St. John's Wort

[chicknmania]

Kelleykel, I'm glad the information was useful to you. Sorry for your losses, but celebrate your victories! Unfortunately, that's the way it is with poultry...win some, lose some, and learn all the time.

 

[chooks4life]

Hello KelleyKel1032, and:

Great to hear of your results. Hope your flock goes from strength to strength!

Best wishes.

Peaches has appeared to make a full recovery.

She returned to the flock three weeks ago. I picked her up today and she has gained substantial weight, and appears quite happy.. Unfortunately, one of her sisters turned up dead lame today. Nothing to see so I'm afraid it's the onset of Marek's for this one too. We culled Peaches' brother a couple of weeks ago, he was dead lame also. This is bad. I'm going to start Peach's sister (Boo) on Hypericum tomorrow, I have to go get some more.

Great to hear this too!

Interesting her brother went lame, I'd always heard cockerels were usually the least affected. Must be a pretty weak family line?

Good luck with Boo, here's hoping for another success.

Best wishes.

 

[chicknmania]

Thank you. It was a brood of eight....five pullets, three cockerels. The cockerel who died was the smallest of the three cockerels. He started out the exact same way, just dead lame, nothing else to see, but he declined from there. The remaining two cockerels and other two pullets have, so far, remained healthy, or so it seems. And Peaches, of course.

At this point, too, I'm just assuming that Boo has the same thing. Possibility always exists that she just has strained something. But given her family history, probably not. Anyway, the Hypericum will not hurt her, as it's also used to help control pain.

 

[chicknmania]

Actually, I think Boo has bumblefoot. never experienced it before, but that's what It looks like to me.

 

[chooks4life]

Well, that should be a better case scenario than Marek's. But those lines that are susceptible to bumblefoot sure can make a song and dance out of it lol! OK, that's a shoddy way to describe a susceptibility. What I mean is that what could be a simple issue instead can infect the bones and other systems and kill the animal, whereas it doesn't affect non susceptible animals.

I have some lines susceptible to bumblefoot, at first I was merrily eliminating them alongside all other weak lines, with great success... Then I realized I'm eliminating opportunities to learn how to help this issue. And, what happens in future if an animal that happens to be susceptible becomes a treasured pet or has rare and valuable genetics? So, I kept one line. This particular line is currently only represented by a single hen. All five female ancestors of hers that I've owned were all highly susceptible to bumblefoot. I've only actually seen it in some hens, never males, wonder if it's another thing that favors females?

Normally, garlic in the diet regularly knocks bumblefoot out, slowly but surely, and keeps it controlled; but this hen, when in agistment/boarded with the others, went from having normal looking feet to having two grossly swollen balls with toes sticking out of them, due to having no garlic in the diet for many months.

I was going to operate on her; watching her hobble around was painful. Of course, not as painful as it must have been for her. But given their state of health when I got them back I decided to build up their condition before stressing them out with things like surgeries. Building up their condition involved regular garlic... Pretty rapidly one foot completely lost its swelling and went back to normal, and the other is almost all the way back too. No surgery for her, it looks like.

Natural treatments are worth a try in this scenario too, I believe, though some people reckon surgery is the go; but not everybody finds a kernel to remove and surgery can introduce the infection into other areas, so I reckon it's worth avoiding where possible, when there are alternatives.

Best wishes.

 

[chicknmania]

I'm just not sure what she has. Her symptoms, other than the bumps, are pretty much identical to her brother who died. Extreme pain (apparently) in the left foot, to where she can't bear any weight on it. Depression, lethargy. Beginning to lose appetite. But still, last night, I examined her foot, and most of the little lumps appear to be gone. She still has a couple. (I've had her on Baytril for a couple days) I soaked her in Epsom salts and warm water, and this Epsom salts pack had lavender in it. She obviously felt much better after..was much calmer, and able to stand and peck around for a little bit, though still no visible weight bearing to speak of on her bad foot. She ate her dinner, and drank. I'm out of Hypericum, and have not had a chance to go down to the health food store to get more, but I have kept up with the premium vitamins. I probably won't be able to get more Hypericum until tomorrow.

 

[ranchokelly]

I haven't read all 72 pages of this post, but hoping folks on here might have some advice...
I lost 5 chickens to Marek's over a year ago (put them all down after they couldn't walk). I also had one of my older hens that had been vaccinated get sick, and because she was special I kept her inside for a month and she recovered. I don't think I had discovered hypericum then, but I did try it with lame pullets later with no luck.
ANyway, I started over with (supposedly) vaccinated chicks 3+ months ago, and now one appears to be hit with it. At first I thought she had injured her wing, as it hung down and she was tripping over it, but now it's the regular signs and obvious. At this point she's barely walking at all, but with some rest can take a few steps. But she tips over often and can't get up, so she requires almost constant supervision. I've been giving her a mash with hypericum and vitamin B water mixed with oatmeal (usually twice a day) for over a week now, and she seems to be slowly getting worse rather than better.
I really want her to pull through, but wonder if I'm prolonging the inevitable? Arranging my schedule for her care is tough.

Also, I had read on the forum that a vaccination often doesn't work, another post said 90%. Any info on this? I'm wondering about the breeder that sold these to me - out of 6, one already died the first week and two are roosters!

 

[ranchokelly]

Also, it sounds like some of you are just giving them the hypericum tablets and not dissolved?

 

[chicknmania]

You have to dissolve it in purified water..one 30C tab in two TBSP purified (distilled) water. In a glass dish or plastic dish, no metal.
If you read the first post you'll see that. I don't think giving it in food works. I also think you have to do it as soon as you notice symptoms, as the OP says.
The longer you wait, the less likelihood that it will work. It is still worth trying though. I also gave our pullet Peaches Rooster Booster premium B and K vitamins,
and avian specific probiotics..

You do have to dissolve the tablet.

I am now fully convinced that our latest pullet Boo (Peaches' sister) has Marek's, or whatever it is, and not bumblefoot, or an injury, like I originally thought. I think that I probably waited too long to start treating her with HP, but I will start her on it tomorrow.

And hope for the best.

 

[ranchokelly]

thanks - I've been using bottled water, which I'm hoping is the same as distilled? Also been trying the rooster booster, but I noticed she really seems to dislike the taste of that stuff.
By the way, I named one of mine Peaches as well, but it turned out to be a rooster! He's keeping the name, and seems okay with it!