- Nov 17, 2014
- 4
- 11
- 77
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
Yes, we are very new. We took over the neighbors flock around Thanksgiving 2014. Some of the chickens are quite old and we knew that because the neighbor told us they were.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
13 although we started with 16. 3 died within the first 3 weeks.
(3) What breeds do you have?
Not sure. Some black and quite large, some brown and some white/cream.
(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com?
Searching for help on how to build a coop. What they need and how to care for chickens.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
Gardening, quilting, hunting, camping, outdoors
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
We have 2 grown children, 2 Yorkies, we both work, one in maintenance and one in computers.
We have learned a lot so far. Our daughter works at the humane society and knows a little about a lot of things. She helped me look each chicken over after we lost the 3. We couldn't figure out what in the world we could be doing wrong. We found what looked like lice and they had scaly leg mites. The rooster could barely walk and the neighbor said he thought it was because he was old.
So we treated their body with Seven dust and sprayed their legs with Neem oil. Around Christmas, one of the hens started limping. We looked over her feet really well and could see there was an issue with the back toe. It looked broken and was going in the wrong direction. We also noticed black spots on the bottoms of both of her feet. We started treating the toe and the bottoms of her feet with triple antibiotic ointment. The toe cleared up enough for us to actually see it. Our daughter spoke with a vet friend that said we might have to cut the toe off. A week or so later, we determined that it wasn't getting better, that it actually looked like it was dying. We cut 1/2 of her toe off and pulled out the bumble foot spots. We didn't cut anything out, it pretty much pulled out with pliers. We packed them full of triple antibiotic ointment and wrapped them up. We repeatedly cleaned them up, and changed her bandages. Today, she looks great. She has become quite friendly. She'll eat out of our hand and doesn't run away when we pick her up. She's quite the talker too!! Sometimes I have to holler at her because she's so loud with her talking when I'm cleaning the coop.
When our daughter talked with the vet about her toe, he said to dilute Ivomec and spray their legs instead of the neem oil. We did that for about 4 weeks. Soaking the roosters legs and using a toothbrush to clean off the nasty scales. We haven't eaten any eggs yet because of all of the stuff we've been using. I'm glad it's winter and were only getting 3 a day.
Now I'm reading about worms. I haven't seen any, but I see Ivomec treats worms too. My question: Will the diluted Ivomec sprayed on their legs also kill any worms they might potentially have? I'd sure like to get these chickens healthy by spring so we can stop treating and start eating eggs.
I'm not ready to have chickens for meat. I don't think I can do it yet. I've already named some of them!! I guess we're learning on senior citizens and will one day have a younger flock.
Yes, we are very new. We took over the neighbors flock around Thanksgiving 2014. Some of the chickens are quite old and we knew that because the neighbor told us they were.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
13 although we started with 16. 3 died within the first 3 weeks.
(3) What breeds do you have?
Not sure. Some black and quite large, some brown and some white/cream.
(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com?
Searching for help on how to build a coop. What they need and how to care for chickens.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
Gardening, quilting, hunting, camping, outdoors
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
We have 2 grown children, 2 Yorkies, we both work, one in maintenance and one in computers.
We have learned a lot so far. Our daughter works at the humane society and knows a little about a lot of things. She helped me look each chicken over after we lost the 3. We couldn't figure out what in the world we could be doing wrong. We found what looked like lice and they had scaly leg mites. The rooster could barely walk and the neighbor said he thought it was because he was old.
So we treated their body with Seven dust and sprayed their legs with Neem oil. Around Christmas, one of the hens started limping. We looked over her feet really well and could see there was an issue with the back toe. It looked broken and was going in the wrong direction. We also noticed black spots on the bottoms of both of her feet. We started treating the toe and the bottoms of her feet with triple antibiotic ointment. The toe cleared up enough for us to actually see it. Our daughter spoke with a vet friend that said we might have to cut the toe off. A week or so later, we determined that it wasn't getting better, that it actually looked like it was dying. We cut 1/2 of her toe off and pulled out the bumble foot spots. We didn't cut anything out, it pretty much pulled out with pliers. We packed them full of triple antibiotic ointment and wrapped them up. We repeatedly cleaned them up, and changed her bandages. Today, she looks great. She has become quite friendly. She'll eat out of our hand and doesn't run away when we pick her up. She's quite the talker too!! Sometimes I have to holler at her because she's so loud with her talking when I'm cleaning the coop.
When our daughter talked with the vet about her toe, he said to dilute Ivomec and spray their legs instead of the neem oil. We did that for about 4 weeks. Soaking the roosters legs and using a toothbrush to clean off the nasty scales. We haven't eaten any eggs yet because of all of the stuff we've been using. I'm glad it's winter and were only getting 3 a day.
Now I'm reading about worms. I haven't seen any, but I see Ivomec treats worms too. My question: Will the diluted Ivomec sprayed on their legs also kill any worms they might potentially have? I'd sure like to get these chickens healthy by spring so we can stop treating and start eating eggs.
I'm not ready to have chickens for meat. I don't think I can do it yet. I've already named some of them!! I guess we're learning on senior citizens and will one day have a younger flock.
and Welcome To BYC!
