Well I seem to have something going on with my chickens. I'm not entirely sure what it is and locating a polutry vet seems nearly impossible. I have called the local "avian" vets and they do not deal with chickens. I have also called the local vets to see if they will at least do a fecal for me.... no such luck.
We live on 6 acres and the chickens free range. My baby chicks are feed medicated chick starter and are kept inside until 3-4 weeks and then moved outside into there own pen until old enough to mix with the big girls.
My problems seem to start as soon as they are moved outside. There poo turns so gross! Watery, light brown puddles. Several of my adult chickens seem to have constantly dirty butts that have to be cleaned off. I know chicken poo can take all shapes and colors but this just is not right. Its ALWAYS liquid. Never solid or formed.
Over the last 8 months these are the wormers I have tried.
A chicken hobbyist informed me I probably had coccidia. Tried treating for that twice. Both times there poop cleared up and was solid....somewhat normal to what I would expect chicken poo. This only lasted a few days after the full coccidia treatment. Then the yucky poo was back. My chickens were young at the time and I hoped they would build an immunity to it.
A few months went by with yucky poo and I tried wazine. The poop cleared up for a good 7-10 days. Retreated after 3 weeks. Poop cleared up again! But same as all the other times by 7-10 days out they were getting runny poo again.
Waited a month from the last wormer and was then recommend Ivomectin. I am 5 days out from that treatment and seeing no improvement. (I did see some weird white specks (1/2 the size of a grain of rice) that appeared to be worms in some of the poos right before starting the ivomectin treatment. Those are the only things i have seen in the poo.)
I so tired of tossing my eggs because of the wormers but I'm equally tiered of runny chicken poo on EVERYTHING! Big blobs of smelly liquid poo! I have been around many chickens and have not see this much yucky poo before! It is also less then exciting to wash my chickens back sides because of the mess.
Recommendations?
The only thing I see wrong with my chickens is they are slow to laying. Most were 8+ months before starting to lay. And they lay infrequently. This has always been even in the months between wormers. I have RIRs, Barred Rocks, RIR crosses, Black Copper Maron crosses & cochins. I have 13 hens over the age of 8 months (some nearing 11 months) and only get 1-6 eggs a day. I recently locked them in the coop (just in case they were laying out of sight) and have only gotten 7 eggs in 3 days!
We live on 6 acres and the chickens free range. My baby chicks are feed medicated chick starter and are kept inside until 3-4 weeks and then moved outside into there own pen until old enough to mix with the big girls.
My problems seem to start as soon as they are moved outside. There poo turns so gross! Watery, light brown puddles. Several of my adult chickens seem to have constantly dirty butts that have to be cleaned off. I know chicken poo can take all shapes and colors but this just is not right. Its ALWAYS liquid. Never solid or formed.
Over the last 8 months these are the wormers I have tried.
A chicken hobbyist informed me I probably had coccidia. Tried treating for that twice. Both times there poop cleared up and was solid....somewhat normal to what I would expect chicken poo. This only lasted a few days after the full coccidia treatment. Then the yucky poo was back. My chickens were young at the time and I hoped they would build an immunity to it.
A few months went by with yucky poo and I tried wazine. The poop cleared up for a good 7-10 days. Retreated after 3 weeks. Poop cleared up again! But same as all the other times by 7-10 days out they were getting runny poo again.
Waited a month from the last wormer and was then recommend Ivomectin. I am 5 days out from that treatment and seeing no improvement. (I did see some weird white specks (1/2 the size of a grain of rice) that appeared to be worms in some of the poos right before starting the ivomectin treatment. Those are the only things i have seen in the poo.)
I so tired of tossing my eggs because of the wormers but I'm equally tiered of runny chicken poo on EVERYTHING! Big blobs of smelly liquid poo! I have been around many chickens and have not see this much yucky poo before! It is also less then exciting to wash my chickens back sides because of the mess.
Recommendations?
The only thing I see wrong with my chickens is they are slow to laying. Most were 8+ months before starting to lay. And they lay infrequently. This has always been even in the months between wormers. I have RIRs, Barred Rocks, RIR crosses, Black Copper Maron crosses & cochins. I have 13 hens over the age of 8 months (some nearing 11 months) and only get 1-6 eggs a day. I recently locked them in the coop (just in case they were laying out of sight) and have only gotten 7 eggs in 3 days!
