The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[lalaland]

Do you have corid? The first thing to do is treat for coccidiosis.

Edited to add: I just read the first post--natural chemical free--

The chick likely has cocci. You can try plain yogurt and whatever vitamins you can give and be chemical free. Cocci can kill in three days depending on how bad the load of cysts are.

Going the natural way, to build resistance in the flock, you may want to cull her, meaning to not use for breeding.

Look up coccidiosis. It is very painful for the chick. euthanize if she is suffering too much.

huh, I know cocci is common, but why, besides her age, are you thinking cocci? she has had no droppings and a full crop which has not gone down overnight. doesn't that point to impacted crop vs cocci? I appreciate your thoughts!

 

[ronott1]

huh, I know cocci is common, but why, besides her age, are you thinking cocci? she has had no droppings and a full crop which has not gone down overnight. doesn't that point to impacted crop vs cocci? I appreciate your thoughts!

She is having cocci symptoms. The crop will not empty on a chick or chcken that is at end of life. Statue standing and puffed up is not a symptom of impacted crop. It is caused by pain in the intestines and also mites chewing into the vent. Any chick that looks like yours at 6 to 8 weeks that I have had recovered within two days with corid.

Impacted crop chickens will lay down.

Cocci kills within three days of symptoms. This one may be too far gone.

 

[jasmine5904]

I think it must be like when people are exposed to small doses of other poisons they can build up a resistance/tolerance without getting much if any of a reaction and the three of you are the better off because of it. I've been tromping through poison ivy since I was a little girl, and I've never had a reaction and I've always thought it was because I've exposed myself unintentionally to it pretty much all the time outside so my body is used to it. (Probably just jinxed myself)

This makes a lot of sense... I grew up in the country and used to run around in the woods all the time when I was little . I never paid a bit of attention to poison ivy, and never had a reaction to it. I moved to the "city" to go to college, and about four years later, got my first case of poison ivy after doing some gardening. I'm thinking they either have super poison ivy here, or I've lost my resistance to it!

 

[ronott1]

well, I got 1/4 tsp of olive oil down her. massaged her crop, which was tight and full of gritty stuff or corn kernals...I'll give her a half hour and try some more.
No droppings so far. I don't think she pooped last night either.

Here are the classic sick chick picks:





she will not lay down - at 4 am, in the dark, her sibs were in "nesting" position, and she was standing.

I got some advice for you from @casportpony .

Quote:
This shows how to use the tube:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/805728/go-team-tube-feeding

 

[lalaland]

I got some advice for you from @casportpony .


This shows how to use the tube:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/805728/go-team-tube-feeding

hmm don't know why that didn't copy your entire post.

The chick just had a dropping (finally), some urates, some dark green and some light green. No form. Also a piece of grit - tiny granite chip. Her crop has gone down, so the oil did its job. She ate a little egg with yogurt. Not much.

I"m going to put a hot water bottle under the towel, she was definitely happy being held so I'm worried she is a little chilled. It is about 72 where she is, and there is a regular 60 watt bulb at one end of the kennel and she is keeping close to that end.

Thanks. I hate this.

 

[ronott1]

hmm don't know why that didn't copy your entire post.

The chick just had a dropping (finally), some urates, some dark green and some light green. No form. Also a piece of grit - tiny granite chip. Her crop has gone down, so the oil did its job. She ate a little egg with yogurt. Not much.

I"m going to put a hot water bottle under the towel, she was definitely happy being held so I'm worried she is a little chilled. It is about 72 where she is, and there is a regular 60 watt bulb at one end of the kennel and she is keeping close to that end.

Thanks. I hate this.

Kathy also said to try keeping her at 82 degrees.

I hope it was just an obstruction!

 

[lalaland]

Kathy also said to try keeping her at 82 degrees.

I hope it was just an obstruction!

thanks, she is laying on the hot water bottle, so the heat must feel good. I'm thinking not an obstruction because she is still ill....

 

[Leahs Mom]

Lala - hope you can figure out what's going on. It does sometimes take a bit of time for an obstruction to clear the system even if the crop seems to have emptied.

@hoosiercheetah What were the symptoms of your chick...the one that you ended up giving coconut oil and probiotics and grit? Could you give us a short rundown on symptoms, how long they lasted, and what you did?

 

[Leahs Mom]

On the poison ivy, I read this:

Quote: http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/skin-deep/ .

 

[LindaB220]

Darn it!! here I was thinking everything was going well with the chickens and now I have a lethargic 8 week old cream legbar pullet. Doing the traditional hunched posture, sleepy thing. Scooped her up (and she normally wouldn't let me do that) and popped her in an isolation cage. She has a full crop, clear eyes, no discharge, vent looks great, no sign of mites or anything. She was fine this morning but by 5 pm was not.

Going to check her in the morning and see if her crop empties. For tonight, water with acv....keeping my fingers crossed. I did have a 4 year old hatchery hen go down a week ago - noticed she was slow one day and she was gone the next. I don't know if that is coincidence or totally unrelated to the pullet. They shared coop and run space.

After the hen died last week, I checked each hen individually, and did a little dosing with probiotics, and sulphur.

Do you use Nutri Drench for sheep. I put a squirt into their one gallon water bottles and it does help. Extra nutrients. I googled for the difference in sheep and poultry and there's not much. My birds are healthy because I start them from day one on fermented feed. A little trouble but so worth it.