Hi all, my 2 adult chickens are now 16 months old, and the 2 little chicks are around 11 weeks. We have had lots of wet and humid weather, and our adult Leghorn is looking decidedly droopy, some feather loss, seems to stand and just zone out, before snapping out of it and foraging as normal. She has also stopped laying - although she was never that regular.
I thought she was molting, as she never has before, and is 16 months now, over a few days there were bundles of feathers in the coop in the mornings - one day I counted 32 that had fallen out overnight, she lost a few of the bigger wing feathers, and then after just a few days it seemed to stop. I'm wondering if I mistook a stress reaction for a molt? She's not used to kids, and we had friends with a 5 yr old son staying with us, who raced around the garden nr the coop, being quite loud, she is generally an anxious girl anyway, so this may have affected her.
I used my headlamp, took them off the roost at night, and did a thorough under wing and around vent mite inspection on all 4 chickens, but did not see any mites, and no evidence of them in the coop and ark when cleaning them out. So next on my list of possibilities is worms. I am not seeing any worms in the stool, but I know some of them are small and hard to see, some of the stool has been a little loose, but usual color - and we've had temps in the high 80's, dramatic thunderstorms, and lots of really humid days, so guessing some of those could affect digestion if any of them are causing stress.
The only recent change has been that I am mixing their layers pellets with a grower/feeder crumb (currently about 50 / 50) as I am hoping to introduce the 2 chicks currently living in a side run in with the adults, so they can all live in 1 coop, and the young ones can't eat layers pellets - but from research here on BYC, OK for the adult birds to eat grower food if they have access to oyster shell, which they do. The molt and unusual behavior started a week or two before I changed the food.
So, I have been going round in circles reading the threads about recommended dewormers, the adults have never been dewormed - I just believed info I saw that there's no need to deworm your chickens. Now, after a few hours on BYC this afternoon, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed, and realizing I should have given them dewormer already.
The strongest opinion seems to be that the goat dewormer Valbazen is the most recommended as a first dewormer due to the fact is kills all types of worms that chickens get, and they die over several days, and are digested so there is a lower risk of causing the intestinal damage / death, possible with other dewormers that act more quickly but potentially mean all the dead worms trying to pass cause some kind of blockage.
I have not found anywhere locally (Buffalo area) that sells Valbazen, although there are multiple suggestions for places it can be purchased online. The bottle is large, and I only need doses for 2 chickens and 2 chicks (initial dose and another in 10 days) although I've read there can be several years until the expiration date, there's no way I'll use it up. In some of the threads, people seem to share 1 bottle between multiple chicken keepers - but none of them are in this area. I've sent an email to a sheep farmer friend who used to keep goats on the off chance she may have some leftover.
So, for those with more experience - do you think this 'not herself, not laying, some featherloss, zoning out' sounds like it could be an intestinal parasite problem and a dewormer would be a good idea, if so, opinions on valbazen? Anyone know of anywhere locally where I might find a small quantity?
ETA: Pearl our other adult chicken does not have any featherloss, is acting normally, and still laying an egg a day.
Thanks!
