spring fever....literally! MY HENS HAVE A COLD HELP!

[chickadee101]

yeah like five of them have it! they sneeze, weaze, and they have bubbly foam coming from their eyes! usually = cold. anything i can do? i know it CAN be fatal if their immune system isn't strong enough...

 

[Yazzo]

I feel like I'm putting this advice everywhere anymore but...that's good I suppose. The FIRST thing I would personally do, would be to feed them garlic. It has amazing healing properties, and I've just begun to see how amazing it can be. It's a very powerful natural antibiotic, almost impossible to OD on, and so far it's cured various ailments in my chickens, and me (including Lyme disease!). It's also a really good preventive treatment and they probably would not have gotten sick if they would have had garlic beforehand, or something like echinacea (which is expensive and not as effective in my experience, unless you use it in a very specific way).

One thing I've discovered is that for chickens, do NOT crush or cut up the garlic. Normally, for humans, it has to be crushed for it to work, thus you have to chew it, but with a chicken, their gizzard takes care of this, which is brilliant as it saves their crops from being burned (though as long as they have SOME food in their crops, that shouldn't happen, and doesn't seem to even when their crops are empty). It's extremely easy to feed them whole, raw garlic: some chickens will just eat it themselves, otherwise just open up their beak, put a clove far enough back, and let go. They will almost always swallow it.

I would suggest one or two cloves each day, for each hen, until their symptoms clear up. Of course, they also need to have a dry, relatively warm place to shelter. Keeping it clean also helps, and just making sure they are taken care of in other ways (less-stress, healthy diet, etc), will of course help.

You can store cloves of peeled garlic in a jar of vinegar (NOT oil, as botulism can occur in oil), in the fridge, or just feed them fresh garlic. Powdered or cooked garlic will NOT work.

Anyways, this is exactly what I would, and have done, and I hope you find it helpful, and I really hope your hens get better soon!

*sends some good luck their way*

 

[chickadee101]

wow this sounds very helpful!

mine are already on the roost, but i will be cutting some garlic to give to them IMMEDIATELY tomorrow! thank you very much! but, one thing, is it ok to give them a segment of the whole garlic? or should i cut it up a little smaller? because i don't have like BIG chickens, i have a lot of bantams and medium sized chickens and it might choke them... just wondering, since you said it works well and you've done it before, you should know!

 

[dawg53]

wow this sounds very helpful!

mine are already on the roost, but i will be cutting some garlic to give to them IMMEDIATELY tomorrow! thank you very much! but, one thing, is it ok to give them a segment of the whole garlic? or should i cut it up a little smaller? because i don't have like BIG chickens, i have a lot of bantams and medium sized chickens and it might choke them... just wondering, since you said it works well and you've done it before, you should know!

If the organics dont work for you, purchase tylan 50 injectable at your feed store. You'll need a syringe to withdraw the tylan from the bottle. You can give the tylan orally, dosage is 1/2cc given orally to standard size birds, 1/4cc for smaller birds once a day for 5-7 days. No longer than 7 days.

 

[chickadee101]

oh no, i used the garlic and they ate it! even the big pieces didn't get stuck in their throat. thank you so much, my chickens are worse now and are likely to die though... i'm putting all hope in the garlic! btw, how many pieces should i give each chicken?

 

[dawg53]

oh no, i used the garlic and they ate it! even the big pieces didn't get stuck in their throat. thank you so much, my chickens are worse now and are likely to die though... i'm putting all hope in the garlic! btw, how many pieces should i give each chicken?

You've used the garlic and now your chickens are worse, and are likely to die......AND YOU'RE PUTTING ALL HOPE IN THE GARLIC????
See post #4.

 

[realsis]

please use tylan 50 its wonderful for respiratory illness! as said in post 4 for dose BTW you can get it at the feed store with syringe! you can inject at nape of neck or better breast muscle. this is a chance to help them if you have never injected watch YouTube video on injecting chickens with tylan. its a tutorial but time is of essence here do it asap please and in a few days you will see improvements. inject once a day for 5 to 7 days. this is urgent please pick up the tylan. its not costly and you will find it in cattle and swine area.don't worry bottle says for cattle and swine! many many poultry owners use it myself included its wonderful and packs a big punch on respiratory illness.you can do the injection its much easier than you think. first time is always nerving but your chickens really need it.time to break out the big guns so to speak
tylan will be helpful!

 

[chickadee101]

i will, everyone i found out what it is, infectious coryza. i will try tylan 50, or baytril. which is better? i am trying to give them garlic and i put some in their water and seperated the three sick chickens from the rest of my flock. i am horrified, and don't know what to do

 

[dawg53]

i will, everyone i found out what it is, infectious coryza. i will try tylan 50, or baytril. which is better? i am trying to give them garlic and i put some in their water and seperated the three sick chickens from the rest of my flock. i am horrified, and don't know what to do

Here's a link for you: Scroll down to Infectious Coryza. I recommend that you cull sick birds. You'll be glad in the long run.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 

[casportpony]

i will, everyone i found out what it is, infectious coryza. i will try tylan 50, or baytril. which is better? i am trying to give them garlic and i put some in their water and seperated the three sick chickens from the rest of my flock. i am horrified, and don't know what to do

I would try the Tylan first, Baytril is banned for use in food animals in the US.