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

[chickadee101]

the one that is sick who i love so much is the hen as my avatar...

 

[casportpony]

i lost one out of the 3, this morning, but i installed a heat lamp and put a bin on iot's side with hay in it, with the heat light hanging in front of the bin, i also gave each one 50mg of tylan 50 again... i'm trying my hardest hoping for the best...

They need to be indoors where it's warm!

 

[casportpony]

Read this, please!
http://www.harrisonsbirdfoods.com/avmed/cam/07_emergency_and_critical_care.pdf

 

[casportpony]

And stop feeding them garlic!​

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Onions, Garlic & Birds

Learn about the characteristics of these two foods that make them potentially dangerous for birds

By Margaret A. Wissman, DVM, DABVP, Avian Practice

9
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Garlic and onions do not contain any nutrients vital to pet bird health.​

Onions, garlic and chives are all in the Lily family, Liliaceae. Onions are of the genus Allium, and the true onion is Allium cepa, Allium cernuum, is the wild onion, the shallot is Allium ascalonicum, and the green onion (or leek) is Allium ampeloprasm. Garlic is also in the Lily family, Liliaceae, and is related to onions and has similar chemical characteristics.

Onions, whether cooked, raw or dehydrated, contain sulfur compounds that, when chewed, are hydrolyzed to thisulfinates. Thiosulfinates decompose to a number of disulfides, including dipropenyl disulfide (or n-propyl disulfide), which appears to be the most toxic disulfide. These disulfides are oxidizing agents that can cause hemolysis or a rupture of red blood cells.

The toxicity of onions is based on their disulfide concentration, which is increased when they are grown in soil high in sulfur. Sulfur is a widely distributed element found in abundance in the soil in both free and combined states.

In addition to the compounds found in these plants that cause red blood cells to rupture, resulting in anemia, they can also cause irritation to the mouth, esophagus and crop, and can cause ulcers, although this damage is probably more severe in mammals.

The sulfur compounds found in these plants cause red blood cells to rupture in animals, and dogs, cats and cattle seem particularly sensitive to this problem. Because birds have nucleated red blood cells, and mammals do not, it is thought that this somewhat protects them from the affects of Heinz body hemolysis. Heinz bodies are pieces of oxidized hemoglobin that are found on still-intact red blood cells (RBCs). If enough RBCs are ruptured from the ingestion of these compounds found in onions and garlic, this will result in anemia. Red blood cells are responsible for carrying oxygen to the tissues and for removing carbon dioxide, as well. As the number of RBCs decreases, the animal becomes weaker, and the gums and tissues also become pale.

The good news is that the red cells can be replaced by the body as long as the hemolysis stops. In dogs, it takes several days for the red cell count to reach the lowest point after a single large exposure. In chronic exposure at low doses, the anemic effect is lessened because RBCs, also called erythrocytes, are being regenerated as they are being destroyed.

Allicin, which gives garlic its odor, is also a strong oxidant. In rare cases, this chemical can be dangerous and can cause Heinz body hemolytic anemia, as well.

Although I have not seen any scientific studies performed on any avian species, there is the chance that disulfides could also cause this Heinz body hemolytic anemia in birds. For that reason, I feel that is unnecessary and potentially dangerous to feed birds onions, leeks, garlic or chives, as they don't contain any nutrients that are vital for the health of our pet birds that cannot be found in other food items. Why take the

 

[chickadee101]

I KNOW! but my family won't allow it... if i could I MOST CERTAINLY WOULD! it would rise the chance of them living...

 

[rbaker0345]

Neither of the articles on Kale or Garlic indicate what amounts are toxic. Anything that you feed your chickens should be balanced.
Remember this too, all herbal remedies work due to chemicals in the herbs. Willow bark contains salicylic acid. This can be combined with acetic acid to make a compound called acetisalicylic acid which in low doses can prevent heart attack, alleviate pain or lower a fever. In high doses, this compound can cause severe bleeding and G.I. ulceration. That compound is called aspirin.

When you are giving your birds something to treat them for illness, remember to go lightly. There is a line between helpful and harmful when it comes to the chemicals produced by plants. Always remember that just because it is an herbal remedy doesn't mean that it can be given with abandon.

I feed my birds kale and olive oil and garlic when they are sick. I give them some, not a ton.

 

[Yazzo]

@ casportpony I recommend reading up on it a bit more before trusting one article saying garlic is bad. As I have said before, you have to use it RIGHT. For that, I really recommend reading a book like "The Healing Power of Garlic" (I'm not trying to promote this book or anything, but it is the best I know on the subject). It does deal with humans mostly, but goes into a LOT more, scientific depth about what effects garlic has, and how to use it right. I have been feeding it to my chickens for a long time now (not in prolonged periods as that can cause dryness and possible burning and irritation) with nothing but good effects. Do a LOT of research when it comes to medical, and especially natural treatments, as there are often contradictory articles, and plenty of biased research paid for by drug companies. Herbal stuff tend to be more experimental and not a ton of research is done with it, as it's not nearly as profitable as synthetic drugs, so sometimes you have to experiment a bit yourself, as long as it's safe. Anyways, this is just what I do with my chickens, and in my experience it has been extremely helpful, and saved my chicken's lives on more than one occasion. Just passing on the knowledge. People with pigeons also use garlic to good effect: http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/f5/the-goodness-of-garlic-12553.html

I KNOW! but my family won't allow it... if i could I MOST CERTAINLY WOULD! it would rise the chance of them living...

How cold is it where you live? If it's warm enough during the day but gets pretty cold at night, you could bring them indoors for the night, just in a cage or pet taxi, if your family would allow it. Either way, as long as they're kept warm. Careful with that heat lamp though...I'd keep a very close eye on it if it's near hay. Also, your pictures of Clementine make me wanna pick her up and give her a hug...hope she and the others get better soon!

When you are giving your birds something to treat them for illness, remember to go lightly. There is a line between helpful and harmful when it comes to the chemicals produced by plants. Always remember that just because it is an herbal remedy doesn't mean that it can be given with abandon.

True. That's also why it's really important to learn as much as possible on natural treatments, preferably from EXPERTS on the subject, not just any old internet article. Most herbs are a lot more complex to use right than just popping a pill, and are made even more complex by how they interact with each other. However, garlic is quite hard to OD on, as it will just pass through their system, and when I had a hen with a severe bacterial infection, I was told to feed her a LOT of garlic by a herbalist I know (3 cloves per day!), which I thought was a bit much, but it didn't do any harm, and her horrible infection was gone within two days. One clove a day should be fine for these hens, two won't do any harm, but they shouldn't be fed garlic everyday for too many days I a row I think. In humans, that can cause some minor problems, dunno about in chickens, that's why this treatment is still experimental.

 

[casportpony]

@ casportpony I recommend reading up on it a bit more before trusting one article saying garlic is bad. As I have said before, you have to use it RIGHT. For that, I really recommend reading a book like "The Healing Power of Garlic" (I'm not trying to promote this book or anything, but it is the best I know on the subject). It does deal with humans mostly, but goes into a LOT more, scientific depth about what effects garlic has, and how to use it right. I have been feeding it to my chickens for a long time now (not in prolonged periods as that can cause dryness and possible burning and irritation) with nothing but good effects. Do a LOT of research when it comes to medical, and especially natural treatments, as there are often contradictory articles, and plenty of biased research paid for by drug companies. Herbal stuff tend to be more experimental and not a ton of research is done with it, as it's not nearly as profitable as synthetic drugs, so sometimes you have to experiment a bit yourself, as long as it's safe.

Anyways, this is just what I do with my chickens, and in my experience it has been extremely helpful, and saved my chicken's lives on more than one occasion. Just passing on the knowledge. People with pigeons also use garlic to good effect: http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/f5/the-goodness-of-garlic-12553.html
How cold is it where you live? If it's warm enough during the day but gets pretty cold at night, you could bring them indoors for the night, just in a cage or pet taxi, if your family would allow it. Either way, as long as they're kept warm. Careful with that heat lamp though...I'd keep a very close eye on it if it's near hay.

Also, your pictures of Clementine make me wanna pick her up and give her a hug...hope she and the others get better soon!

Yazzo, please show me an article written by an avian veterinarian and I'll back off... She gave her birds garlic and two died, or did I read something wrong?

 

[casportpony]

I have said all I can on this thread, hope your surving bird(s) survive.

 

[Yazzo]

Yazzo, please show me an article written by an avian veterinarian and I'll back off... She gave her birds garlic and two died, or did I read something wrong?

The hens were already in critical condition from the sounds of it, so it's impossible to say exactly what they died from without having a complete assessment. However, even if the garlic does have some ill effects on birds, the compounds that cause ill effects are likely to be quite slow acting, and caused by prolonged, and probably excessive exposure, and almost certainly would NOT result in death, unless it for some reason garlic would have a severe reaction with whatever condition the chickens have.

Whatever the case, they almost certainly didn't die from garlic, but without a postmortem examination, there's no way to say exactly what they died from. As I said before, they probably need some really powerful, fast-acting drugs at this point. Garlic isn't going to be fast enough for this case (and may not be effective depending on what they have). However, it's good knowledge to share, especially to use as a preventive treatment to keep your hens healthy. It's also, from what I can tell, a very safe treatment to try, much safer than trying powerful drugs unless they're absolutely necessary, which may be the case here.

Anyways, that aside, I would try the antibiotics suggested by others, and you should probably take at least one hen to the vet to get her diagnosed, pronto. You'll regret losing a pet you love much more than you'll regret spending the money having her looked at.