Silkie thread!

[Suzierd]

I called them yesterday.  they're way up north.  she gave me some numbers of people who 'might' be able to help me.  But, my kids already buried the chickens.  I could dig them up if I really needed to.  But I'm going to look into this whole parasite thing first.

I wouldn't think they would be any good for necropsy now your suppose to refrigerate them and get them sent out as soon as possible.
It's the seeds of the pumpkin that helps with worms. And if yours are that bad off I would treat with medicine. Dawg53 is the worm expert you could PM him and see what he thinks.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/u/19157/dawg53

 

[sheeshshe]

Their legs will look crusty.
Though since they are so young, this may not be the case at all.
I do think it's either parasitic, or something to do with eating spoiled feed or something they got into.
Do they go through your compost pile?

Just checked out the legs, the legs look normal to me.

The large fowl ones go into the compst pile every now and again. I don't let them out to wander the yard very often lately since it is cold and I"m not out there. I usually only let them out if we can watch them and make sure they don't go to the neighbors But, they did go out there last week and they did go into the compost pile. But the silkies did not. I don't normally allow them to wander because I'm paranoid about hawks

I called the feed company about the weird looking food. But, even if it was that, that wouldn't explain the silkies either bc they have different food. the feed company is having me drop off a sample to one of their retailers, who will get it back to them in a couple of days. They're also providing me a free bag of food for doing it LOL. nice!

I'm really leaning towards parasites at this point. I have to drop that food off at the feed store anyway today and I don't like driving out that way more than once, so I'd like to pick up some wormer while I'm there. Which is best? they don't have any of the valbazen, I called. they said they have the ivermectin. I don't know if they have safeguard or what. the one time I got some from them, they handed me a bag of pellets and said to give them 5 pellets each or somethng like that.

 

[sheeshshe]

thank you, I'll send a PM. nothing else makes sense at this point. anemia, lethargy, and wasting. no other symptoms.

 

[aoxa]

Their legs will look crusty.

Though since they are so young, this may not be the case at all.

I do think it's either parasitic, or something to do with eating spoiled feed or something they got into.

Do they go through your compost pile?

Just checked out the legs, the legs look normal to me.  

The large fowl ones go into the compst pile every now and again.  I don't let them out to wander the yard very often lately since it is cold and I"m not out there.  I usually only let them out if we can watch them and make sure they don't go to the neighbors  But, they did go out there last week and they did go into the compost pile.  But the silkies did not.  I don't normally allow them to wander because I'm paranoid about hawks  

I called the feed company about the weird looking food.  But, even if it was that, that wouldn't explain the silkies either bc they have different food.  the feed company is having me drop off a sample to one of their retailers, who will get it back to them in a couple of days.  They're also providing me a free bag of food for doing it LOL.  nice!  

I'm really leaning towards parasites at this point.  I have to drop that food off at the feed store anyway today and I don't like driving out that way more than once, so I'd like to pick up some wormer while I'm there.  Which is best?  they don't have any of the valbazen, I called.  they said they have the ivermectin.  I don't know if they have safeguard or what.  the one time I got some from them, they handed me a bag of pellets and said to give them 5 pellets each or somethng like that.

I can't help you on which wormer to use. All we have available at our feed store is Piperzine.

With their weight.. I'm thinking they do have worms. At this point they have an overload, and pumpkins and ACV won't cure it. After you worm them, provide an inhospitable environment for those parasites by putting ACV in their water, and feeding them pumpkins every now and then.

That's great that they are replacing the food. I didn't hear you say before that their food looked weird.

I would not buy pellets for silkies. I've witnessed one choke on them. I caught it and massaged it down. Since I started fermenting my feed, I don't have to worry about that.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: One thing is that being as low on the predation heirarchy as they are, chickens who are becoming ill mask their symptoms for as long as they can, and when they do start showing signs of illness, they are usually already very ill.

 

[sheeshshe]

I can't help you on which wormer to use. All we have available at our feed store is Piperzine.
With their weight.. I'm thinking they do have worms. At this point they have an overload, and pumpkins and ACV won't cure it. After you worm them, provide an inhospitable environment for those parasites by putting ACV in their water, and feeding them pumpkins every now and then.
That's great that they are replacing the food. I didn't hear you say before that their food looked weird.
I would not buy pellets for silkies. I've witnessed one choke on them. I caught it and massaged it down. Since I started fermenting my feed, I don't have to worry about that.

the food thing was yesterdays talk I think,, at least I think I mentioned it here, maybe I just talked about it on FB or something. IDK! it looked weird, there were grey pellets in it and cracked corn pieces. it wasn't all golden colored like normal. they said that it was due to changing runs of the food, but they want to be 100% sure so they want me to send the sample.

Now I read that an overload can jam up the system if the worms all die at once?? is there any way to prevent that??

I was using just the chick feed for a long time but I asked and was told that the grower one was ok and it wasn't too big for them, I questioned that. should I change back to the chick starter?

I ordered the Bragg's ACV the other day, I oredered it instead of got it in the store bc I wanted to help boost the amount of products to get the free shipping minimum that was going on. so it will be here in a few days.

 

[sheeshshe]

Ok, so I'm thinking... how do I kill any eggs in my run area? wont' they just get them again if it is in the soil?

 

[aoxa]

I can't help you on which wormer to use. All we have available at our feed store is Piperzine.

With their weight.. I'm thinking they do have worms. At this point they have an overload, and pumpkins and ACV won't cure it. After you worm them, provide an inhospitable environment for those parasites by putting ACV in their water, and feeding them pumpkins every now and then.

That's great that they are replacing the food. I didn't hear you say before that their food looked weird.

I would not buy pellets for silkies. I've witnessed one choke on them. I caught it and massaged it down. Since I started fermenting my feed, I don't have to worry about that.

the food thing was yesterdays talk I think,, at least I think I mentioned it here, maybe I just talked about it on FB or something.  IDK!  it looked weird, there were grey pellets in it and cracked corn pieces.  it wasn't all golden colored like normal.  they said that it was due to changing runs of the food, but they want to be 100% sure so they want me to send the sample.

Now I read that an overload can jam up the system if the worms all die at once??  is there any way to prevent that??  

I was using just the chick feed for a long time but I asked and was told that the grower one was ok and it wasn't too big for them, I questioned that.  should I change back to the chick starter?  

I ordered the Bragg's ACV the other day, I oredered it instead of got it in the store bc I wanted to help boost the amount of products to get the free shipping minimum that was going on.  so it will be here in a few days.  

I wouldn't worry about the dead worms clogging their systems. I can't imagine that being common.

Grower is fine. Just stick to crumbles though if you can help it. Pellets are quite large for little bantam throats. The one that choked was 10 weeks old, but still.. I'd rather not risk it.

That food sounds bad by the description. Grey is not a good sign.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: I can't help you on which wormer to use. All we have available at our feed store is Piperzine.

With their weight.. I'm thinking they do have worms. At this point they have an overload, and pumpkins and ACV won't cure it. After you worm them, provide an inhospitable environment for those parasites by putting ACV in their water, and feeding them pumpkins every now and then.

That's great that they are replacing the food. I didn't hear you say before that their food looked weird.

I would not buy pellets for silkies. I've witnessed one choke on them. I caught it and massaged it down. Since I started fermenting my feed, I don't have to worry about that.
I didn't see anything about weird looking feed, either. Can you describe it? Does it look or smell moldy?

You don;t need to get a wormer specifically for chickens. The horse, cattle, or dog wormers will work just fine. Horse wormers come in a large tube, and you give a small amount. Hard to come up with a specific. Dog wormers are a little easier. Ivermectin is the cattle wormer I use, and while I have heard of issues if you use it when ther is a worm overload, I personally have not had that problem. I use about a third to a full ml of pour-on, depending on the size of the bird. On largefowl I have used more. I use a one or three ml syringe and put the ivermectin on the skin in their wingpit.

 

[sheeshshe]

OK, I think I'll try the ivermectin, is it expensive?

I must have just posted about the feed on FB. One of my friends asked if there was something wrong with the food and I told her the color was weird. the food didn't smell weird, it just had some grey pellets mixed in and the regular gold color. he said what happens is that sometimes the feed will go through the machine twice at the end of a run/beginning of a new one or something like that and a couple of bags will have over cooked food, which doesn't effect it in any way, so he says.