We have a sickness that seems to be spreading through our flock very slowly. We are working with 2 mentors to get through this but, I wanted additional opinions.
It started off, I noticed some poopy butts. This is abnormal for our flock.
Then, I noticed a buff orpington (3yrsold) standing on her own, tail down. She wasn't moving around much or eating much. I immediately isolated her, upon doing so, she quit standing on her own and would just lay down. I inspected her closely for egg bound and anything physical that I could see. She had a poopy but, diarrhea (clear with some white), not egg bound, lethargic, not eating, barely drinking, comb seemed a little pale. I called my mentor and we discussed with a third party. Came to the conclusion it was some type of intestinal infection. I was advised to give her Liquamycin (2 drops orally) and electrolytes in the water. I was advised to treat the flock by placing electrolytes and Liquamycin in their water. I continued treatment for about a week. During that time, another bird (black sexlink 4 years old) went down with similar symptoms except she was eating and drinking- her tail was down, she had poopy butt. Within a day of treatment, she was back to normal. Fast forward to today, about 1.5 weeks into this. I finally got the chance to bath chickens with poopy butt (6 total- including the sick girl). The sick buff orpington chicken's belly is swollen ( between her legs, and just her back underside), she is still lethargic, not eating or drinking much at all. I also noticed the black sexlink has a swollen belly but, she is still behaving normally, eating and drinking.
While bathing the sick buff orpington, I did notice what I feel is an infestation of lice. I will be treating the entire flock for that tomorrow.
We are having some mud/ water issues in our coop and run that we are currently working to resolve to the best of our ability. We do let our chickens free range daily for about 8 hours (this is free roaming over our property- not just the run).
Any insight or ideas for what steps I should be taking at this point?
It started off, I noticed some poopy butts. This is abnormal for our flock.
Then, I noticed a buff orpington (3yrsold) standing on her own, tail down. She wasn't moving around much or eating much. I immediately isolated her, upon doing so, she quit standing on her own and would just lay down. I inspected her closely for egg bound and anything physical that I could see. She had a poopy but, diarrhea (clear with some white), not egg bound, lethargic, not eating, barely drinking, comb seemed a little pale. I called my mentor and we discussed with a third party. Came to the conclusion it was some type of intestinal infection. I was advised to give her Liquamycin (2 drops orally) and electrolytes in the water. I was advised to treat the flock by placing electrolytes and Liquamycin in their water. I continued treatment for about a week. During that time, another bird (black sexlink 4 years old) went down with similar symptoms except she was eating and drinking- her tail was down, she had poopy butt. Within a day of treatment, she was back to normal. Fast forward to today, about 1.5 weeks into this. I finally got the chance to bath chickens with poopy butt (6 total- including the sick girl). The sick buff orpington chicken's belly is swollen ( between her legs, and just her back underside), she is still lethargic, not eating or drinking much at all. I also noticed the black sexlink has a swollen belly but, she is still behaving normally, eating and drinking.
While bathing the sick buff orpington, I did notice what I feel is an infestation of lice. I will be treating the entire flock for that tomorrow.
We are having some mud/ water issues in our coop and run that we are currently working to resolve to the best of our ability. We do let our chickens free range daily for about 8 hours (this is free roaming over our property- not just the run).
Any insight or ideas for what steps I should be taking at this point?
