Should I worm? Chicken hasn't laid eggs in about 4 months

[riverpie]

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That might be a problem. She MUST have grit to be able to grind up her food and digest it. I wonder how thin she is? Feathers hide a lot, you know.

If you don't like the pecking, put on gloves and grab her firmly over the wings. When you have your hand under her holding her legs she can't escape and it's much harder to peck. You have to go for it like you mean it, be confident and don't worry about distressing or hurting her - chickens are pretty bombproof. Holding her tightly won't hurt her, just try to keep her wings pinned to her body. You have to have confidence or she'll sense it and take advantage of your nerves. The sock over the head will also stop the pecking

Yes, then it's pretty certain she has scaly leg. She'll try to peck at the mites because they cause a lot of irritation. When you get to pick her up, look for raised scales and a crusty look. Have some vaseline or cooking oil ready to smear/dip her legs in - this suffocates the mites. Repeat the smearing or dipping every day when (if you can), you take her down at night.

Scaly leg mites live in wood, and you coop is wooden isn't it? I'd clean it out completely and spray it with insecticide when she can free range for a little while. It's safe if you let all the fumes go before you let her back in again.

My husband just let her out of the coop and I told him to look at her legs and he said they looked flaky. I was reading on that last night and several people talked about getting Ivomec. Have you ever heard of that? Supposedly you only need to treat once and it worms the chicken too. I'm not concerned about whether I can eat eggs while she's taking anything. I just want her to be healthy and happy.
It's in the 3rd and 4th thread of this link.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=33903
I use straw in the coop and it's not one I can walk in so it's hard to clean. I will have to find something to spray to get all the wood covered. Here's a picture of her coop.

I will be working on this today and I'll also be getting her some good food. She should be feeling better after I get this taken care of.
When I feed grit would I just throw it on the ground with the scratch or food that I'm going to be getting? I'll be getting some of that today too.

 

[riverpie]

Quote:
Thanks for the info. I found out I need to be giving grit too. I just threw a few handfuls of the Alfalfa on the ground to see if they ate it. They just pecked at it some but didn't seem to be that interested in it.

 

[chickenbaguette]

My husband just let her out of the coop and I told him to look at her legs and he said they looked flaky. I was reading on that last night and several people talked about getting Ivomec. Have you ever heard of that? Supposedly you only need to treat once and it worms the chicken too. I'm not concerned about whether I can eat eggs while she's taking anything. I just want her to be healthy and happy.
It's in the 3rd and 4th thread of this link.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=33903
I use straw in the coop and it's not one I can walk in so it's hard to clean. I will have to find something to spray to get all the wood covered. Here's a picture of her coop.

I will be working on this today and I'll also be getting her some good food. She should be feeling better after I get this taken care of.
When I feed grit would I just throw it on the ground with the scratch or food that I'm going to be getting? I'll be getting some of that today too.

IVOMEC
I've never used Ivomec, I prefer to make my own stuff or use what I've got already when it comes to scaly leg. I don't know what you'd do with it, you'll have to search on that yourself... But as I said, Verm-X is brilliant for worming. Artificial wormers which cause egg withdrawal aren't good for the chicken, and they will stress her quite a lot (hence the egg withdrawal). You don't need anything other than oil or vaseline for scaly leg. It works as well as any fancy product, you just have to make sure you remember to put it on.

However if you do have a problem with handling her and Ivomec does only need one dose, it might be better for you. But as I said I don't know

CLEANING THE COOP
Can you move that coop or is it fixed? If you can just move it to a new patch of ground that leaves the poo and worms behind.


GRIT
You could throw the grit on the ground - completely free range chickens just pick up stones from the ground. But since she's in that little coop I'd advise you to put it in a little pot - a plant pot or something, filled to the top, so she has it there all the time and knows where to find it. My Calder Rangers will come into their coop in the evening and guzzle the grit like it's food xD
And make sure you get the grit with the oyster shells in - for calcium, which she'll need to make egg shells.

She'll feel much better when she has grit and food, and she can start eating properly. Oh - make sure you get pellets or something if you can rather than powdery sprinkly commercial stuff with grit already in it. I don't know if that's common where you are, but that's what my big chickens were fed before we rescued them and it's awful stuff! They need to be able to take separate grit so they can control how much they have.


FEEDING
As a treat and to get her eating more, you can take a bit of food and pour hot water on it so it turns into a mush, add some oats (protein, good in winter), a little spoonful of plain yogurt, some sunflower or pumpkin seeds and a few raisins if she likes them. A teaspoon of linseed added to this helps with conditioning too. If you have some plain vitamin pills, grind one up and add a TINY bit as well. Just make sure it doesn't contain iron.
And all that's very good for a malnourished chicken

And again, good luck!!

 

[chickenbaguette]

For greens, too, you could chop a bunch of grass and put it on the floor. I'm not sure if she'd pick it up, they usually prefer to pick it from the ground, but it's worth a try. Just don't let it lay there and ferment.

 

[riverpie]

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I bought some Manna Pro chick grit today. It doesn't say anything about oyster shells. They had a separate bag of oyster shells but I just got the grit. I also bought some Manna Pro Poultry Protector which is all natural spray for mites but I really don't see how the active ingredient (Potassium Sorbate) would kill anything. It's mainly used as a food preservative but I sprayed her legs with it and gobbed vaseline on her legs while my husband held her. He caught her for me and held her and I did the rest. She ended up feeling it on her legs and pecked at it and ate some too. I hope it doesn't hurt her. It has 99.6% white petroleum and the rest is shea butter and fragrance. We put it on about 5 minutes before she bedded down. The heat from her nest tonight should help it melt down tonight. I got some Sevin spray for her coop too. We really can't move the coop. I wish we could. TSC didn't have wormer or the layer crumbles so I'll have to find that tomorrow. The only wormer I can find around here is Wazine. That's also the one that the Co-op carries too. I haven't opened the grit yet so if the oyster shells is better than grit, let me know and I can trade it out at the other TSC I go to tomorrow.
I got a small bag of alfalfa the other day but they eat greens when we let them out.
Here's a picture of her legs before I put the vaseline on her. I feel like a horrible mom to the chicken. I'm so glad you sent me those links yesterday.

BamaSilkies told me to be careful with the Alfalfa because they could get an impacted crop. I'm going to look up problems with crops. Will it kill them if they are impacted? I guess I can look that up too. As far as I know hers is fine but I forgot to feel it when he was holding her. She was wanting down real bad and he said he needed to let her down so maybe next time I can feel hers and see what it feels like. Maybe I need a book on chickens but there are so many to pick from at TSC.

 

[StormyMoon]

Ouchie , her feet do look rough.

Looks like your doing a good thing now though don't be so hard on your self.

Learning is all about experience if we don't fall we don't learn.

I have also been dealing with my flock of turds not laying eggs since end of summer but mine are free ranged 100% of the day.
They also get chopped vegies we have left over every day.

They love ends of green beans lol.......

We give cracked corn/sweet feed mix they eat the goats sweet feed any ways when we feed them.
I just used the wazine for de-worming we will see how it goes.

I can't figure it out but trial and error is the only way I know right now.
I am going to buy some shells maybe they need some calcium.

It was trauma of snakes, hawks, and a dog that seemed to be the start of my issues with them.
Now no eggs. But hopefully while I am working with them eggs will come back.

Keep your chin up.

 

[riverpie]

Quote:
Thank you. I hope your chicks get better. I feel just terrible though. I hate the thought of her suffering because of me. I was just looking back at the older pictures of her and her legs. She was attacked by a dog several times and a stray puppy actually had her in it's mouth one day this past summer. From what I was told he thought she was a toy. He was a large puppy. The neighbor saw it and saved her. We also had a stray turkey come here last year too and I was looking at those pictures to see if he might have infected her. At least I had help from other people that are knowledgeable with chickens on this site or I wouldn't be treating her now. I'm so glad I posted but I can't help but feel stupid for not realizing that something more was wrong with her. There's a lot to learn about chickens. Here's one of the pics of her I came across a while ago probably from this past summer. She is so cute with sweet eyes. She's not that sweet but she looks like she is.

Here's a pic of the stray turkey. I can't tell if he has leg mites or not though. I'm not sure what is normal.

 

[StormyMoon]

Quote:
Thank you. I hope your chicks get better. I feel just terrible though. I hate the thought of her suffering because of me. I was just looking back at the older pictures of her and her legs. She was attacked by a dog several times and a stray puppy actually had her in it's mouth one day this past summer. From what I was told he thought she was a toy. He was a large puppy. The neighbor saw it and saved her. We also had a stray turkey come here last year too and I was looking at those pictures to see if he might have infected her. At least I had help from other people that are knowledgeable with chickens on this site or I wouldn't be treating her now. I'm so glad I posted but I can't help but feel stupid for not realizing that something more was wrong with her. There's a lot to learn about chickens. Here's one of the pics of her I came across a while ago probably from this past summer. She is so cute with sweet eyes. She's not that sweet but she looks like she is.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/71296_cute_chickie.jpg

Here's a pic of the stray turkey. I can't tell if he has leg mites or not though. I'm not sure what is normal.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/71296_turkey_legs.jpg

I don't know anything about Turkeys , but I do know that when chickens are attacked it stresses them out big time.
The drought , the heat, the hawk, the dogs and the snake was probably enough to give them a heart attack but they made it.

Leg mites are not that hard to get rid of once you get the treatment going.
I just slap some vasoline on their legs and let them go but I don't gob it on cause well I did ok just once lmao the first time and everything they came in contact with
stuck to their legs well they caught a few goodies that way lol running through the grass bugs stuck to their legs.

But yea I now know to use it sparingly. I also worried about them slipping off things so I tried not getting it on the bottom of their feet.

The turkeys legs looked ok to me, I think it just happens some times that chickens get leg mites.

 

[Tracydr]

Quote:
I would wait to see what the fecal sample says. There is far too much parasite resistance in our country from improper, too frequent worming. Also, if he does find worms, make sure you worm with a full dose ( never a weak dose first despite what some recommend) and repeat in two weeks to get the larva. Otherwise, you simply promote resistance. Finally, ask the vet what he recommends for the area and possibly even see if the state vet has any recommendations for your state. Some states have local resistance that is much different than other areas.
I see so much worming recommend on here for every chicken that limps, poops or ruffles a feather wrong. Please, take a hint from the horse world. Parasite resistance is becoming a huge, huge problem. Now that worms have become resistant to ivermectin, they will probably soon be resistant to everything else in that class and there will really be nothing left for any of the worms which horses, cattle and other grazing livestock get. Worms were never supposed to become resistant to daily Strongid C and they most certainly did. They were never supposed to become resistant to ivermectin, it was said to be "impossible" because of the mechanism. Oh well.

 

[riverpie]

Quote:
Thank you. I hope your chicks get better. I feel just terrible though. I hate the thought of her suffering because of me. I was just looking back at the older pictures of her and her legs. She was attacked by a dog several times and a stray puppy actually had her in it's mouth one day this past summer. From what I was told he thought she was a toy. He was a large puppy. The neighbor saw it and saved her. We also had a stray turkey come here last year too and I was looking at those pictures to see if he might have infected her. At least I had help from other people that are knowledgeable with chickens on this site or I wouldn't be treating her now. I'm so glad I posted but I can't help but feel stupid for not realizing that something more was wrong with her. There's a lot to learn about chickens. Here's one of the pics of her I came across a while ago probably from this past summer. She is so cute with sweet eyes. She's not that sweet but she looks like she is.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/71296_cute_chickie.jpg

Here's a pic of the stray turkey. I can't tell if he has leg mites or not though. I'm not sure what is normal.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/71296_turkey_legs.jpg

I don't know anything about Turkeys , but I do know that when chickens are attacked it stresses them out big time.
The drought , the heat, the hawk, the dogs and the snake was probably enough to give them a heart attack but they made it.

Leg mites are not that hard to get rid of once you get the treatment going.
I just slap some vasoline on their legs and let them go but I don't gob it on cause well I did ok just once lmao the first time and everything they came in contact with
stuck to their legs well they caught a few goodies that way lol running through the grass bugs stuck to their legs.

But yea I now know to use it sparingly. I also worried about them slipping off things so I tried not getting it on the bottom of their feet.

The turkeys legs looked ok to me, I think it just happens some times that chickens get leg mites.

Yeah, I've read the chickens with the feathered legs are more prone to it too. I didn't use it sparingly and she ate some. Mine actually doesn't use her perch to sleep on so I don't really worry about her slipping off the perch. She sleeps in her nesting box but it's surrounded by wood so it's safer for her at night. She also quit pooping in it about the time she quit laying eggs too so it's not a problem for me. Hopefully I don't find out that her not pooping in her nesting area is another symptom of another problem.
I'm thinking about dunking her legs in cooking oil too before nighttime. It seems like it would be easier to get in the crevices good.