jingles
In the Brooder
- Jul 31, 2015
- 34
- 0
- 32
Hi,
I am new to chickens and things have not gone too well so far. Apologies in advance for the long ramble
. I am in Perth, Australia, so in winter now.
I bought 6 beautiful heritage breed pullets (around 12-16 weeks old - Orpington, Australorp, RIR, 2x Sussex, Plymouth Rock) about 4 months ago. They were wormed the day I got them. Free range during day & locked in secure coop w run at night.
Within a couple of weeks one started sneezing, so off to the vets & onto antibiotics for all. All recovered, though to this day the sick chicken still gets bubbles in her eyes occasionally but is otherwise very healthy and is the only one laying ATM.
All happy for around a month until orpi was taken in the middle of the day by a fox
. That was the end of free range as the fox would come every day multiple times to try & break into the coop! The chickens were locked in for a couple of weeks with little supervised outings while I came up with a plan.
During their house arrest we vaccinated the remaining 5 chickens for coryza. About 1-2 week later my RIR was unable to stand with severe diarrhea. When I picked her up she had lost a lot of weight, and thinking back she was a bit withdrawn for a week or two before. We brought her in and gave her food and fluids but unfortunately she died in a couple of days. Put it down to the vaccine, but was sitting leg splayed so may have been Mareks (I think they were vaccinated), but also now thinking coccidiosis maybe!
After the loss of red we re-wormed the remaining 4, dusted them & the coop etc (though no signs of worms or mites).
The chickens now have the run of an area protected by a 50m long electric chicken mesh fence, and so far no more for attacks, so at least we seem to have solved one problem.
The remaining 4 grew and appeared very healthy, and Aussie started laying about a month ago. This week, though I noticed the rock slightly away from the group, but still eating. The next day she was a bit wobbly and not eating (crop pretty empty) with foul smelling diarrhea (clear watery) so off to the vets again!
Vet says he thinks likely coccidiosis (we have had a lot of rain here & heaps of wild ducks around & he said he could see blood in the stools). He gives her a shot of metronidazole & sends us home). He recommends not to treat the others unless they look sick (which they don't) so they can develop immunity. He also recommends not to do pop analysis as wormed 3 months ago and 'everything shows up anyway'. We keep Frankie inside with a heater, but the next day dead!
The remaining 3 chickens are behaving perfectly normally, but I am very concerned that I have lots 2 chickens 3 months apart with similar symptoms (though the latest went down hill very quickly & was still heavy so not chronically ill, whilst red took a few days/ weeks).
I am kicking myself for not a) doing a poo test and b) doing a necropsy, but life was just too busy.
Anyway, from my reading, corid is what I should have given Frankie for coccidiosis, and I'd be very interested to have opinions on if metronidazole would be effective. I have now bought some corid online and am waiting it's delivery. My main question is if my chickens all still appear healthy when it arrives, should I still treat them & for how long? What is the egg withholding period.
I have considered moulds food as a possibility with all the rain, but would that show up as a sour crop (which she didn't have)? Also thought of some sort of toxic plant & black nightshade does grow in their general area, but they have already pecked the ground bare so if she did eat some it would be an absolutely tiny amount of new growth. Finally, the vet said not egg bound, though I don't remember him checking, but I did squeeze her abdomen and couldn't feel anything & she didn't look as though she was about to lay.
Needless to say I am pretty disheartened by all this and am coming to the conclusion that if a chicken looks a bit off it will die, so the vets are a bit pointless. If the 3 survivors are still healthy in a couple of months I plan to get another 3-4 month batch, but am very scared they will succumb to whatever got Frankie.
Thanks for reading, and again sorry for the ramble. I will not be defeated by this, and hope that if I can get a good chicken emergency kit together & some more experience I may be able to have a happy healthy flock!
I am new to chickens and things have not gone too well so far. Apologies in advance for the long ramble
. I am in Perth, Australia, so in winter now. I bought 6 beautiful heritage breed pullets (around 12-16 weeks old - Orpington, Australorp, RIR, 2x Sussex, Plymouth Rock) about 4 months ago. They were wormed the day I got them. Free range during day & locked in secure coop w run at night.
Within a couple of weeks one started sneezing, so off to the vets & onto antibiotics for all. All recovered, though to this day the sick chicken still gets bubbles in her eyes occasionally but is otherwise very healthy and is the only one laying ATM.
All happy for around a month until orpi was taken in the middle of the day by a fox
. That was the end of free range as the fox would come every day multiple times to try & break into the coop! The chickens were locked in for a couple of weeks with little supervised outings while I came up with a plan. During their house arrest we vaccinated the remaining 5 chickens for coryza. About 1-2 week later my RIR was unable to stand with severe diarrhea. When I picked her up she had lost a lot of weight, and thinking back she was a bit withdrawn for a week or two before. We brought her in and gave her food and fluids but unfortunately she died in a couple of days. Put it down to the vaccine, but was sitting leg splayed so may have been Mareks (I think they were vaccinated), but also now thinking coccidiosis maybe!
After the loss of red we re-wormed the remaining 4, dusted them & the coop etc (though no signs of worms or mites).
The chickens now have the run of an area protected by a 50m long electric chicken mesh fence, and so far no more for attacks, so at least we seem to have solved one problem
. The remaining 4 grew and appeared very healthy, and Aussie started laying about a month ago. This week, though I noticed the rock slightly away from the group, but still eating. The next day she was a bit wobbly and not eating (crop pretty empty) with foul smelling diarrhea (clear watery) so off to the vets again!
Vet says he thinks likely coccidiosis (we have had a lot of rain here & heaps of wild ducks around & he said he could see blood in the stools). He gives her a shot of metronidazole & sends us home). He recommends not to treat the others unless they look sick (which they don't) so they can develop immunity. He also recommends not to do pop analysis as wormed 3 months ago and 'everything shows up anyway'. We keep Frankie inside with a heater, but the next day dead!
The remaining 3 chickens are behaving perfectly normally, but I am very concerned that I have lots 2 chickens 3 months apart with similar symptoms (though the latest went down hill very quickly & was still heavy so not chronically ill, whilst red took a few days/ weeks).
I am kicking myself for not a) doing a poo test and b) doing a necropsy, but life was just too busy.
Anyway, from my reading, corid is what I should have given Frankie for coccidiosis, and I'd be very interested to have opinions on if metronidazole would be effective. I have now bought some corid online and am waiting it's delivery. My main question is if my chickens all still appear healthy when it arrives, should I still treat them & for how long? What is the egg withholding period.
I have considered moulds food as a possibility with all the rain, but would that show up as a sour crop (which she didn't have)? Also thought of some sort of toxic plant & black nightshade does grow in their general area, but they have already pecked the ground bare so if she did eat some it would be an absolutely tiny amount of new growth. Finally, the vet said not egg bound, though I don't remember him checking, but I did squeeze her abdomen and couldn't feel anything & she didn't look as though she was about to lay.
Needless to say I am pretty disheartened by all this and am coming to the conclusion that if a chicken looks a bit off it will die, so the vets are a bit pointless. If the 3 survivors are still healthy in a couple of months I plan to get another 3-4 month batch, but am very scared they will succumb to whatever got Frankie.
Thanks for reading, and again sorry for the ramble. I will not be defeated by this, and hope that if I can get a good chicken emergency kit together & some more experience I may be able to have a happy healthy flock!
