Texas

Gonna swing by the feed store and get some Strike III, we have used it in the past and had good results. Will keep everyone up to date with the progress and hopefully not the decline of the group.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by buggal

Gonna swing by the feed store and get some Strike III, we have used it in the past and had good results. Will keep everyone up to date with the progress and hopefully not the decline of the group.
Good luck! Don't beat yourself up too badly if you lose more. This sounds like something that was slow to progress, and since chickens are very good at hiding problems, you may not have been able to catch it any sooner. Especially with symptoms that are so vague and ambiguous. If another one dies, doing a necropsy on it might offer some clues. There are plenty of online resources to help folks do a necropsy at home if they don't want to send the body to a vet.
 
Well we lost 2 more today. The one that was showing signs yesterday and another one. The remaining ones are now on Strike III and also antibiotics. This is what the chicken person at Tractor Supply suggested. Thanks bnjrob for the idea of the necropsy, will have to look that up to see how to do it.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by buggal

Well we lost 2 more today. The one that was showing signs yesterday and another one. The remaining ones are now on Strike III and also antibiotics. This is what the chicken person at Tractor Supply suggested. Thanks bnjrob for the idea of the necropsy, will have to look that up to see how to do it.
I wish you luck. Personally, I don't take the recommendations of store employees when it comes to the health of my animals, but I'm a nurse and my husband is a veterinarian, and few store employees have any type of education that qualifies them to make recommendations on animal health.
 
I wish you luck. Personally, I don't take the recommendations of store employees when it comes to the health of my animals, but I'm a nurse and my husband is a veterinarian, and few store employees have any type of education that qualifies them to make recommendations on animal health.
You are lucky to have a vet for a husband. Most of us are not that lucky. Have you asked him about my little ones? Any words of advise are greatly appreciated. Where in north TX are you? Maybe if you are close we will use him as our vet. Especially if he sees chickens.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by buggal

You are lucky to have a vet for a husband. Most of us are not that lucky. Have you asked him about my little ones? Any words of advise are greatly appreciated. Where in north TX are you? Maybe if you are close we will use him as our vet. Especially if he sees chickens.
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Yes, I did tell him about our conversation. The symptoms are very nonspecific - which is the big problem. If they had a snotty nose, that would at least help give a clue that that there might be a respiratory problem, giving a starting place of illnesses to look at. But lethargy and anorexia can be from anything, simply because they don't feel well, and diarrhea could be related to a change in feed/water usage. An actual physical exam by a vet may or may not give a clue as to what the problem is - just depends on what the vet would find that might give a hint. With dogs and cats and those types of animals, it's pretty easy to run some blood and do xrays to see what is normal and abnormal, to get a hint of what the problem is. But it's a bit more difficult than that with poultry unless you have more specific symptoms that the vet can pick up on.

What I suggested for you to try was exactly what we would do for our own birds if we had first encountered the situation. The only difference is that we would have done a necropsy by at least the time the second bird died, to see if the cause of death was something that might affect the other birds. Otherwise, we'd have done the same thing with changing feed, even brand of feed, and supporting them with the nutridrench water.

The danger with antibiotics is that you need to have a good idea of what the problem is. Antibiotics only work on bacteria, they don't work on protozoa, nematodes, viruses, etc. And when you give antibiotics without a good indication of a bacterial problem, you run a real risk of making other bacteria resistant to the antibiotic - so if you need to give antibiotics in the future, it may not work. Certain antibiotics work for certain bacteria and giving just any antibiotic, and any dosage, increases risk of drug-resistance.

Just so you know, most of the antibiotics at the feed store will not be available soon. The problem with antibiotic resistant bacteria is getting so serious that people are dying, and laws have been changed so that certain antibiotics will no longer be available over the counter for use in animals without a prescription. They hope this will decrease the rate that bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics, by keeping people from using antibiotics when they aren't indicated for the situation. I would encourage you to learn about more natural ways of chicken keeping. We use natural methods, like oregano oil and garlic, with our flock and it is rare for us to have a bird that is ill. And we breed chickens, so we have a larger flock than most people and still have a very low rate of illness in our flock.

Yes, my husband has seen chickens a few times. Not many folks want to pay for a vet to see their chickens though. But I'm thinking that Rockwall may be a bit far for you to drive.
 
Sorry you're still losing you girls buggal.

On a brighter note I had a surprise today when emptying the nest box. Now my third has started laying. I was hoping for something besides brown from my Americana and she delivered.
 
Sorry you're still losing you girls buggal.

On a brighter note I had a surprise today when emptying the nest box. Now my third has started laying. I was hoping for something besides brown from my Americana and she delivered.
That is great news!!! I am doing a chicken dance for you!!! are you going to incubate them?
 

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