She said/He said Who's right? Who's wrong? No one!

[Ren2014]

What a couple of days over here. Today Pepper, my oldest hen, given to me by Bakingintherain ( a user and friend here on BYC) years ago when she already two, somehow managed to hang herself up over my fence by her leg. She was tangled in a piece of string that I don't know where she picked up. She could have been hanging there for hours. She's now hobbling around. I don't know if she just sprained it pretty good, cut blood flow off to it, or dislocated it but she can move her toes so I don't think it's dislocation. So now I have to watch that to see if she heals up.

Best of luck to Pepper.

X2

 

[RubyNala97]

@AmyLynn2374 how is the one chick doing?

I have no medical or personal objections to medical treatment.  If my birds were high value, I'd protect my investment.  I wouldn't medicate for no reason, though, there has to be a condition before I will treat for it.  If the birds are healthy and happy, I don't medicate.

Interesting to hear another view point! I like to research all the different options.

What a couple of days over here. Today Pepper, my oldest hen, given to me by Bakingintherain ( a user and friend here on BYC) years ago when she already two, somehow managed to hang herself up over my fence by her leg. She was tangled in a piece of string that I don't know where she picked up. She could have been hanging there for hours. She's now hobbling around. I don't know if she just sprained it pretty good, cut blood flow off to it, or dislocated it but she can move her toes so I don't think it's dislocation. So now I have to watch that to see if she heals up.

Oh man! You have had your hands full! I hope she is ok and the leg gets better soon. They will find trouble if they can. I put my 3-4 week old chicks out into the run and checked the whole area I closed off to make sure it was secure and safe. I thought it was. But one small section has a double layer of hardware cloth and sure enough a chick somehow managed to get trapped between the two!! Thankfully, I was able to get him out and he was fine! I stuffed it with an old rag so no one else tries it.

I got pink eye from ground black pepper getting in my eye once. It scratched it and after that like 3 days later it was just goopy and nasty yucky and bright punk. It was horrible.

I don't know if this is true but I've heard dandelion greens in conjunction with something else is also a natural dewormer, I can't remember what it was that uou had to pair it with though. I think I've heard it's the pumpkin seeds that are the dewormer, I may be wrong about that though. I read all that on the Chicken Chicks website.

I heard pumpkin seeds and something else too but I can't remember. Lol. How are all the chicks today?

 

[meganhundley]

I just toss the whole cuke in the run.  Over ripe is good, they love the seeds.  It may take them a few days to decide to eat it.  With a lot of cucurbits they seem to prefer to eat them when they're somewhat rotted/fermented and mushy.

IMO, if it ain't broke, I'm not going to try to fix it.  It's normal for an animal (including human, sounds gross, but true) to have a light parasite load.  When it gets out of balance, that's when it's time to cull or treat.  Weak animals are more prone to heavy parasite loads.  Not to mention, you have the egg withdrawal time, as well as the issue of the parasites perhaps building resistance to the med.

All right!

Production discussion.

For production, pullets should be wormed at 16 to 18 weeks old(before they start laying eggs). Worms at that age can cause lower egg production because the worms can mess up the reproductive system.

After that, fecal float tests to determine if they have worms. Purchase a microscope and do this yourself. You will be looking for eggs not worms in the fecal sample. It is very rare to see worms and if you do, you likely will see some death in the flock.

There are some worm medicines that are approved for poultry--they do not require egg withdrawl.

Mine aren't laying just yet, they are around 4 months old now, so I wanted to do this before they started so I wouldn't have to throw any eggs out. That was another reason I decided to do it now. I probably won't get any eggs from mine til spring anyway. I gave them some Wazine today and I think when I reworm them again in 10 days (I'm going to check with Kathy on that also to make sure that's when I should do it) I think I'm going to go with Valbazen. I just want to be on the safe side. I'm more worried about my Silkies cause for some strange reason they LOVE to poop in their water. They roost on top of the waterer and all the poop lands directly in the trough. I've tried putting a small piece of plywood on top of it but there's no way to secure it so they always end up knocking it off. I gave them other things to roost on also but they prefer the waterer. I have to clean it out several times a day. I've read that worms will thrive and grow in conditions like that so I just wanted to make sure I knock them out now before they get a good foothold, lol. I want them to be freshly wormed and clean before I switch them to their new "accomodations", lol. I'd like to read up on the wormer that has no egg withdrawal period though, incase I want or need to worm after they do start laying. Another ? though, if you cook the eggs it doesn't denature the wormer in any way? I would think cooking would affect it somehow.

 

[meganhundley]

What a couple of days over here. Today Pepper, my oldest hen, given to me by Bakingintherain ( a user and friend here on BYC) years ago when she already two, somehow managed to hang herself up over my fence by her leg. She was tangled in a piece of string that I don't know where she picked up. She could have been hanging there for hours. She's now hobbling around. I don't know if she just sprained it pretty good, cut blood flow off to it, or dislocated it but she can move her toes so I don't think it's dislocation. So now I have to watch that to see if she heals up.

Awwww, poor thing. I hope she gets better soon

 

[meganhundley]

@AmyLynn2374 how is the one chick doing?
Interesting to hear another view point! I like to research all the different options.
Oh man! You have had your hands full! I hope she is ok and the leg gets better soon. They will find trouble if they can. I put my 3-4 week old chicks out into the run and checked the whole area I closed off to make sure it was secure and safe. I thought it was. But one small section has a double layer of hardware cloth and sure enough a chick somehow managed to get trapped between the two!! Thankfully, I was able to get him out and he was fine! I stuffed it with an old rag so no one else tries it.
I heard pumpkin seeds and something else too but I can't remember. Lol. How are all the chicks today?

They are all spunky and chipper this morning. The 1 with the eye issue, I medicated it again a little bit ago and I can't really tell if it's my imagination or the lack of good lighting (it's cloudy and not a ray of sunshine here today ) but I think her eye looks a little less cloudy and gray today. The other little 1 that aspirated is now my fastest little scamperer, lol. He loves running. And the shavings go flying everywhere lol. And I can't believe how fast these little guys feather out, they're only 4 days old, some are 5 days. My Welsummers were still just little downy fluff balls at this age but these guys all have pretty long wing feathers already and their little tail feathers are also starting to come in. There are some interesting looking colors so far.

 

[meganhundley]

I had to put a little shallow box in the brooder today, when I woke up this morning they had kicked so many shavings in there waterer and they were just suckling all the water out and most of their shavings were soaked. Thankfully where they lay down at was still dry. So I put a shallow box, it's about 3/4 to 1 in tall, in there that's about 2/3 of the lenth of the brooder to hold all the shavings in and I put there food and water at the end of the brooder outside of the box, hopefully this will solve the shavings in the water issue lol

 

[RubyNala97]

They are all spunky and chipper this morning. The 1 with the eye issue, I medicated it again a little bit ago and I can't really tell if it's my imagination or the lack of good lighting (it's cloudy and not a ray of sunshine here today ) but I think her eye looks a little less cloudy and gray today. The other little 1 that aspirated is now my fastest little scamperer, lol. He loves running. And the shavings go flying everywhere lol. And I can't believe how fast these little guys feather out, they're only 4 days old, some are 5 days. My Welsummers were still just little downy fluff balls at this age but these guys all have pretty long wing feathers already and their little tail feathers are also starting to come in. There are some interesting looking colors so far.

I know, they grow soooo fast! My little silkie chicks started getting their wing feathers in at 2 days old!! I wish they could stay little fuzz balls for at least a few weeks! Glad to hear everyone is doing good!

 

[ronott1]

I had to put a little shallow box in the brooder today, when I woke up this morning they had kicked so many shavings in there waterer and they were just suckling all the water out and most of their shavings were soaked. Thankfully where they lay down at was still dry. So I put a shallow box, it's about 3/4 to 1 in tall, in there that's about 2/3 of the lenth of the brooder to hold all the shavings in and I put there food and water at the end of the brooder outside of the box, hopefully this will solve the shavings in the water issue

lol

I have one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...le&qid=1445881662&ref_=sr_1_sc_1&sr=8-1-spell

Chicks pick up using it very quickly.

When they are bigger I move to:

Since moving to these, I have not had to treat for coccidiosis

 

[meganhundley]

I have one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013J3ZIVK?keywords=premiere%201%20water%20nipple&qid=1445881662&ref_=sr_1_sc_1&sr=8-1-spell

Chicks pick up using it very quickly.

When they are bigger I move to:

Since moving to these, I have not had to treat for coccidiosis

Awesome, I'll check into that. That would save me alot of worry and problems with my Silkies and I won't have to worry about shavings in the water anymore with babies either. Do they instinctively know how to use it or do I have to show them at first?

 

[Ren2014]

Awesome, I'll check into that. That would save me alot of worry and problems with my Silkies and I won't have to worry about shavings in the water anymore with babies either. Do they instinctively know how to use it or do I have to show them at first?

We use the water nipples also. They make a huge difference. I start with both kind of waterers and by the 3rd day they have the nipple down so I pull the regular waterer. Hang it at eye level and their curiosity will take over and then raise it a bit so they stretch just a little bit to reach it. However, I do bump their beaks up to it a few times and let my finger catch the water next to their beak.