Please help, I'm losing my mind here!

[SavageDestiny]

Can someone please help me out? I am having such a hard time with my girls. I got 4 chickens just about 3 weeks ago, never had them before. I have had nothing but problems with them. I made a thread here about the irritated skin I found immediately, then the lice I found:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/860077/bald-and-red-on-her-underside

Then one of them, Tillie the EE, started limping a week ago. No bumblefoot, cuts, abrasions, or sores and it's not paralyzed, so I'm hoping she just strained or sprained it. She is weight bearing on it just not fully. She likes to get up on top of their 6' tarp shelter and jump down, so I'm assuming she tweaked it doing that. So I am just keeping an eye on it for now, though I got a multivitamin to add to their water since I read that can sometimes help with limping.

I have been dusting with wood ash, they have DE and wood ash dust bath holes, cleaning out the coop and spraying it with Poultry Protector weekly, and working my butt off to get rid of the lice. I went out of town for 4 days (my husband took care of them) and came back yesterday to find that while 3 of the girls are good, Gladys the Buff Orp is just crawling with lice again and her skin is all red and irritated. I went to the feed store today to get something stronger to just get RID of the lice and they sold me a sulfur insecticide/poultry dust that they use on their own chickens.

I decided to dust all of them down with it even though only Gladys appears to have issues. Everyone was fine until the last girl, my Black Sex Link Berta, who I realized once I grabbed her was wheezing and gurgly. She sounds congested but I couldn't see any discharge. I dusted her while she wheezed at me and when I put her down she had a sneezing fit. Now I'm trying to figure out what new freaking medication I'm going to have to start them on now and it is so overwhelming.

I just... UGH! I am so ready to throw in the towel and just give up on chickens. I feel defeated. I love my girls a lot, and this is killing me that they're having so many issues! I am trying SO HARD to do everything correctly. I did loads of research before I got them. Their coop is clean and not smelly, with pine shavings for the floor. It is well ventilated. They have a decent sized run (24'x14'). I feed them good, whole grain food and ferment it. They get probiotics a couple times a week, ACV in their water and garlic with their dinner. They get lots of fresh, healthy foods to supplement their diet. I even have herbs in the nest boxes that are supposed to help respiratory health and be soothing.

What am I doing wrong? Why are my girls having so many issues? There have never been chickens on this property before. The only chickens other than mine I have been around are the ones in the flock I got them from, who belong to my friend. NONE of her chickens are having any issues like this. She feels terrible but this isn't her fault, her whole flock is healthy and these girls were before they came home with me. How on earth is this happening? It has only been THREE WEEKS, even if I was messing something up horribly how could this all happen so fast?

Here are some pictures of the girls, coop, and run to help you get an idea of their living situation.




These were before I actually had the girls, but they're the best pics of the coop I have.





You can see one of the dust bath areas behind them here.


The girls all eat VERY enthusiastically, scratch around, and act about as I would expect from chickens. Please help me get them healthy.

 

[Eyeshot]

sounds like your doing everything right, so don't blame yourself. lice are a major pain to get rid of you got to keep dusting(with DE, or whatever works best for you)them for a week, keep theyre coop impossibly clean and check your birds for any lice a few times a day. as for your EE, it sounds like she got a cramp of sorts in her leg, as long as shes still walking, she should walk it out in a couple of days. DONT GIVE UP! its worth it, a pain, but worth owning chickens.

 

[vonchick]

A few drops of Frontlinr Plus on each of our girls knocked out our lice problem in a day or two.

 

[Eggcessive]

Your chickens look healthy in the pictures, and you have a lovely new coop. Sorry that you are having problems. I'm hoping your friend didn't have a respiratory disease in her flock that made these chickens carriers. Diseases such as MG also called CRD can be passed along--these girls could have been exposed at her place and not showed symptoms until you got them. They brought the lice with them too. The limping one may have well sprained the leg, but Mycoplasma synoviae or MS is similar to MG, but it can affect the respiratory system as well as the bones. I would put her in a cage for a week with food and water, vitamins in her water, and rest the leg. Test her walking week to week, and let her out when she improves. Treat your lice with 5% Sevin dust if your sulfur powder doesn't do the trick. When you have an active outbreak, wood ash and DE don't do anything. When you use Sevin, the lice instantly die--then repeat in 10 days. Here is a good link on telling lice from mites and how to treat them: http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8162.pdf and http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

 

[SavageDestiny]

sounds like your doing everything right, so don't blame yourself. lice are a major pain to get rid of you got to keep dusting(with DE, or whatever works best for you)them for a week, keep theyre coop impossibly clean and check your birds for any lice a few times a day. as for your EE, it sounds like she got a cramp of sorts in her leg, as long as shes still walking, she should walk it out in a couple of days. DONT GIVE UP! its worth it, a pain, but worth owning chickens.

Thanks for the support and kind words. I'm hoping the sulfur dust gets the lice under control.

Your chickens look healthy in the pictures, and you have a lovely new coop. Sorry that you are having problems. I'm hoping your friend didn't have a respiratory disease in her flock that made these chickens carriers. Diseases such as MG also called CRD can be passed along--these girls could have been exposed at her place and not showed symptoms until you got them. They brought the lice with them too. The limping one may have well sprained the leg, but Mycoplasma synoviae or MS is similar to MG, but it can affect the respiratory system as well as the bones. I would put her in a cage for a week with food and water, vitamins in her water, and rest the leg. Test her walking week to week, and let her out when she improves. Treat your lice with 5% Sevin dust if your sulfur powder doesn't do the trick. When you have an active outbreak, wood ash and DE don't do anything. When you use Sevin, the lice instantly die--then repeat in 10 days. Here is a good link on telling lice from mites and how to treat them: http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8162.pdf and http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

I don't believe she has any issues in her flock, as none are still exhibiting symptoms and these girls were fine when they lived in the flock there. She's actually in the process of getting NPIP certification and so far all her flock has checked out healthy. I know that things like MG can be carried and transmitted by wild birds though, in fact wild finches in a city only a couple hours away were found to test positive for MG a very short while ago. That's partially why I'm so worried about the congested/wheezy girl. Any tips on what I should do for her?

There's no real way to separate Tillie, the lame one. I can't bring her in the house due to my husband's health issues, which is why I went with grown pullets instead of baby chicks. She is also the lowest in the peck order and only recently has even been down scratching with the other girls- up until now, the Buff or the BSL would go after her if she hopped off the chair perch I have out there, so I'm hesitant to separate her and make her go through reintroduction. I'm adding multivitamins to the water for all the girls though.

I actually looked for Sevin dust but could not find it locally, but I'm hopeful about the sulfur powder since the feed store guy uses it on his chickens.

 

[ten chicks]

First the hen with leg issues has probably a sprain due to her jumping down from 6 ft. Jumping down from this height can cause serious leg issues in heavy breeds,seal it off so birds cannot access it.

Birds do get mites/lice/worms,this is a fact so do not get too upset,just dust with appropriate product. Do not forget to do coops/nest boxes/roosts/etc.

I would either ferment or do ACV,in my opinion birds do not need both. ACV really does nothing but keep water from getting slimy,but if you clean water daily this should not be an issue. I do not use ACV,i do ferment but my birds also have access to their dry feed all day long. I give fermented feed once in the morning,mainly b/c my roosters love it,my hens not so much.

I never use garlic as i am still on the fence regarding how safe it actually is in birds,reason in mammals it can cause issues such as heinz body anemia and in high doses can be toxic to several animals. Many will disagree with this,but i have spoken to vets regarding garlic and the answer is always no they do not need nor should have it. I realize many do give garlic to birds with no ill effects,but i personally see no reason why they would even need it. Everyone has their own opinion on this,you decide for yourself.

Here is a link explaining garlic/onions in animals

http://www.exoticpetvet.net/avian/onions.html

 

[katbriar]

I read on here somewhere that they had put herbs (lavender?) in the nest boxes to help keep them fresh and one if the birds had a respiratory reaction. When she removed the herbs things got better.

It's just a suggestion based on a dim memory, but it would be an easy thing to try.

Good luck with your girls; you obviously care a lot about their health and try very hard.

 

[SavageDestiny]

I read on here somewhere that they had put herbs (lavender?) in the nest boxes to help keep them fresh and one if the birds had a respiratory reaction. When she removed the herbs things got better.

It's just a suggestion based on a dim memory, but it would be an easy thing to try.

Good luck with your girls; you obviously care a lot about their health and try very hard.

I've been putting some herbs in their nest boxes- rosemary, thyme, mint and basil. I actually use them because everything I have read says they are supposed to help fend off respiratory infections. There are not a lot in there and I don't refresh them daily. Hm.

 

[SavageDestiny]

Anyone have any ideas on what to do for my wheezy girl?

 

[Eggcessive]

If you think it is the herbs or a mold, you can remove those things and watch them. Here is a list of respiratory diseases that can cause wheezing. They can be bacterial or mycoplasmas which will respond to antibiotics such as Tylan50 injections, Gallimycin or oxytetracycline in the water, or they can be viruses which don't respond to antibiotics, but they might prevent secondary bacterial infections. Here is the link, and look at mycopasma gallisepticum (MG or CRD), infectious bronchitis, ILT, and infectious coryza: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044