ShadowRhelm
In the Brooder
- May 24, 2020
- 1
- 0
- 19
Hello,
I am fairly new to the forum, but I have spent a lot of time reading the forum and have never posted before. I try to be active on facebook... but I am not real good with using phones for that stuff and I am not often in front of my computer (I am working on it). I am not new to chickens (or any other species of animal). I was raised in a family life of raising chickens and my husband and I kept chickens fora time before military life made that too difficult and now that we are in our new homestead and not going anywhere we decided to go ahead and get our flock going... but I am having some problems I have not had before even though I do not feel rusty. I shall cut to the chase. I have a newly formed flock of lavender orpingtons (and only that breed) and they have all been doing very good until today. The little flock has 17 in total... 9 of them are from Hoovers hatchery and they are 3 1/2 weeks old and then I also have 8 that I hatched myself and they are 2 1/2 weeks old.
Today in the early afternoon I found 1 of the 3 week old baby chicks with a swollen and bloody rectum. Upon inspection it did not appear to be a prolapse. It actually looks like some one was pecking his poor bum savagely. As I was cleaning him up... my brother walked in with one more and with the same issue. Then at about 7:00 PM (so about 6 hours later) we found another one suffering from rectal wounds. Everything about them are exactly the same. So we set up 3 of our carrier kennels with a potty pad and food and water and started the constant process of cleaning their cages of any poop and regularly wiping and treating their rectums. There is a slight thick white discharge that I am almost certain is urates and the leaking is just left over from trying to go potty.
I have been washing with an antifungal / bacterial wash for animals (very small amount). I then take a q-tip and wipe a small amount of betadine on the wounded area and blow dry and then I ad either a small layer of armor gel or neosporin.
Their poop all looks very normal... they have eaten normal... but they are PIGS! Thus far it has not happened to the 2 week olds and the 3 that this has been done to are some that we have marked because we are 95% sure they are cockerels due to some strong physical features. Also, all 3 are hoovers hatchery chicks. At first I as worried they were sick... I feel that is rules out now. All of the other chicks seem to be fine. The only thing I can think of that has ever seemed off was one night last week while being help the chick pooped what looked like a clear gel (so not poop)... but that chick had also just went nuts drinking way too much water. I also have noticed a lot of "headbutting" the last few days and some one else said this sounds like bullying....
I am not sure what else to do or if there are other options. The one thing we never had before was butthole attacked.What is going on? Poor babes are scared and crying non stop for their flock... but they will peck them all to death. I do not have resources to put everyone in quarantine to gradually try to find the packer...or am I missing a possible illness all together?
I am so desperate. Please and thank you!
Chelle
I am fairly new to the forum, but I have spent a lot of time reading the forum and have never posted before. I try to be active on facebook... but I am not real good with using phones for that stuff and I am not often in front of my computer (I am working on it). I am not new to chickens (or any other species of animal). I was raised in a family life of raising chickens and my husband and I kept chickens fora time before military life made that too difficult and now that we are in our new homestead and not going anywhere we decided to go ahead and get our flock going... but I am having some problems I have not had before even though I do not feel rusty. I shall cut to the chase. I have a newly formed flock of lavender orpingtons (and only that breed) and they have all been doing very good until today. The little flock has 17 in total... 9 of them are from Hoovers hatchery and they are 3 1/2 weeks old and then I also have 8 that I hatched myself and they are 2 1/2 weeks old.
Today in the early afternoon I found 1 of the 3 week old baby chicks with a swollen and bloody rectum. Upon inspection it did not appear to be a prolapse. It actually looks like some one was pecking his poor bum savagely. As I was cleaning him up... my brother walked in with one more and with the same issue. Then at about 7:00 PM (so about 6 hours later) we found another one suffering from rectal wounds. Everything about them are exactly the same. So we set up 3 of our carrier kennels with a potty pad and food and water and started the constant process of cleaning their cages of any poop and regularly wiping and treating their rectums. There is a slight thick white discharge that I am almost certain is urates and the leaking is just left over from trying to go potty.
I have been washing with an antifungal / bacterial wash for animals (very small amount). I then take a q-tip and wipe a small amount of betadine on the wounded area and blow dry and then I ad either a small layer of armor gel or neosporin.
Their poop all looks very normal... they have eaten normal... but they are PIGS! Thus far it has not happened to the 2 week olds and the 3 that this has been done to are some that we have marked because we are 95% sure they are cockerels due to some strong physical features. Also, all 3 are hoovers hatchery chicks. At first I as worried they were sick... I feel that is rules out now. All of the other chicks seem to be fine. The only thing I can think of that has ever seemed off was one night last week while being help the chick pooped what looked like a clear gel (so not poop)... but that chick had also just went nuts drinking way too much water. I also have noticed a lot of "headbutting" the last few days and some one else said this sounds like bullying....
I am not sure what else to do or if there are other options. The one thing we never had before was butthole attacked.What is going on? Poor babes are scared and crying non stop for their flock... but they will peck them all to death. I do not have resources to put everyone in quarantine to gradually try to find the packer...or am I missing a possible illness all together?
I am so desperate. Please and thank you!
Chelle
