarrhea. Garlic for basically everything! But especially parasites and coccidiosis --- never lost one chick or adult to it. Apple for diarrhea. Raw potato for liver failure. Cayenne or tabasco on bread or other food for tapeworm and other worms. Pine Tar, aka Stockholm tar, for basically everything, too... Cysts, all sorts of wounds (even those that are below the surface with no 'mouth'), mites on legs, beak membrane torn off, any infections, even golden staph infections... It's also a potent painkiller; when you apply it to a wild animal the first time it's a struggle, the second time they calm down as soon as they realize it's Pine-Tar-Time, and even help you apply it! Absolute lifesaver for otherwise fatal cases. Had a rooster and a hen whose crops were torn out by foxes; the rooster lost wattles and had his throat also torn from chin to chest; he got gangrene --- went blue and purple and green --- pine tar fixed it no problem, and the hen too. They live fine without their crops. He was breathing (and crowing) out of a hole in his chest. His throat sealed up properly. Water was flowing out whenever he drank for a bit. Also it works for amputations, terrible splintered-bone ones where the limb's been twisted and crushed. Honey for depressed or very distressed animals, especially babies... It's a nerve and heart tonic as well as a great food, full of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes as well as antibiotics of the right kind. Kelp to bring out true genotype and cause it to show in the phenotype, and to allow full health and intelligence. I've had animals over 2 years old who were 100% pure white, purebreds, who when kept with kelp for a year became black, red, yellow, spotty, etc... And produced offspring nothing like their previous, but far better. Everything changed color --- eggs, legs, beaks, feathers, crests, eyes, etc. Also: raw (unpasteurized, unhomogenized) milk, with the fat scraped off the top, with a teaspoon or so of honey, given in a cup or force fed if necessary to turkeys/chooks dying of blackhead. They can be flopping around in their death throes, and that still saves 90 per cent of them... Right as rain in 24 hours, generally after only one dose/cup. Having said that, as long as I've given chooks garlic, I've never seen one even get under the weather with blackhead, TB, etc. You rarely need to force feed it, it's the one thing they are desperate to consume. Strange. The only natural food I found that stopped turkey chicks dying from TB was hard boiled eggs mixed with dandelion. As per the teachings of Juliette de Bairacli Levy. Garlic and Kelp seem to be the golden rules of chook health in my flock. Oh, and once a half-grown pullet skinned her entire thigh. I used Lucas's Pawpaw ointment with a top coating of petroleum jelly and she was fine. That was by far the most time and labor intensive treatment of all the ones I've briefly mentioned, and it wasn't time or labour intensive... Just had to apply it once every day or two. And it looked ganky. But healed quick.
I'm gonna stop now, sorry about the brick walls of text... lol. Of course, these are just my views and experiences, I'm not an accredited professional.
