NY chicken lover!!!!

[Pyxis]

Looking for some quick advice. I think one of my hens may have ended up with coccidiosis. She looked fine when I let them out this evening, and two hours later, she was laying on her side in the middle of the paddock. One wing was stretched out and I thought she may have been attacked. I picked her up and her mouth was hanging open. Am I on the right track with my conclusions? If so, is she too far infected to save? If I decide to cull her, is the meat safe to eat?  Thanks in advance for your help.

Dave

What symptoms are you seeing that point toward coccidiosis? If you just found her laying out like that with no other symptoms it could be a lot of things. Any respiratory issues? Is she of laying age and could she be egg bound? Have you checked her over well for wounds? They can be hard to spot in all the feathers. You can certainly try treating her for coccidiosis and see if she improves. You might want to worm her while you're treating her in case she has a high worm load and I'd also dust her for mites because a high load of mites can lead to anemia which could cause the collapse she had.

As for eating the meat, it should be fine as long as it's well-cooked. If you do treat technically there is a 24 hour withdrawal on Corid before slaughter so if she dies while treating I probably wouldn't eat her.

 

[MorrisRdFarms]

The symptoms that I see are her wings drooping, not being able to stand without swaying or laying down, and her mouth hanging open. She is usually timid and scurries away, but tonight she didn't move and I was able to pick her right up. She has also started losing some feathers at the base of her bun tail. There are no other animals other than the 5 adult BO and 6 RSL pullets.

Dave

 

[Pyxis]

The symptoms that I see are her wings drooping, not being able to stand without swaying or laying down, and her mouth hanging open. She is usually timid and scurries away, but tonight she didn't move and I was able to pick her right up. She has also started losing some feathers at the base of her bun tail. There are no other animals other than the 5 adult BO and 6 RSL pullets. 

Dave

The feather loss can be indicative of mites, so I'd dust her and the flock for them. It can also be a sign of bullying. I would split her away from the main group for now if you haven't and provide her with her own food and water. The other thing the feather loss could indicate is over-mating - do you have a rooster? If so check her sides and under her wings for wounds. Roosters can accidentally injure hens with their spurs and they can leave some nasty puncture wounds. Is she having any trouble breathing? How is her poop? Diarrhea is a common symptom of coccidiosis so look for that. Also look for blood in the poop. If she does have it you'll want to treat the whole flock for it because it spreads.

But I agree with horsekeeper that it sounds like a really quick onset for a disease, so I'd look for other things it could be too.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

We purchased our farm over a decade ago as a private sale from a very nice elderly Woman whose Husband had run the dairy farm and passed away.  Her Son, who was the black sheep of the family and who fought with his mother to the day of her death, thought he was to inherit the farm.  Somehow when I purchased the Farm from his Mother, I also inherited the Fued that was between the Son and Mother.  He lives a mile down the road and I own the land on 3 sides of him.  On move in day I had to have the Sheriff remove him from my barn which he was destroying the plumbing and electricity in.  It was strange that the Sheriff was taking his side and making it seem like I was the bad guy for wanting him to stop his dismantling of my barn (turned out the Sheriff was a cousin of the guy!!!).   It took me 5 years and big $ to get the electric back in the barn.  To this day I still can't afford to get the plumbing back in operation.  For over a decade he hunts and trespasses all over my farm.  I've had the police out more times than I can count but I always give him a warning instead of pressing charges, for fear of retaliation of what he could do to my property.  Anyways I lease my land to a dairy farmer and anytime I take out my backhoe or my tenant farmer moves a piece of equipment there is a permit officer or DEC officer knocking at my door to see permits.  The officers can't say who puts the complaint in (which they must follow up on) but they always seem to tilt the clipboard so I can see the name of the person making the complaint.  Soooo, I need to dot my I's and cross my T's else I'll have some agency knocking at my door looking for paperwork.  I'd like to sell eggs if I can legally do so without putting my family in jeopardy.  On a side not, while cleaning in the main hay barn last year I found sales ledger books going back to WWI.  If seems like they operated a general store out of a room in the barn.  The ledgers were like a modern day cash register in which all the sales were documented.  One of the biggest items sold was tobacco products. 

you can sell eggs legally. Call your town hall and your insurance agent. Being you already have a farm running I'm assuming you have farm insurance. Just let your agent know you want to add poultry coverage. It cost us 100 a year for $25,000 of coverage.

 

[MorrisRdFarms]

Well, to be on the safe side, I had the boss run to TSC to pick up Corid. At this point it won't hurt to have it on hand if I'm wrong. I do have a rooster. I looked her over and so far I have not found any visible injuries. I will keep looking to see what I can find. As for diarrhea or blood in her stool, I can't say because I they have almost an acre to use. I haven't seen anything in the coop or run though. I'll grab the light and go back out to do some more investigating.

Dave

 

[tao chick]

The symptoms that I see are her wings drooping, not being able to stand without swaying or laying down, and her mouth hanging open. She is usually timid and scurries away, but tonight she didn't move and I was able to pick her right up. She has also started losing some feathers at the base of her bun tail. There are no other animals other than the 5 adult BO and 6 RSL pullets. 

Dave

I would think egg binding or other injury not illness. If you can quarantine her and see her poops you'll get more information before treatment.

 

[Pharkas]

you can sell eggs legally. Call your town hall and your insurance agent. Being you already have a farm running I'm assuming you have farm insurance. Just let your agent know you want to add poultry coverage. It cost us 100 a year for $25,000 of coverage.

What does the insurance cover? Are there any other NYS requirements that you know of? I've read that other states say the eggs must be kept below x degrees, egg cartons cannot either be reused or all writing needs covered up, and Name, address and phone number must be on carton along with a statement that eggs are not graded.

 

[horsekeeper]

The feather loss can be indicative of mites, so I'd dust her and the flock for them. It can also be a sign of bullying. I would split her away from the main group for now if you haven't and provide her with her own food and water. The other thing the feather loss could indicate is over-mating - do you have a rooster? If so check her sides and under her wings for wounds. Roosters can accidentally injure hens with their spurs and they can leave some nasty puncture wounds. Is she having any trouble breathing? How is her poop? Diarrhea is a common symptom of coccidiosis so look for that. Also look for blood in the poop. If she does have it you'll want to treat the whole flock for it because it spreads.

But I agree with horsekeeper that it sounds like a really quick onset for a disease, so I'd look for other things it could be too.

The symptoms that I see are her wings drooping, not being able to stand without swaying or laying down, and her mouth hanging open. She is usually timid and scurries away, but tonight she didn't move and I was able to pick her right up. She has also started losing some feathers at the base of her bun tail. There are no other animals other than the 5 adult BO and 6 RSL pullets.

Dave

It's so hard to tell, but I have had to cull two turkey toms this year that were ganged up on and injured by the other toms bad enough that they were acting the same way. I already had too many toms so I put them in the freezer instead of trying to help them. I have culled some chicken hens as well that were injured either by breeding or other chickens ganging up. They either had back or leg injuries and the rest of the flock was relentless going after them. Same symptoms, difficulty walking, wings drooping, mouth open from pain (I assumed), and using wings like a crutch to walk with an obviously painful and crippling injury. Much kinder to cull to prevent further suffering.

I pressure cook old or "questionable" birds either to tenderize or destroy any organisms I worry about. I've discovered broken bones, dislocations and bad bruising while processing. One of the big toms had a shattered hip and I think he flew down from the tree or off the roost and smacked into something.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

What does the insurance cover?  Are there any other NYS requirements that you  know of?  I've read that other states say the eggs must be kept below x degrees, egg cartons cannot either be reused or all writing needs covered up, and Name, address and phone number must be on carton along with a statement that eggs are not graded.  

from what I have learned about regulations there isn't too much in the way of "rules" as long as you notify customers that the eggs are fresh and as with any fresh protien there is chance of bacteria. That's where the insurance cones into play. You keep very close records of who buys your eggs so if they do try to come after you for getting salmonella from your eggs insurance covers it. The chances of illness from farm eggs is so low it's almost funny though. More people suffer illness from store bought products than farm fresh. Poultry or fowl coverage is a section all its own though. I would not feel comfortable with you just going by my word though. I am still in the very early stages of all of this. I've been insured 2 months and only had chickens for a year so I am not at all an expert in the rules laws, regulations or anything. However if you want to put my research to use than you can take what I told you to the town you live in and share what you learn here.

 

[PhoredaBurds]

We have a flock and hatch our own eggs. We have been working on blue golden cuckoo maran using a splash maran hen crossed with a golden roo that had "double barred gene" (carried barring gene on each allele) originally a couple years ago.

Blue golden cuckoo? Sounds gorgeous!! Do u have any picks of these birds?