My little Rosey feeling under the weather

[the3ofus+oursixchicks]

Just a question please. A few days ago Petunia barred rock hen 2 yrs old. She was under the weather. She just stood around not eating drinking just standing with her tail hanging down. She did walk around some but not much. She was like this for round 2 and half days. Now Rosey is doing the same way except she hasnt even come out of the coop. She will drink when I offer it to her most the time.She will eat a little too. She stayed in the coop all day yesterday and is in there today. I did get her out to sit in my lap but I put her back in since she didnt come out on her own. My question is what could this be? I live in alabam and its cold here could it be the winter blues or something else?

 

[gritsar]

Have they been wormed?

 

[the3ofus+oursixchicks]

No, they are 2 years old. how can you tell if they have worms. Petunia is fine now buy Rosey isnt feeling well.

 

[soler]

to be completely sure, you take a poop over to the vet and have it checked for parasites, then you know exactly what to treat for. If they can roam outside, and never been wormed, they definitely have worms. Even if this could be something else all together.

Valbazen is a good wormer that gets the majority of them. I use eprinex which also gets a bunch of ectoparasites.
http://us.merial.com/producers/dairy/products_eprinex.asp it's off label use.

good link here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/910/de-worming-chickens/20

 

[the3ofus+oursixchicks]

so do i need to pick up both these meds?

 

[soler]

you can just get one of them. You need to worm them approx every 6 months if they free range all the time, and once a year if they are more confined. With valabazen you need to discard the eggs for 2 weeks (feed them back to the girls). With eprinex, i usually only discard them one day (no milk withdrawal in cows).

 

[the3ofus+oursixchicks]

Yes,they free range. which one should i get? just which ever one i choose?

 

[soler]

Up to you to pick one.

if you have a local livestock place, that's perfect, else you might have to order one online. Jeffer's pets has a bunch. Safe guard is another good broad spectrum one, btw. After you pick one, come back here and check the right dose.

The one you probably do not want to buy is Wazine, because it only gets roundworms.

 

[gritsar]

you can just get one of them. You need to worm them approx every 6 months if they free range all the time, and once a year if they are more confined. With valabazen you need to discard the eggs for 2 weeks (feed them back to the girls). With eprinex, i usually only discard them one day (no milk withdrawal in cows).

The only part I disagree with is feeding the eggs back to the hens. Any residual wormer in the eggs would be like giving the chickens a partial worming again. I discard the eggs in the trash for two weeks.

I use valbazen. You give a 1/2 cc orally, undiluted, for standard hens; 1/4 cc for bantams. Used ivermectin pour on two months ago because I was out of valbazen. Won't make that mistake again. Two months later and I discovered a roundworm with one of my oldest hens. Should have listened to BYC's resident worming expert, dawg53, about ivermectin losing it's effectiveness in poultry. Lesson learned.

 

[soler]

The only part I disagree with is feeding the eggs back to the hens. Any residual wormer in the eggs would be like giving the chickens a partial worming again. I discard the eggs in the trash for two weeks.

I use valbazen. You give a 1/2 cc orally, undiluted, for standard hens; 1/4 cc for bantams. Used ivermectin pour on two months ago because I was out of valbazen. Won't make that mistake again. Two months later and I discovered a roundworm with one of my oldest hens. Should have listened to BYC's resident worming expert, dawg53, about ivermectin losing it's effectiveness in poultry. Lesson learned.

I have always wondered about feeding the eggs back to the hens, but seems like it's standard practice, i think it makes sense though that there could be residual in them. I rotate my wormers.