Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Ihilani Coffee]

Do let us know when you get to the lab and see what they find .

I don't have an answer on the FF .

I individually worm my chickens so as to know for sure what's going on .
I know Ivomec has it's place and has some who swear by it BUT ivomec does not mix with water (so it's a crap shoot when doing it that way and we always lose in a crap shoot /. Some say there is a type that does mix with water . Also Ivomec is proven will NOT do all it's touted to doing . As i said Ivomec has it's place and purpose . I don't use it at all with chickens because we have stuff that we can use that will work without a guessing game .

What is your wormer of choice and how is it administered? With 38+ birds here, it is not unreasonable for us to individually dose our birds.

 

[DMRippy]

 

Yea i kinda cringed when you said fermented feed especially to young chicks/birds . I use soaked oats (3-4 days soaked) with my grown birds.  Fermented food with just the slightest problem could easily cause a problem in young birds (their ability to handle certain things has just not completely developed yet .
(fermenting is rather delicate process) i would not feed it to young birds at all . I'd rather err to withhold than err using it .

Yes i think it would be evident if it was crop/craw-bound .

What kind of wormer did you use , what was your process and how did you administer it ?

You can probably find the State Diagnostic Lab listed in your telephone book (yellow pages or etc... under state) that is the first thing i would do tomorrow AM . Take one that is sick with this what-ever , if you got two take both .
You can (it's best to) call them ahead and tell them your situation and they will tell you what to bring .

Good Luck

DW and I have noodled it about and decided that if it was the FF, why does it take five weeks for any symptom to show?  She typically will start the on FF at about two weeks of age.  It makes sense to me that their system may be delicate in their young age but I would think if it is the FF that problems would show up sooner.  All the same se probably should try a hatch batch without to see if there is a change.

We wormed with Ivermectin injectable in the water for three days.  Next time we plan to use Rooster Booster.

We are waiting for a call back from the K State Vet Lab now.  Lucky for us a fifth one has just begun showing signs of coming down with it this morning.  All four of the previous ones are fine now and the only way we can tell them apart from the rest is the plastic tie we put on the leg to mark them.

can you use injectable orally? I have never heard of that. I use pour on and I put a few drops on the back of the neck. I don't make a routine of using it and have NEVER used it on chicks that young. if I did it would just be a drop. I only use 3-5 drops on grown LF.

could that be your problem? or did the symptoms show up BEFORE you immediate them.

 

[upthecreek]

Quote: Right now i use Valbazen .... about half cc up to one cc according to the size and age of birds(orally w/syringe /no needle) . There a LOT of good poultry wormers out there and i've used just about all of them(A Google Search will produce a lot of 'em) .
All of the horse wormers are SAFE to use .(might not be approved for poultry but often you will find them in Jeffers catalog advertised with poultry supplies) .
Some wormers you withhold food before and some wormers you don't have to withhold food before .

 

[KsKingBee]

can you use injectable orally? I have never heard of that. I use pour on and I put a few drops on the back of the neck. I don't make a routine of using it and have NEVER used it on chicks that young. if I did it would just be a drop. I only use 3-5 drops on grown LF.

could that be your problem? or did the symptoms show up BEFORE you immediate them.

We were told that the pour on was not water soluble and the injectable was, it clearly looked to mix when I squirted it into the water...

We had one chick that developed the problem before treatment and the rest after.

The one that is showing symptoms today is here in the house, we are documenting this one with pictures. For now it is setting on its feet pecking at the food, so it has an appetite. Crop was not full when we brought it in, it is good to see it eating and drinking. One small difference is that this one seems to have little contractions that stop when it falls asleep.

For the most part it is the same as the rest with the drooping head and wings. When it sleeps it is stretched out full length with its feet underneath.

 

[upthecreek]

can you use injectable orally?(Yes) I have never heard of that. I use pour on and I put a few drops on the back of the neck. I don't make a routine of using it and have NEVER used it on chicks that young(i don't use it on chickens at all-to many other products i know that Will work). if I did it would just be a drop. I only use 3-5 drops on grown LF.(we use 1/8th cc orally with our dogs for heartworm treatment (NO Collies) .

could that be your problem? or did the symptoms show up BEFORE you immediate them.(it could be they are just not wormed along w/FF)
PS: i looked at Ivomec pour on and injectable and both are "Ivomectin" (same) ........ now they do add & subtract stuff w/ivomec under other names(?) but i really stay away from them .

 

[gilavina]

It does make sense that the body wouldn't be pushing nutrients to a feather that was fixin' to fall out soon anyway.

Before I joined BYC and found the Marans thread, I just kind of went by what I knew with the Marans and some of their nature of the cocks not seeming to molt all at once, but rather over time, became something I was a bit fascinated by, because I'm so used to breeds that do molt fairly quickly. Seems from what I've seen here, that I've had two or three males that have lost their white after they completely finish molt. Granted, I cull ruthlessly even in young birds with too much white to narrow the amount of birds that have white at all. I think out of all the chicks this year I might have culled about 15 for what I would consider too much white (usually any white in wing, or tail). The white feathers on the leg or toe, I will give them a chance to see how they do. Often after juvie molt they are gone.
I guess that make me wonder something else- I wonder if one were to select carefully for those that go thru a quicker molt process if it would have any benefit to the white feather situation?

 

[Runawaylobster]

DW and I have noodled it about and decided that if it was the FF, why does it take five weeks for any symptom to show? She typically will start the on FF at about two weeks of age. It makes sense to me that their system may be delicate in their young age but I would think if it is the FF that problems would show up sooner. All the same se probably should try a hatch batch without to see if there is a change.

We wormed with Ivermectin injectable in the water for three days. Next time we plan to use Rooster Booster.

We are waiting for a call back from the K State Vet Lab now. Lucky for us a fifth one has just begun showing signs of coming down with it this morning. All four of the previous ones are fine now and the only way we can tell them apart from the rest is the plastic tie we put on the leg to mark them.

ivermectin can cause very weird symptoms, including neural ones... at least in Dogs it can..

 

[maryhysong]

I think that there is definiately a moulting or nutrition component because about 2 months ago i was horrified to see a white tail feather appear on my main breeding cock.. and then there was another.... and then they both fell out... along with most of his long tail feathers. He was going through a tough moult, even now he has not grown back his hackle and tail..

Would love to hear if he grows back white feathers or if they come back in black. Keep us posted please.

 

[maryhysong]

Especially since most folks tend to use their young cocks in breeding programs. It's already been passed on by the time it shows up! With humans, stress can cause hair to go gray and then change back when the stress is resolved. The same is definitely true for antioxidants in the diet, as I have seen this on my own head more than once when going to a top of the line nutritional supplement program. It's kind of freaky when it happens the first time, but definitely a GOOD kind of freaky! (If anyone wants to know about that and other anti-aging options, PM me

)

Now I'm wondering about options for the poultry/white feathers/anti-aging...hmmm...

My MIL was very grey and began making some shake or smoothie that she added brewers yeast and lecithin to. In a couple months her hair was nearly all back to her original color.

 

[ladycat]

That's strange about black chickens growing in white feathers.

There's a picture on Feathersite that shows what *was* a Black Marans, but after she molted, she grew a LOT of white feathers. She has a white head and big white patches all over her body.