Multiple issues

[phelpcd1]

I have a flock of 14 hens and 2 roo's. Also next to them but not in the same pen, I have turkeys and guineas. Quick history - 10 of my original flock are 8 months old (8 hens, 2 roos). The other 6 hens are almost 6 months old and I got them from the same person. The new hens were in the pen where the turkeys/guinea are now for about a month, then introduced into the flock. I cleaned the pens and coops out completely about 2 weeks ago, then moved the turkeys/guineas in next door (not together but separated by chicken wire). They were in a brooder since a few days old when I got them. Soooooo......my issues........my smaller rooster has been very wobbly and seeming to be off balance for a couple weeks. He sits down most of the time, but is still eating/drinking....no blood is found in poops. I did notice him shaking his head a lot today, and saw him fighting with my other rooster. No other symptoms. Things to note tho - we found one of our turkeys dead yesterday. No obvious reason. However, we did see a few lice or what we think is lice (small white bugs) on her. We've also found these lice on a limping barred rock - she's been limping a couple weeks, altho seems like it was an injury, not off balance. Any ideas what could be going on? If the rooster has lice, could this explain his off balance?

 

[MrsBrooke]

Lice can cause balance issues, ear infections, anemia, and death (especially from other complications) if left untreated. Check his ears for creepies or redness and around his vent for "cayenne pepper flakes" (mites) and their eggs around the base of feathers.

I'm sorry to hear about your turkey. If she was overburdened with external parasites, it's likely that it allowed another illness to creep in and overwhelm her immune system. Since you have chickens and turkeys living close together, blackhead is a possibility, too.

Have you checked the limping chicken for signs of bumblefoot? Or do you know for sure it was an injury?

To treat external parasites, grab some Sevin dust from your local Lowes or Home Depot. Sprinkle on ALL your birds. Ruffle their feathers and make sure you powder well around their vent, under their wings, and do your best to get it around their head (without dusting them to death!). You'll do this again in seven days, and one more time in seven days... A total of three treatments over three weeks.

When was the last time you wormed your flock?

MrsB

 

[phelpcd1]

I looked for bumblefoot on her and can't see anything of the sort. We got some Sevin and will do the treatments for the birds and the pens. The turkey was NOT infested - just a few were on an area of her back/shoulder where it appeared she had a bad scrape or something. I saw maybe 2-3 at most in that area. And honestly, they were so little it was hard to even see them!

I will check into blackhead - I did clean out the coop and the pens too BEFORE I moved the turkeys/guineas into that pen. And it's only been a couple of weeks............just weird.

 

[MrsBrooke]

Did you get a moment to check your rooster for lice or ear infection?

MrsB

 

[phelpcd1]

Ok we checked several of our hens and the rooster, and it appears that most of them have some lice - except my new younger hens we couldn't find ANY! And they are all together, and will all get treated too. Oddly, my light brahma looks to be the worse and she doesn't act odd at all. I just don't understand where they came from. I got 2 batches of chickens from the same person, and the new batch seems clean. My turkeys/guineas just got moved next to the chickens so I don't think it was from them - no signs from when I began raising them from days old to now (8 weeks old). We are going to pull out all the new bedding, burn it and I will rebed the coop and leave the pen as dirt with added sand, DE and wood ashes for a while.

Question - will the Sevin dust be ok to use on my young turkeys and guineas? It's going to be VERY hard to get them to be still!!

I did learn that all our chickens were vaccinated for Marecks and Fowl pox, and all dewormed prior to getting them. I haven't wormed any of them yet myself, and we've used all new bedding and hay. New coop and pen too! We are in the country with nobody around us, so I can't figure out where the lice came from. I change out their water and put in fresh food EVERY DAY! I collect the eggs daily, and even go into the coop and fluff up the bedding turning it over so poop is spread out and dried (we use kiln dried pine shavings). And as I said before, I cleaned out all of it, pen and everything, just a couple of weeks ago. Guess I'll have to burn it too as I just raked it over into the woods as compost.

 

[MrsBrooke]

It can come from almost anywhere. From wild birds to your clothing. We all deal with it from time to time.

Sevin should be fine for all your birds.

Edit to add: I would consider forgoing the DE... it's super hard on respiratory systems.

MrsB

 

[phelpcd1]

Mystery solved! Well this is our best guess anyway - the lice HAD to have come from the original hay bedding I used when we first got our chickens back in October. We have a VERY old barn on the property with very old hay (decades) still in it. We noticed that a buzzard was nesting in this barn last year and hatched out one baby. We used THAT hay in the barn as our bedding. Add to it, the amount of rain we've had, and I am betting that is where this started!!! I thought of it because the buzzard is back and has 2 more eggs in the barn now - which we are going to remove and lock it up so she can't enter anymore!

This weekend we pulled out all the bedding in the coops and pens - burned it all (and this was the new bedding I had put in a few weeks ago). I sprayed poultry protector everywhere, put back in new, clean pine shavings in the coops, a little DE in the next boxes. I also use PDZ on the bottom layer, and I sprinkled in some sulphur too below the bedding. We treated all the chickens with Sevin dust and will re-do them again next weekend. We've decided to leave the pens as dirt only but I did put in a kiddie pool full of sand with a little DE mixed in for dust bathing in case the pen gets too muddy during rains. I've been using extra vitamins/electrolytes in their water to help also!

Hopefully this will get rid of the lice and lesson learned!

 

[MrsBrooke]

Make sure to sprinkle Sevin dust all over the coop and roosting pole as well. DE has never been proven as an effective treatment for lice or mites and, as I mentioned earlier, it can damage the respiratory system of poultry. Some people swear by it, but I've never seen evidence that it works very well.

Anyway... Sounds like you've got things under control.

Let us know if anything else develops!

MrsB