Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Stacykins]

Is merthiolate and mecurichrome that same thing? I don't remember what mom used but it STUNG!!

Other than both compounds containing mercury they are different. Though both are orange and stung like mad, apparently! Today, most people would know merthiolate is thiomersal (molecular formula: C9H9HgNaO2S). Mercurachrome is a trade name for merbromin (molecular formula: C20H8Br2HgNa2O6).

 

[thechickenflock]

runny.. were there any signs of blood? coccidia maybe? Some of their poops are runny, but it's not all supposed to be that way.

Check their crops? Squishy?

How about the food? smell ok, not moldy? I found some of my goat food was moldy at the bottom of the bag... not sure if the humidity is the issue or if the food got wet somehow.

try giving your birds some yogurt or probiotics in the water...

check them over physically really well. are they at a good weight? Can you feel their keel bone? You may need to worm them... If you have a farm vet that will do a poop sample for you (mine charges $10) they can tell if you have worms and what to use.

.. and as gross as it is, check the poops good too. There was a helpful poop chart somewhere on this site.

the other issues could be viral or bacterial.. which means you'll need to try to figure that out.

Hopefully someone else can help...

No signs of blood. Crops were good, food is good, good weight. Yes, on all of them since day 1, is that not normal or good? Where is your farm vet?

 

[aart]

When it's really hot out, like the last 2 days here....chickens have very loose poops, sometimes almost pure water....from drinking so much to stay hydrated with all the panting in the heat, then dumping(literally-lol) the excess fluid....am really glad the heat has broken.

 

[thechickenflock]

But she literally drank nothing yesterday

 

[Folly's place]

Sick chickens all pretty much look alike; it will take a necropsy to tell you what is wrong. Hope you don't loose more birds! At least evaluate your management, and warm weather management. Check fecals, etc. I'd be worried for the rest of my flock and want answers! Mary

 

[thechickenflock]

Todays chicken that has similar symptoms has bright green diarrhea and does not like to use her right wing

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Chicken flock:
Bright green is liver failure. Did they get into any rotten trash? Have you fed anything different? No yard treatments? Is the water dish free of any mold/ slime?

Any limping? Do their necks go limp before they die? (The limp neck is water taint, ducks get it from bad ponds)

Sounds like poison/ merecks, but awful fast for your visitor to be the cause if it is disease since most things take at least a week to take hold. I'd scrub their house and pen them until you can figure what they are getting into, buy a new bag of feed and free feed for a bit. Check combs for paleness as you could have worms/ lice/ mites really bad too, they also kill.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Greens can also be not eating enough, it is why i suggest free feeding for a day. I still lean toward poisoning somehow or overheating.

 

[Peep-Chicken]

We have mites in the coop. Anything we can get a TSC?

 

[Stacykins]

Yesterday morning one of my 7 week old GLW pullets was not acting her usual self and didn't fly right. That evening when everybody came in she just sat in the grass alone, this morning we found her dead and 2 other pullets not acting right. Please give any advice you can offer. Thanks.

We also had visitors friday that keep chickens and don't do the best job of washing there hands after holding them.

They were a little bit runny but nothing that disturbed me although last nigh she had one that was very runny. She was not eating or drinking. She got around fine until last night when she stopped walking for the most part but still could. Her eye color was normal. Her breathing was a little shallow but once again nothing that concerned me (it was 90 here yesterday) never wormed or vaccinated.

No signs of blood. Crops were good, food is good, good weight. Yes, on all of them since day 1, is that not normal or good? Where is your farm vet?

But she literally drank nothing yesterday

Todays chicken that has similar symptoms has bright green diarrhea and does not like to use her right wing

First, I would recommend starting a new thread in the diseases section of the forum. Only Michiganders are seeing your problem, and there might be disease savvy folks over there that could help you. Include every bit of information you've shared here, and more. For instance, it would help greatly if you tell us exactly how you keep your chickens. Their feed, their water, their housing. Don't leave any detail out. Have they ever been given a preventative for coccidia?

The moment a chick starts acting 'off' whatever ailment they have has already significantly progressed. Chickens and other birds hide illnesses until they are too sick to do so any longer. That is because sick birds are targets for predators or could sicken other flock members, so they're often quickly ostracized once they do display symptoms. Because of this, once us humans notice a chicken acting sickly, it might already be too late to treat them.

It was hot, yes. But unless the chickens have zero access to shade and clean, cool water, it wouldn't cause many problems.

Birds that are sick and refusing to drink while they have loose droppings is a death sentence. Think about diarrhea in humans, what is the number one risk? Dehydration. Diarrhea causes massive amounts of water loss, and with no water to replace it, the chicken will go downhill quickly. You either have to help the sick bird drink (make a homemade electrolyte solution, don't just give plain water, they need help) or need to give them subQ fluids via injections of sterile normal saline (which you likely do not have access to). The wing in today's sick bird is not the big issue, the diarrhea is.

BTW, when you give a bird oral fluids, you must be incredibly careful that they do not aspirate. Don't give much in one sitting, and only dribble a little bit at a time.

We have mites in the coop. Anything we can get a TSC?

Yep, python dust. Normally I'd recommend a bit of diatomaceous earth sprinked in the coop, as a preventative for mites. But since you already have mites in the coop, you need something to treat, not prevent them.