Stay Vigilant!

[JJSS89]

Just a reminder to everyone

Always check on your birds. I try to observe my chickens in the daylight or at least inspect them on the roost but I've worked every day since January 25th and was pretty much collecting eggs and just feeding/watering in the dark.

Yesterday I found a bantam cochin rooster who was almost dead and severely underweight. He can't walk. I fed him scrambled eggs and dewormed him and gave him some Amprolium 9.6% for good measure but he is plagued by lice and that is why he is almost dead. I have never seen lice or mites this bad in the winter time.

If I had done a better job of inspecting my flock, I would have caught this at least a week sooner and he'd never have come this far. I dusted him with Sevin dust and lice started falling off in droves, he is still pale and lethargic but time will tell. I give him a 70% chance of living.

Also a few opinions

1) DE is worthless - I have tried it a bunch of times

2) People who say lice aren't lethal haven't had enough of them

 

[MrsBrooke]

Just a reminder to everyone

Always check on your birds. I try to observe my chickens in the daylight or at least inspect them on the roost but I've worked every day since January 25th and was pretty much collecting eggs and just feeding/watering in the dark.

Yesterday I found a bantam cochin rooster who was almost dead and severely underweight. He can't walk. I fed him scrambled eggs and dewormed him and gave him some Amprolium 9.6% for good measure but he is plagued by lice and that is why he is almost dead. I have never seen lice or mites this bad in the winter time.

If I had done a better job of inspecting my flock, I would have caught this at least a week sooner and he'd never have come this far. I dusted him with Sevin dust and lice started falling off in droves, he is still pale and lethargic but time will tell. I give him a 70% chance of living.

Also a few opinions

1) DE is worthless - I have tried it a bunch of times

2) People who say lice aren't lethal haven't had enough of them

Sorry about your rooster, but I'm so glad you got to him in time!

This is DEFINITELY worth reading and putting into practice!

I try and do a "Daylight Check" every day... It's a visual observation to check behavior, and see if I find anything "odd."

The in-depth investigation comes once a week. You gotta look in the nooks and crannies, if yaknowwhaddimean!

DE is totally worthless when it comes to internal and external parasites. You're right, there.

And ANY parasite can kill your chickens... Even if they aren't the direct cause, they will certainly contribute to and exacerbate any underlying symptoms you may not have caught.... Not to mention irritate the poor birds to death.

GREAT POST!

MrsB

 

[JJSS89]

One very difficult aspect of raising chickens is their incredible tolerance to pain which prevents them from showing us obvious symptoms until they are on deaths-door.

The flipside to that coin is that their pain tolerance allows us to operate for bumblefoot, impacted crops, Caponizing etc. without being certified veterinarians.

I'm sure some would disagree with us on the DE, maybe it works on some of the warm weather parasites but up here in the North we deal with the roughneck lice & mites

 

[Urban Flock]

Great Reminder. Glad you caught this in time. Hope your Rooster makes a full recovery.
I need to check my flock tonight, put it off way too long. Thanks again for the reminder.
I agree 100% about the DE. It is worthless! Irritating to the lungs and should never be used on Chickens. Some people try to worm their chickens with the stuff. However once it becomes wet it is ineffective. Any small box for garden use will put this disclaimer on the box. So once inside a chicken it becomes wet and that makes useless as a wormer too.