Peahen closing one eye

[Waterfaery]

I am impressed with you and how you care for your birds, so many have no clue how to deworm properly. By your observations, I believe the lack of harmony is the root cause of the yearling hens' problems. If you don't have another pen to put all of the yearlings in I would turn them out to free-range provided you have an LGD to watch over them.

Thanks so much for your advice. You are always so helpful and I've learned so much from you. It's great that you take so much time to share your expertise and experience with everyone who asks questions here.

I think you were right about the lack of harmony being the root cause. I have a few divisions in the aviary in case of needing to separate birds for various reasons. I had the largest areas open to each other because I thought it was best for everyone to have as much space as possible and have plenty of room to get away from each other. I didn't divide them before because I thought it would stress them but I decided to try it. I have them separated now so the mature birds are in one area and the 10 month olds are in the other and it has made such a difference. I think the "main" peahen was really causing a problem for everyone but even she seems calmer now that there aren't so many birds around the area where she has been laying.

It's not a long term solution because I know sooner rather than later I will have to do something else with the 5 young peacocks but at least everyone seems happy for another while while I figure it out.

My peahen seems to be fine. I gave her some Tylan as well because I didn't like the way she was hunching down. I don't know if that's what has helped or if she would have recovered anyway. She was extra sleepy the first day, seemed a lot better the next day and was acting totally normal today.

I don't know if they have lice but I've ordered some Ivermectin while I still can in case I need it. Do you routinely treat as a preventative? How often would you do it?

 

[KsKingBee]

If I only had a handful of birds I would probably just do a group fecal and only treat for worms when/if needed but having so many we deworm twice per year the yearlings and breeders. The chicks get dewormed and toltrazuril for cocci once per month until the snow flies. I watch for tell tale signs of lice and will inspect the birds to see if they need treated for lice. It is not a bad idea to catch every bird and give it a dust bath of sevin at least once per year. We make it a point that if we ever have a bird in hand it is given Valbazen and Ivermec topically before we let it go.