Prevention Measures

[mychookau]

I hope you don't mind all my dumb questions. I know on other forums you get told to stop wasting forum space and use the search button, but it is fun writing when you're just new to a hobby. I am doing other research, but answers from ppl who keep them simply like I intend to do, are easier to live with than a textbook telling you, you need to spend a fortune to keep them healthy and happy.

Are chooks prone to any particular diseases that are considered life threatening? Anything that needs regular preventative treatments? I worm my dog every 3 months, and gets his heart worm and vaccines once a year. I presume worming would be a regular treatment, but is there anything else? I know they can get sick and need different treatments for different things, and husbandry can play big roles in their health check, but if there are regular medical treatments that I need to use, I have no idea.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The only dumb question is the one not asked. This forum would dry up and die if people become afraid of asking questions or if people only asked questions that had never been asked before. So ask away. But I warn you. You will get a tremendous range of answers. We all have different conditions and circumstances. Chickens are pretty hardy and adaptable. Many different things work. With chickens there is usually no one right answer that fits all of us. There are different things we do that work for us. So don't let conflicting responses get you down. Just pick the one that best suits your situation.

Your question is a great example. Some people give their chickens all sorts of different things as preventatives. I'm not even going to try to list them. Some of us pretty much just let the chicks go and only treat if we see a problem. I'll tell you a bit what I do, but I'm not saying my way is the right way or the only way. It is just my way. If certain other people respond, you’ll get a totally different answer. If I had a history if certain diseases or problems, my answer would possibly be different.

I don't treat unless I see something specific to treat. This includes worms or anything else.

If I have a broody hen hatch, I don't do anything. Broody hens have been raising chicks with the flock for thousands of years without my help. I figure they can do a better job than I can so I stay out of the way and let her.

If I have chicks in a brooder so I have to raise them myself, on Day 3 I take some dirt from the run to feed them. I raise them in a brooder in the coop, not in my house. This gets grit in their system, so they are prepared if a bug wanders into their brooder. It gets probiotics in their system. It's pretty normal in certain species in the animal world for babies to eat the adults poop. For example, when a baby elephant is ready to eat something other than its mother's milk, it eats some of her poop to get the right bugs in its system. That's another reason I don't give antibiotics without a pretty strong reason. Why kill the bugs in their system and mess up their digestive tract?

Another reason I give the dirt from the run that contains the adults poop is that it contains any disease organisms the adults may have. I'm specifically thinking Coccidiosis, but there are other possibilities. Chicks can develop immunity to certain diseases like Coccidiosis much easier than if they are introduced to it at a later age so I expose them as early as I can. It's possible they can pick up something that will harm them, but I don't have a history of that. If I saw problems in doing what I am doing, I'd change. So you might consider that dirt a preventative.

The only other preventative I do is to keep the brooder, coop, and run as dry as I reasonably can. The brooder and coop are not too hard. The run is a challenge I often fail when it sets in wet for a spell. A wet brooder, coop, and run are breeding grounds for diseases. If they are dry, it is usually a healthy situation.

Probably not as simple an answer as you wanted, but this is a public forum. You get what you pay for. Good luck!!!

 

[mychookau]

Thank you very much ridgerunner. That was very simple to understand and I appreciate every word. I am a lot like you in not wanting treat what isn't sick. That sounds perfect to me. The lady I want to get batams from said the same. She said letting them free range is great for their health, and they love it. I will certainly be al ears to all I am being told on this forum. And we have had so much rain this summer the ground is rather moist, so I will bare in the mind your thoughts on the wet grounds.