- Sep 12, 2012
- 2,252
- 277
- 193
Every single piece of information I have read warns you NOT to give your chickens a bath! Don't do it! A chicken should never get wet like that! It can KILL THEM!
But now I'm starting to think differently.
The first idea I ever had of giving my chickens a bath, was one VERY rainy day last summer when I continually moved them under the carport. But they refused to stay there and instead wanted to roam out in the natural rain. My alpha rooster got so wet, his entire tail just dragged on the ground - he wouldn't hold it up. But he STILL would not stay where it was dry!
But it wasn't until this spring that I actually HAD to do it. One of my younger chicks developed Cocci and had to get a bath to get her butt, wings, belly, neck, and back cleaned too! I have no idea why she apparently rolled in it... But she turned out just fine and got healthy again pretty quickly.
Now I have a respiratory illness going around my flock. It is taking it's time going around - it's like one chicken per week, and the next week it's a different chicken. Maybe two at once, but never three or more at the same time. And it's annoying because they are NOT simply getting it all at once! So it's an ongoing treatment, not just one big "here's your antibiotic water, everyone!" As a matter of fact, I have put them all on antibiotic water twice now - completely penned up with it so they didn't sneak out and get the clean water. Despite that, they are all still coming down with it!
So as each one gets sick, I bring her in, give her an antibiotic injection in the neck (Duramycin), put some Vet RX in her nose, throat, and ears, feed her some mealworms, and sit her beside a food cup to make sure she gets to fill her crop. The problem doesn't seem to be the illness itself, but the amount of mucus they get from it. It literally clogs their nose and mouth. I just pulled one sumatra inside who had a mouth so clogged, she was foaming from breathing THROUGH the mucus! But lately that mucus has ended up all over their head, backs, and wings, from their roosting, and sleeping with their heads buried under the feathers on their back.
And that is why I started to bathe them lately. The mucus on their backs collects dirt and also helps clog their nostrils even more at night. Plus it "glues" down the feathers that they would fluff to keep warm at night, and keeps them from regulating their body temperature.
But when I started to do that, something even better began to happen. They started to clear up and get better MUCH quicker! I started giving a bath to all of them that came in to be treated - whether they had goo stuck to their back or not. And the more I did it, the less severe the illness got for EVERYONE, and the less time they would spend trying to lay around in the coop to recover. Most times when I gave them a bath, they never developed the mucus on their faces again, at all.
So while giving a chicken a bath CAN BE deadly, I think it all depends on how it's done. I use a cat flea and tick shampoo to hopefully help treat any bugs that may be on them, and I don't wash their face - I don't want any chance of them ingesting the flea and tick shampoo at all. I use the kitchen sink, and use the sprayer as close as I can to their eyes, nose, and mouth, just to get as much of the dried mucus as I can to loosen up. I make sure the water is very warm, knowing that chickens have a higher body temp than we do (102 as opposed to 98.6).
And IMMEDIATELY after bathing, I wrap them in a towel (where I hold them to give them the duramycin injection) and then move them under a heat lamp WITH a hair dryer on low. Both the heat lamp and the hair dryer keep them warm, while the hair dryer helps fluff their feathers back out to dry faster. The hair dryer is usually only about 6-12 inches from them. I actually tend to point it at their rear end, and propped up to blow air towards their head. This is the opposite direction of feather growth, so the air gets underneath feathers to dry their down and skin.
During this time I also give them the mealworms, feed, and fresh clean water. They usually won't eat the mealworms until they are comfortable again - mostly dry and warm again. But I use that as my sign that they are good to go back outside to the pen - although I tend to wait until I see a bulging crop again.
But now I'm starting to think differently.
The first idea I ever had of giving my chickens a bath, was one VERY rainy day last summer when I continually moved them under the carport. But they refused to stay there and instead wanted to roam out in the natural rain. My alpha rooster got so wet, his entire tail just dragged on the ground - he wouldn't hold it up. But he STILL would not stay where it was dry!
But it wasn't until this spring that I actually HAD to do it. One of my younger chicks developed Cocci and had to get a bath to get her butt, wings, belly, neck, and back cleaned too! I have no idea why she apparently rolled in it... But she turned out just fine and got healthy again pretty quickly.
Now I have a respiratory illness going around my flock. It is taking it's time going around - it's like one chicken per week, and the next week it's a different chicken. Maybe two at once, but never three or more at the same time. And it's annoying because they are NOT simply getting it all at once! So it's an ongoing treatment, not just one big "here's your antibiotic water, everyone!" As a matter of fact, I have put them all on antibiotic water twice now - completely penned up with it so they didn't sneak out and get the clean water. Despite that, they are all still coming down with it!
So as each one gets sick, I bring her in, give her an antibiotic injection in the neck (Duramycin), put some Vet RX in her nose, throat, and ears, feed her some mealworms, and sit her beside a food cup to make sure she gets to fill her crop. The problem doesn't seem to be the illness itself, but the amount of mucus they get from it. It literally clogs their nose and mouth. I just pulled one sumatra inside who had a mouth so clogged, she was foaming from breathing THROUGH the mucus! But lately that mucus has ended up all over their head, backs, and wings, from their roosting, and sleeping with their heads buried under the feathers on their back.
And that is why I started to bathe them lately. The mucus on their backs collects dirt and also helps clog their nostrils even more at night. Plus it "glues" down the feathers that they would fluff to keep warm at night, and keeps them from regulating their body temperature.
But when I started to do that, something even better began to happen. They started to clear up and get better MUCH quicker! I started giving a bath to all of them that came in to be treated - whether they had goo stuck to their back or not. And the more I did it, the less severe the illness got for EVERYONE, and the less time they would spend trying to lay around in the coop to recover. Most times when I gave them a bath, they never developed the mucus on their faces again, at all.
So while giving a chicken a bath CAN BE deadly, I think it all depends on how it's done. I use a cat flea and tick shampoo to hopefully help treat any bugs that may be on them, and I don't wash their face - I don't want any chance of them ingesting the flea and tick shampoo at all. I use the kitchen sink, and use the sprayer as close as I can to their eyes, nose, and mouth, just to get as much of the dried mucus as I can to loosen up. I make sure the water is very warm, knowing that chickens have a higher body temp than we do (102 as opposed to 98.6).
And IMMEDIATELY after bathing, I wrap them in a towel (where I hold them to give them the duramycin injection) and then move them under a heat lamp WITH a hair dryer on low. Both the heat lamp and the hair dryer keep them warm, while the hair dryer helps fluff their feathers back out to dry faster. The hair dryer is usually only about 6-12 inches from them. I actually tend to point it at their rear end, and propped up to blow air towards their head. This is the opposite direction of feather growth, so the air gets underneath feathers to dry their down and skin.
During this time I also give them the mealworms, feed, and fresh clean water. They usually won't eat the mealworms until they are comfortable again - mostly dry and warm again. But I use that as my sign that they are good to go back outside to the pen - although I tend to wait until I see a bulging crop again.
