Sores on Cornish

[cheraboo]

The kids are raising Cornish for 4H. Fair cannot come soon enough this year

Anyway, today was our day to care for the 4H chickens at the farm. We have broilers and Cornish together as we always do every year with no problems. Today we found a problem. It started sometime in the past week, not sure when. Here is a photo:



We have approximately 25 Cornish and all but two of them have the same type of sore on it - just not as big as this one. The broilers are not affected at all.

The broilers are 4 weeks old and the Cornish are 2 weeks old now. They all get along just fine - no fighting or anything. We took the Cornish to our house and have them separated from our other birds, figuring we could keep a better eye on them and keep the broilers from catching whatever it might be.

The chicks are eating starter feed and have plenty of food and water. The heat lamp is suspended, so there's no way they could have burned themselves on that. The sores are not bleeding or oozing at all. For the most part the chicks seem to be acting normally. I did hear one that sounded a little congested when I picked it up. A couple of them appear to have trouble walking - they kind of stumble a little.

I called the store we got the birds from (where all of the birds for the 4Her's in the county are purchased every year) and no one else has had any trouble. A couple of families in our club opted to raise their birds at home this year and their birds are just fine. I am completely at a loss.

I'm hoping someone might have an idea as to what this could be. I'm also wondering if it would be ok to put bag balm or something over the sores to help them *hopefully* heal and keep the gnats away from them.

 

[cassie]

Could the bedding be dirty? I'd add more shavings.

 

[cheraboo]

Bedding is good. They've been enclosed with shavings down. I've got them outside with heat lamp so we'll see if that makes any difference.

 

[al6517]

Can you resize the pic so we can see a little better.

AL

 

[cheraboo]

Let's see if this is any better -

The skin can be pulled back a little bit around the edges of the sore. There are little gnats flying around so I'm thinking of putting some bag balm on the sores. Do you think that would be ok?

 

[cheraboo]

Got another birds on its way out

We went ahead and put bag balm on the sores. Haven't had any luck finding a vet that works with poultry. I know these are not valuable birds by any means but it's important to the kids. I hate not knowing what to do

 

[Appaloosa Hill Farm]

I'm sorry, I wish I knew something that would help! Have you asked this over in the Meat Bird forum? Maybe those who raise them often will know what this is?

 

[cheraboo]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a try

 

[threehorses]

When you treat the sores, you should try using neosporin as it has antibacterial activity. As for gnats, make sure no flies get on those wounds as they will "blow" them and then you'll have maggots. You might try getting a nice dry-wound dressing for them. Honestly, I wouldn't recommend blue-cote or scarlet oil as I feel the color difference might be too attractive to pecking.

Here's a wild-card thought. Are they using a feeder that is metal that maybe the babies are getting into? I've seen chicks get into their feeders. If they got into metal ones, they could cut their backs.

I agree to raise them separately. The older they get, the bigger the difference of 2 weeks is going to be. I know it's a pain, but I would still do it.

How many of those do you have like that?

Otherwise, he looks like a good stocky little baby. I'd really like to see you and the kids have success raising them up. I'm also hoping that the stumbling was just maybe that they weren't getting enough feed. Pick each one up, feel who's light weight, make sure they all are eating a lot. You can boost their food usage by using probiotics weekly. Probios brand powder from the feedstore is my favorite. But you could also use a little plain yogurt mixed into a damp mash. You'd use Probios in the damp mash, too - not in the water despite labeling.

There are some forms of contagious skin sores that broilers can get - but usually not this young, and really this doesn't seem quite like it.

I'd keep a good eye on that congested bird - consider getting something like Tylan of LS50 to keep in your cabinet in case of illness. You could even get terramycin or another package antibiotic from the feedstore though I'm not a big fan of them. And VetRx is another good thing to have around - it helps with congestion, doesn't treat the cause though. It lasts ages, is highly economical, really helps them get the air in. You can use rabbit if they don't have chicken VetRx. Or Marshall Pet's Peter Rabbit Rx from petstores. (It's the same formulation as VetRx).