THANK YOU! On road to recover - Severe External Parasite Infestation!

[8hipchicks]

I'm watching a friend's 5-6month old hen - they lost their other hens. Friend mentions before she leaves that hen seems to be feeling "poorly" but has been eating and drinking great.

Well, I go to check out the hen and she is so weak she can barely stand and topples over. Upon checking her out I find that she is skin and bone and COVERED in what I am 99.9% sure are lice. She also has areas of completely bare skin so am assuming this is the result of the mite that deplumes a chicken. And, 'lo and behold, she also has alot of eggs at the base of the feathers near her vent and also her neck right near her beak. Not sure how my friend managed to "miss" all these things.

So, I've dusted the poor, sweet baby with Sevin and literally there seems to have been hundreds, if not thousands, of these lice that have crawled out and fallen off of her. I've carefully cut off the feathers where the eggs were as close to her skin as I could. There are still some left at the very based but I'm too afraid of hurting her get any closer. I've also cleaned and dusted the small coop.

This is the rest of the protocol I am following and would appreciate any input from those who know about severe infestations:

1) I've put her on their porch in a small box and she's resting comfortably. I've put some Nutri-drench in water for her and to make sure she's getting enough water I'm also giving her some orally with a dropper. She takes it well.

2) I've brought her some medicated chick starter because my friend told me that they have been feeding her layer pellets since since she was 3 months old but that "she doesn't really like them". She's gobbling up the "baby food".

3) The hen doesn't really seem to understand yougurt,scrambled eggs, or strawberries. They've given her pasta as a "treat". But I read somewhere on this board (I think) that canned beef cat food is good for chickens suffering from weakness due to parasites so I have given her some of my cat's really high-quality food - it's 95% beef & liver with no fillers/grains. She really loves it and is gobbling it up, too.

She's looking perkier and has even stood up very straight and tall. But hasn't really tried walking yet.


Can anyone think of anything else I can do for her? Anyone know how long the turn-around time is on something like this?
Should I also start her on Wazine as an additional treatment in case she has internal parasites, too? I'm not sure how weak external parasites can make a chicken.

Thanks for your help!

Pam

 

[BackToMyRoots]

I'm so glad you were there to help her! I've read in this thread that parasites can weaken and contribute to a chicken's death if the infestation gets bad enough. That poor girl was really suffering.

I've also read that giving calcium-enriched layer feed too early can damage a young chick's kidneys, so part of her lethargy might have been the strain of filtering out all the unneeded calcium before she was ready to use it. I might stay away from cat food due to the ash they add to it--no need to give her anything extra to filter out right now. Hopefully someone better informed can weigh in on that one. I know you're right in cutting out the pasta though, because it doesn't have any protein.

I fear that the deaths of these peoples' chickens weren't entirely random.

 

[joebryant]

Good job so far.
Wait ten days for her to gain all of her strength back and give her and her surroundings another good dusting with Sevin. Then wait a few more days and start treating her for worms.
I got complete excellent advice about worming from dawg53; here's the post:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=385238

 

[LovinMyPeeps]

Probably couldnt hurt to give her a drop of Poly-vi-sol vitamins without iron once a day too just to help her nutritional status. Other than that it sounds like you're doing an awesome job!

 

[Mahonri]

For worming, I just use Valbazen once. That's all it takes.

... but you need to squirt it in to each of their mouths, so I usually do it when they go on the roosts.

 

[8hipchicks]

Thanks everyone for your responses.

I'll start her on the Wazine next week.
She's perky and eating. Doing well standing when she feels she has the strength. Not too good at walking, yet.

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
Mahonri, according to dawg59, "...The wazine gets rid of large roundworms only. If you used a different wormer like valbazen first, it would kill all types of worms and the buildup could cause a blockage of dead worms and become toxic and kill your chickens. Roundworms are the most common worm in chickens and once they are expelled by the wazine, it'll leave room for other types of worms including roundworm larva to be expelled with no toxicity... The next time you worm...whenever you see fit...you can use the valbazen first, no need to use the wazine unless you want to.

Also, he suggested squirting the correct dose of Valbazen into a piece of bread, one piece per bird, if you can be SURE that each one will only get ONE piece of the treated bread (gotta think about THAT).

 

[Sweetpeaswan]

I am so glad yu were there for this hen, standing ovation for you!!!!! She probably wouldn't have made it without you.
Sadly your friends dropped the ball.....There are some great products out there, I would probably like to see
her get some probiotics in her, maybe some yogurt and scrambled egg. Good luck.

 

[elmo]

If I were you, I'd wait longer before worming. Worming is stressful, and I'd want to see this chicken fully recover from her lice infestation and inadequate nutrition before putting her through a worming.

Try offering mashed up hardboiled egg. Mine gobble this up, but don't go for the scrambled eggs (go figure).

 

[8hipchicks]

Quote:
I hadn't thought about hardboiled. I'll give it a try.

She's really wobbly on her legs. I can't believe how much damage external parasites can do.