I have been a member for the two years I have had chickens, but this is my first post. I try hard to look at the archived info so I am not being redundant. I have appreciated all the help and knowledge I have gotten from the site. Having said all that, please forgive me if my post is annoyingly redundant anyway.
I have treated my chicken's ailments and injuries using what information I can find online and a wing and a prayer. I have had no success finding a vet, and believe it or not, the OSU extension office has been pathetically unable to answer any questions or help in any way.
My coop is a converted shed with a concrete floor. It is about 450 sq ft. I use the pine shavings and the deep litter method. I have 44 hens/pullets and 1 rooster. 25 are pullets hatched 6/6/11. The rest are about 30 months old. They are a mixture of about 7 heavy, brown egg-laying breeds. They have an outdoor run, a large yard, and 5 acres to graze and scratch in. (Which of those 3 spaces they access depends on the situation, weather, time of day, etc.)
Their lives are fairly stress free. I combined the flocks very slowly in stages of exposure. Of course, there are bossy ones and meek ones, but I think they have all found their niche. I have 7 nest boxes and lots of perch space. I feed Layena Plus Omega 3, although I am skeptical it really "puts 200 mg of Omega 3 in every egg!" I am averaging 24 nice eggs per day.
I have read about the common diseases, but sometimes the symptoms can be confusing, and the different opinions about antibiotics makes me crazy.
In September I caught a Wyandotte attacking an Australorp. When I intervened, I realized she was very weak, her comb was blue and she was gasping for air. She was stretching her neck way out and gasping with her beak wide open. Her lungs were wheezing. I took her inside and started treating her with Liquamycin injections, VetRx, a vaporizor, and electrolytes. She showed a little improvement, but not much over the next 3 days. Obviously the Liquamycin was not working as it had on other chickens with different symptoms. I read about Duramycin and got some. She was drinking very little water, and it wasn't doing her any good. Finally I started mixing 1/2 tsp. with a little yogurt and oatmeal twice per day. This made her turn the corner. I continued the VetRx and this Duramycin treatment 14 days with remarkable results. She was eating, drinking, talking, wandering around my house (yikes!) However she never completely got rid of the wheeze. She never had any mucus in her eyes or nose. Her eyes never looked sick. She even laid a few eggs through it all. After 20 days I decided to return her to the flock and see what would happen. She never got any worse, but she still has a wheeze.
Now I am starting to see other chickens showing scary symptoms: ruffled feathers, shoulders hunched, inactive, shaking their heads, scratching their heads, sometimes stretching their necks. There are no runny, stuffy noses, no runny eyes. The weather here has been horrible: constant rain and warm temperatures for weeks on end.
Do I guess and check and isolate? Treat everyone? If so, with what? We all know the issues with dosing in water. Injections? I can't imagine catching and injecting 44 chickens everyday. I don't have help.
Thanks in advance for taking time to give advice.
I have treated my chicken's ailments and injuries using what information I can find online and a wing and a prayer. I have had no success finding a vet, and believe it or not, the OSU extension office has been pathetically unable to answer any questions or help in any way.
My coop is a converted shed with a concrete floor. It is about 450 sq ft. I use the pine shavings and the deep litter method. I have 44 hens/pullets and 1 rooster. 25 are pullets hatched 6/6/11. The rest are about 30 months old. They are a mixture of about 7 heavy, brown egg-laying breeds. They have an outdoor run, a large yard, and 5 acres to graze and scratch in. (Which of those 3 spaces they access depends on the situation, weather, time of day, etc.)
Their lives are fairly stress free. I combined the flocks very slowly in stages of exposure. Of course, there are bossy ones and meek ones, but I think they have all found their niche. I have 7 nest boxes and lots of perch space. I feed Layena Plus Omega 3, although I am skeptical it really "puts 200 mg of Omega 3 in every egg!" I am averaging 24 nice eggs per day.
I have read about the common diseases, but sometimes the symptoms can be confusing, and the different opinions about antibiotics makes me crazy.
In September I caught a Wyandotte attacking an Australorp. When I intervened, I realized she was very weak, her comb was blue and she was gasping for air. She was stretching her neck way out and gasping with her beak wide open. Her lungs were wheezing. I took her inside and started treating her with Liquamycin injections, VetRx, a vaporizor, and electrolytes. She showed a little improvement, but not much over the next 3 days. Obviously the Liquamycin was not working as it had on other chickens with different symptoms. I read about Duramycin and got some. She was drinking very little water, and it wasn't doing her any good. Finally I started mixing 1/2 tsp. with a little yogurt and oatmeal twice per day. This made her turn the corner. I continued the VetRx and this Duramycin treatment 14 days with remarkable results. She was eating, drinking, talking, wandering around my house (yikes!) However she never completely got rid of the wheeze. She never had any mucus in her eyes or nose. Her eyes never looked sick. She even laid a few eggs through it all. After 20 days I decided to return her to the flock and see what would happen. She never got any worse, but she still has a wheeze.
Now I am starting to see other chickens showing scary symptoms: ruffled feathers, shoulders hunched, inactive, shaking their heads, scratching their heads, sometimes stretching their necks. There are no runny, stuffy noses, no runny eyes. The weather here has been horrible: constant rain and warm temperatures for weeks on end.
Do I guess and check and isolate? Treat everyone? If so, with what? We all know the issues with dosing in water. Injections? I can't imagine catching and injecting 44 chickens everyday. I don't have help.
Thanks in advance for taking time to give advice.
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