Rickets

[naturemom]

My hen that I think had it is fine now. I had been giving her homemade feed and she was living in the house: bad combination. I had a bunch of chicks at the time, so I gave her some of their chick starter and made sure she spent as much time as possible outside in the sun. She recovered quickly, and now we've moved and she spends all day outside with her friends like a normal chicken. Doesn't lay much anymore, but she's 4 years old, and not a super-laying breed.

 

[sammi]

Mipsy6:

sometimes when they have worms they can "lose their legs"..
so if you can,, have a fecal test done for worms and protozoa (cocci)..
sometimes called a "fecal float" at a vet.

do you have any wormer on hand?
please say what it is.
please describe droppings..color and consistency.

what all do you feed your chickens?

you asked about the liquid baby vitamins..
dlhunicorn usually recommends getting the Enfamil brand..no iron..
dose is 2-3 drops on beak once a day for a week, then taper off.

then start giving poultry vitamins a couple times a week.

she also highly recommends trying to get some Avia Charge 2000 from McMurray Hatchery or Strombergs..

here is a "Rickets recipe" that seems to help the birds.
this mixture is for 3 feeds to be given in a day..so divide the mi into thirds.
give for 3-5 days along with regular layer feed, and the vitamins.

the point to the recipe is to up the calcium and vitamin D..

1/2 - 1 cooked egg yolk
1 teaspoon honey
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
3-4 tablespoons rolled oats (oatmeal)

make mixture crumbly, not soupy.

hope this helps.

 

[mipsy6]

Quote:
I don't think it's worms, but I can't be sure. Hopefully it's not, since I don't think there's a vet in my area who could do the test. I don't have any wormer on hand. Is this something I should always have around (I'm a newbie, and have only 2 chickens).

My chicken is only really lame in one leg, and she's been lagging behind her sister in growth for a while, so that's what makes me think rickets. I looked at her poops and I don't see any worms. They have been a bit watery, but not horribly so. It's so hard to tell since I am at work all day and can't tell whose poop is whose a lot of the time.

Quote:
Just regular grower feed. They also free-range at least 3 times a week and pick at their dirt floor in their run for bugs and whatnot. And I give them caterpillars I find and some fruit and veggie scraps from my garden or the kitchen maybe 3 or 4 times a week.

I was thinking maybe they need some store-bought grit. I think I read somewhere that might help with nutritional issues. I was thinking they were fine picking up their own grit when they free-range, or from their dirt run, but maybe that's not the case. Thoughts?

Quote:
I got a similar multi-vitamin because they didn't have Enfamil, but it has Vitamin D and no iron, so I think it'll probably be good. I have been giving her 1ML by beak in the morning, and the mixing some with some yogurt and fruit as well, because some of the stuff I put in her beak spills a bit.

This morning I actually gave both chickens a mix of cooked oatmeal, plain yogurt, vitamins, small peach cubes and small banana cubes. The sick chicken ate most of it because for some reason her bigger, healthy sister wasn't interested.

Quote:
I got some caged bird liquid vitamins at the pet store, usually used for parrots and the like. Do you think that's okay? I was planning on supplementing their water once I am done treating the sick one. I live in Los Angeles, so my access to feed stores is limited.


Quote:
Thanks! She seems a bit peppier today and her limp isn't any worse, so I am hoping my girl is on the road to recovery.

 

[KansasRodeo]

I know this is an old post. But here is my guinea with rickets. I think it's rickets anyway.

 

[MelissaTXRn]

That poor thing.

 

[bigsteve80]

Found this while searching google - for the use of others; you can supplement Vitamin D by adding 1 pint of cod fish oil to 100 Lb of feed. Wish I'd known that 3 years ago - I lost 7 chicks because of this.