Proper method for quarantine/treating half feral chick before flock integration

[Blue_dingo]

I ended up with a barnyard mix chick that I think has been living a half feral life (long story). What are the steps I need to do to quarantine and make sure this chick doesnt get/transfer any bad coccidia/parasites, etc.? Im thinking medicated feed, a few pinches of prozap under the wings and on the butt, and a couple/three days away from my other chicks. Thoughts?

 

[azygous]

Do you have any idea where the chick came from? It's nice you want to give it a home, and you're wise to think about quarantine to be sure it's not carrying anything. But the quarantine can't identify whether the chick comes with any avian viruses.

Some viruses can be passed to the chick by the mother hen, and simply by being in proximity to the flock can expose the chick to others. The trouble with viruses is that the chick can be a carrier but not be symptomatic. Viruses include Marek's, leucosis, and CRDs.

If this chick has been exposed to any of these, it will expose your other chicks and they, too, will be carriers. Symptoms can develop at any time stress is present, far past the period of quarantine.

I'm not recommending you toss this little chick back out into the cruel world. Just be aware of the risk you are taking by adopting it.

 

[Blue_dingo]

No doubt, appreciate the heads up. It came from a feral/free range population in between woodland and yuba city. A flock of chooks was free ranging in a walnut orchard and then wham in comes a big female Cooper’s hawk. It took off with another chick and this one was bowled over and dazed. Momma hen and the flock took off not to be seen again. So i took it home and have it separated from my regular chicks and it has recovered nicely.

Soooo what should I do?

 

[Ebony Rose]

I would make a look-don't touch area (dog kennel would be great) to house this little one while I treat it for coccidiosis just to be on the safe side and because treatment will not hurt it in any way, even if it isn't suffering from it. I'd leave it in this living arrangement for a month, look, but don't touch... at the end of the month, barring reasons to not integrate, I'd have supervised mingling time with your flock late in the afternoon, near sunset. I'd be shooting for one hour the first visit, shooting for two hours the next day's visit, and by day three hoping to find them all roosting together at sundown. Supervision is especially important the first two days, and great hidey-holes where little chicks can run and big bad hens that must assert their dominance cannot follow *teeheehee* Pecking order is very important in chicken society, but you just need to make sure that the lil'un doesn't get pecking-ordered to death. Gentle pecks to establish order is expected and shouldn't be interrupted, but the "I'm gonna gouge your eyes out and eat them for lunch" pecks should be halted.

 

[azygous]

Well, here's my story. If I had a do-over, I may not have begun my flock with two adopted adult hens.

A friend died, and her husband rehomed her flock, except for two hens that he gave to me. One died the second day I had them. I didn't think too much about it, and I managed to get another hen from the flock.

Several years later, I had added to my flock, and after a few unexplained deaths, I had a young cockerel get very sick, couldn't breathe, was very weak, and I decided to euthanize him and take his body to a lab for a necropsy. I got the results that very day. The cockerel had a two-pound liver and other organs were enlarged with tumors. The diagnosis was lymphoid leucosis, a close cousin of Marek's.

The real bad news was that it is so contagious, all the flock is carrying this virus, and the only way I can get rid of it is to kill off my entire flock, sanitize the premises and begin all over with new chicks.

Marek's is even harder to deal with because the virus is the most long-lived of any in the environment, taking months or years for it to disappear. It's even harder to cull and begin anew if Marek's is involved.

So, think about this risk. The chick may not be carrying a virus, but what if it is? Are you willing to invite it into your flock for life? How I would decide this isn't the issue. You must assess the risk and make the informed decision because you will be the one to live with it.

 

[Blue_dingo]

I would make a look-don't touch area (dog kennel would be great) to house this little one while I treat it for coccidiosis just to be on the safe side and because treatment will not hurt it in any way, even if it isn't suffering from it. I'd leave it in this living arrangement for a month, look, but don't touch... at the end of the month, barring reasons to not integrate, I'd have supervised mingling time with your flock late in the afternoon, near sunset. I'd be shooting for one hour the first visit, shooting for two hours the next day's visit, and by day three hoping to find them all roosting together at sundown. Supervision is especially important the first two days, and great hidey-holes where little chicks can run and big bad hens that must assert their dominance cannot follow *teeheehee* Pecking order is very important in chicken society, but you just need to make sure that the lil'un doesn't get pecking-ordered to death. Gentle pecks to establish order is expected and shouldn't be interrupted, but the "I'm gonna gouge your eyes out and eat them for lunch" pecks should be halted.

Thanks for the practical advice, thats what i am looking for.

Azygous I appreciate the story, that was well put. I think what you describe is a part of being a poultry owner in general and the normal risks of introducing new birds to a flock. I have decided to role the dice on this lil guy, so my question is whats the safest way to do this?

 

[azygous]

You'll be quarantining to observe the chick. If it has any sign of respiratory illness - sneezing, runny beak, eyes bubbling - you will want to cull the chick.

Other than symptoms, you won't know if a virus is lurking in its cells. And you're right, we can never know when a virus might float in on the air currents, come trotting onto your property on the shoes of a delivery person, or drop in from feces from a wild bird.

You will need to integrate the chick. You might be able to just plop it in with the others and let them all do their little greeting and posturing rituals which involves some benign pecking on the head. Or it could require a barrier until all parties become acquainted. Integrating chicks isn't a big deal ordinarily since they have no real pecking order until around five to six weeks.

 

[centrarchid]

I would pen separately for a few days for observation. Make certain it is not from some sort of quarantine zone imposed by the state. Then emphasis will be on integration.

Based on source and possibility chick is a game, the disease more likely to be coming from your existing birds.

 

[Blue_dingo]

thanks for all the good advice! I think it is a game fowl of some sort, I guess the local birds tend to be old english game fowl stock here in the valley.

 

[Folly's place]

All excellent advice! Also, if it is a game bred cockerel, and you have other roosters, it won't work out well. If it's a pullet, she will likely be very broody and a great mama, and an asset.
Roll of the dice!
Mary