Sick chickens

[abooot99]

I have a Polish and a naked neck that I have been with me for five years plus. I have six birds total but in referring to my two that I mentioned first they're acting weird lethargic puffed up feathers and not foraging as much they're kept in a large enclosure they have a coop that's draft free I have poop boards that I cleaned regularly and have not noticed anything unusual and I just did I dusted them t a week ago for lice which wasn't very heavy on them using diatomaceous earth. They have constant access to fresh water and they're getting layer crumble they don't have any obvious respiratory illness but they look kind of miserable. I have rooster booster triple action warmer that I mixed up with their food and I'm going to give it for five days. What else should I be doing? I've had chickens for five or six years and I end up getting an occasional infrequent sick bird and I'm always perplexed if you look at my last posts in the past usually it's trips to the vet and lots and lots of money which I've decided to hold back on doing this time around as money is tight at the moment. Advice? Thank you.

 

[ChickenPox]

When was the last time they were dewormed with a commercial dewormer? I have found that DE and other "natural" wormers flat out just don't work. On chickens or otherwise.

 

[abooot99]

This is where I'm confused I don't know whether I should routinely warm them or if I should do it only if they're ill but often times as you all know birds hide it so well that when they're ill there and showing symptoms they are very very ill.. So can you give me an idea of what I should do for a routine deworming? I know there's tons of threads but I've been looking to death and then I get overwhelmed with so many options and things that people do. I'm using the rooster booster triple D warmer right now in their food per the instructions for five days what else should I do?

 

[BayBay Peepers]

I think regular worming is a good option. I personally use safeguard liquid wormer for goats. Every time I've had a fecal done so far they've come up clean. Every spring and fall would be a good idea.

As for other things you could do as well as worming you could try some vitamins. Vitamin e with selenium is good, electrolytes in the water, poly vi sol without iron, and even a little gatorade in the water.

You could also try feeding them some scrambled eggs or yogurt for protein and pro-biotics.

 

[cafarmgirl]

This is where I'm confused I don't know whether I should routinely warm them or if I should do it only if they're ill but often times as you all know birds hide it so well that when they're ill there and showing symptoms they are very very ill.. So can you give me an idea of what I should do for a routine deworming? I know there's tons of threads but I've been looking to death and then I get overwhelmed with so many options and things that people do. I'm using the rooster booster triple D warmer right now in their food per the instructions for five days what else should I do?

The problem with using wormer in the feed is you never really know how much of it they are getting, it's a pretty imprecise way to deworm. I would get some Valbazen or liquid Safeguard goat wormer and dose each bird directly. 1/2 cc per standard size bird, repeat in 10 days. Then you know each bird got exactly what it needs to get the job done.

As far as how often to deworm? Personal choice. In my experience chickens get worms, plain and simple. So I deworm twice a year to stay on top of things. How often you deworm should be based on your climate. I would never suggest to wait until birds are visibly run down and ill because then you have to figure out if the problem is worms or something else and if it's worms they've got a heavy load and all the internal damage they cause. Far better to just prevent that situation from occurring in the first place. But that is my own opinion based on my own years of keeping chickens. Other people feel different.

 

[abooot99]

If I were to you safeguard what is the length of time for egg withdrawal?

 

[BayBay Peepers]

10 days is usually safe enough.

 

[abooot99]

Thank you thank you

 

[BayBay Peepers]

I hope it all works out. Keep us updated if you can

 

[abooot99]

I just got safeguard horse paste they didn't have a small one for goats. Is the dose same?