Skinny Chickens

[Lollipop]

Maybe you`re using the wrong kind of wormer. I don`t usually recomend vets, but a fecal test may prove benneficial. Tape worm comes to mind and common wormers won`t touch them. Also, most wormers require a follow up in 10 days to kill the hatchlings. You didn`t mention doing the follow up. Most of the other reccomendations here have merrit. Good luck and Merry Christmas.......Pop

 

[Harri71]

The wormer was given via their food for 10 days, it comes built into a particular pellet that you use instead of their normal feed.

Poultry Spice is a supplement that is added to the feed (1 teaspoon per 5 hens per day) it contains calcium 24%, protein 5% & other minerals was recommended by my vets after we lost the legbar.

All of them are skinny but only Mrs Speckledy has a runny nose (hence the baytril), she had improved after the initial course, about 2 weeks ago, but has gone downhill again.

Will just have to keep trying to find things they like (maybe the cat food & rice mix as they won't eat the cat food alone) & hope they don't lose too much more weight. My bathroom is too small to have all 5 living in there!

 

[stormylady]

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From what I understand from reading on here, chickens don't get colds like us, so did the vet say what was causing her runny nose?

 

[Ksane]

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They needed a follow-up deworming 10 days after the original one in order to kill the worms eggs that hatch. The wormer doesn't kill the eggs, just adult worms.
Throwing the best food in the world at them does nothing if you don't follow up on the de-worming, it just puts you back at square 1. Deworm again, then in 10 days-again. Then to be on the safe side (since it sounds like they're heavily infested) do it a 3rd time 10 days later.
Edit-just read how you dewormed them. It's doubtful they got enough of the dewormed in them through food (especially since you were feeing the other stuff). Why didn't your vet just give you the dewormer and have you dose them individually?

 

[Harri71]

as to the worming situation:

The worming food I used doesn't need follow up, it is specifically designed as a 10 day course of feed, which has been fully consumed, as prescribed by both my vet & the farm from which I bought by chickens, they are only available in the UK with a vets prescription. Manufacturers description below.

A highly palatable feed with 17% protein, and also a complete medicated compound for laying hens. It acts as a
10 day wormer for all poultry and is effective against gapeworm, large roundworm, caecal worm, hairworm and gizzard
worm. 1.2kg of Flubenvet medicated pre-mixture added per tonne, gives 30mg/kg Flubendazole in the finished feed
as a broad spectrum anthelminti.

But the good news is, that I have mixed cat food, with growers pellets, with the seed mix scatter & suet pellets & Mrs speckledy is wolfing it down

Edit - Ksane, whilst de worming, I only fed the deworming pellets, as instructed by the vets. Did it that way as was advised by both vet & farm from which we got the chickens that it was the easiest way. was done when we lost our original chicken about 4 weeks ago & when Mrs Speckledy became ill she was checked for worms - it's not the reason they are losing weight.

 

[stormylady]

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Yah, glad to here she is eating it.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

It sounds like the de-worming part is fine....

It does sound like there is something else going on though.

Have you de-liced and de-mited?

How old are they? Could they have cocci?

 

[Ksane]

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Flubenvet kills gapeworm, large roundworm, caecal worm, hairworm, and gizzard worm. Last I checked there were a lot more intestinal parasites in chickens than those. So don't just "assume" they don't have any kind of worms at all because you wormed them with 1 single kind of wormer.
Some fecal tests require a smear and others require flotation. A single sample from 1 chicken won't always give you a complete answer.
Good luck though.

 

[Harri71]

She's lost another 100g so back to the vets today.

Vet says there is no apparent reason for the weight loss & they can't really do much more unless she dies & then they can do a post mortum. Think that might just happen, have just weighed her again & she has lost another 50g since this morning.

 

[Ksane]

You know......I lost 4 chickens (4-5 mo old) this past summer to an e. coli infection, same exact symptoms. E. coli manifests itself in different ways, intestinal/loose stools, airsaculitis/respiratory infection and also organ failure (usually liver). Statistics say 80% of birds just shake it off, most affected are relatively young (under a year) although any age can be affected. The other 20% basically fade and die. We fought like crazy to save the ones we could and once the vet told us what we were most likely dealing with we were able to run and pick up the week's worth of injections with just a phone call. That way if anyone started showing signs I could start the injections immediately. He gave me extra to have on hand. There's no 'real' test. Because literally 100% of stool samples sent off for culture are GOING to show e.coli. That's a given because the bacteria is in ALL feces. It's when it invades their system for one reason or another and they can't fight it off that you have problems. Or a particularly virulent strain.
What my vet gave was injections of Excenel (Canada has it), Vitamin B & Dexamethasone. The 4 I lost we didn't catch in time because at 1st I didn't get them to the vet in time because I didn't know what was going on and they were sick too long to get better. But all the ones we started treatment on ASAP are still alive today. I hate to say it but the ones I had who got to the point of serious weight loss like yours didn't make it.
I don't know if this info will help you or not, but there it is.
Edit: the only way they can diagnose it on necropsy is to culture different organs to see if the e.coli is present in organs that normally don't have it in them. Like the liver or air sacs. I'm just telling you what the vet told me.