The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Lacy Blues]

sitting here with a 9 week old pullet, something going on with her and I don't know what. She's very sleepy, and her left eye has been 1/2 closed to closed much of the time. She's active when awake, poop looks fine, can get up and down the ladder to roost. Isn't wheezing, no discharge, vent is clean, no mites, no evidence of worms. However Ishe's not putting weight on. Her sister was the smaller one and now is bigger and weighs a lot more (brahmas).
She looked like she was eating fine, but now I notice she seems to be pecking above the food or behind the food. I've had her with me today, she's had electrolytes, yogurt, minced beef and FF, eating and pooping fine, just sleeping mostly though. Haven't seen her preen either.
For the eye initially I thought it might have been a peck or sand or something, then I was applying an ointment, but it's made no difference after 4 days. Any ideas? TIA

It could just be a lack of vitamin A affecting vision. I realize she probably gets the same food as everyone else and noone else is having problems but chickens are all individuals, just like humans. They all have differing needs. Birds that are extremely NEEDY are not generally good to keep around as they are weak and certainly shouldn't be bred from.

If it's just the vit A, you can grate carrots into their food, or cod liver oil once a week or something and see if she improves.

The goofy changed rooster is the one doing the purring, any time the hens get upset or are laying. Now the goodball gets up in a nest above the brooding pen and does it, while acting like he is gonna lay an egg lol.

At least he's not terrorizing anybody, them leghorns schooled him good.

I think he's trying to convince the girls to lay their eggs "HERE" That way when they lay it and are finished, he will have a clear "path" ahead the next time he "shags" her and it will likely be as soon as she gets off the nest.

 

[SherrieC]

I think I have a sick or stressed Australorp. Magpies have started really stressing them out especially this week. Its winter here and when they go through nesting season and get very territorial.

I have noticed my biggest Australorp (almost 11 months old) has stopped laying this week, she has really pointy eggs so I know shes stopped laying. Over the last 3 nights I have noticed that she has not gone to the feeder before bed and the same when she comes out in the morning. Not tonight but the previous 2 nights she went to roost early on her own so I know something is up.

During the day she seems fine and she seems interested in any thing I make up for them, yesterday morning I treated them to warm porridge with eggs so it was like a custard and then some sardines mixed in and the day before I made them up a treat of grated carrots, apples, chilli etc as there's less greens available to eat because of our recent frosts. She has been right into them. Its just in the morning and at night I have noticed a change.

I felt her crop tonight and it didn't feel prominent or full just soft. All but one other had much more prominent crops.

Shes shows no sign of any cold or anything and is not acting lethargic. I know from the one that died a few months ago that they like to act like they're fine until its too late.

 

[lalaland]

Hi lalaland,
Thanks so much for your quick response! I read the link. I took her away from the others this morning and will keep her quarantined. At this moment I don't know if it is Mareks. So confusing and frustrating with the symptoms - may or may not show etc.,. The 2 clear symptoms are tiredness and missing the food. Yet she is eating. She did have a preen and her poops seem normal. She is favoring the yogurt over the FF.
Thanks again, I will continue researching the Mareks - that would be disastrous. All my birds came from the same breeder, all at the same time. I was going to go there next week and pick up some more, now I think I'd better call and ask how his flock is. Thanks.

I was kind of shocked to hear from a breeder that most small breeders don't worry too much about mareks, and just accept it as a given. I know others on this forum that have gotten starter chicks - meaning their very first chickens - from a breeder, had some losses, diagnosed mareks, and the breeder denies any problem. And some believe you need to deal with the=
THere are some not very virulent forms where you will lose maybe 1 out of 10, and some virulent forms that will take the whole flock down.

And, so many conditions will mimic mareks. really can't tell without a confirmed diagnosis.
I would definitely try the cod liver oil .


If your pullet takes a turn for the worse, be ready to send it for necropsy. Here, it is usually the state vet lab that does them, and you need to freeze the body and get it there...a local vet will know about that. Better to be prepared because you might not want to miss the chance to find out whether it is or isn't mareks.

keep us posted

 

[lalaland]

sherrie C, do you think she is possibly ready to molt?
Otherwise, hope she does better.

I hate it when a hen will be a little off, you know something isn't right but you don't know what. Hoping she gets back to her normal self!

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

I always worry about disease in my birds... I am not breeding, but I would be mortified if I knowingly introduced disease into someone else's flock (sold or gave away a bird that was sick or a carrier). I would not be all "oh well" about it. That is why I was so picky on just the two chicks I brought home, I refused to buy chicks that looked dodgy, had dead in their boxes and so on, it took me forever to find just 2 chicks I felt where healthy and being kept in a healthy manner prior to purchase.

I am just getting back into keeping again and it was a big OMG shocker to learn in the time period I did not keep all these new diseases are about.

I hope your bird is not sick, sick.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I think I have a sick or stressed Australorp. Magpies have started really stressing them out especially this week. Its winter here and when they go through nesting season and get very territorial.

I have noticed my biggest Australorp (almost 11 months old) has stopped laying this week, she has really pointy eggs so I know shes stopped laying. Over the last 3 nights I have noticed that she has not gone to the feeder before bed and the same when she comes out in the morning. Not tonight but the previous 2 nights she went to roost early on her own so I know something is up.

During the day she seems fine and she seems interested in any thing I make up for them, yesterday morning I treated them to warm porridge with eggs so it was like a custard and then some sardines mixed in and the day before I made them up a treat of grated carrots, apples, chilli etc as there's less greens available to eat because of our recent frosts. She has been right into them. Its just in the morning and at night I have noticed a change.

I felt her crop tonight and it didn't feel prominent or full just soft. All but one other had much more prominent crops.

Shes shows no sign of any cold or anything and is not acting lethargic. I know from the one that died a few months ago that they like to act like they're fine until its too late.

How about sour crop? Her crop is soft and full? Means she's drinking lots and lots of water.

You can separate her and give her water with electrolytes and the other foods you normally give except the fermented feed. The porridge with eggs actually sounds pretty good! Also, some raw hamburger. I also give mine yogurt (plain and unsweetened) to try to keep the intestinal bad bacterial in check. When the bird is stressed, they can get rampant very quickly.

If you have a small pen, keep her in it by herself. If it's winter there, then provide heat in the form of a light bulb that she can get away from if she needs to.

 

[SherrieC]

sherrie C, do you think she is possibly ready to molt?
Otherwise, hope she does better.

I hate it when a hen will be a little off, you know something isn't right but you don't know what. Hoping she gets back to her normal self!

I am not sure, I was hoping she already had her little molt a couple of months back, when they all stopped laying. My plymouth who are a couple of weeks younger then my Australorps went through their molts, one I only just noticed as some feathers on her neck grew back and made a ring around her neck which looked funny and my other plymouth almost went bold. Both my plymouth went poorly and skittish around the time the feathers started to grow. My Australorp is behaving similarly.

How about sour crop? Her crop is soft and full? Means she's drinking lots and lots of water.

You can separate her and give her water with electrolytes and the other foods you normally give except the fermented feed. The porridge with eggs actually sounds pretty good! Also, some raw hamburger. I also give mine yogurt (plain and unsweetened) to try to keep the intestinal bad bacterial in check. When the bird is stressed, they can get rampant very quickly.

If you have a small pen, keep her in it by herself. If it's winter there, then provide heat in the form of a light bulb that she can get away from if she needs to.

I was reading about sour crop on my ipad last night. Her crop was soft but it wasn't full. Their water bowl was barely touched yesterday but it was raining so I am guessing they found puddles.

I did feed them fermented feed last week as I ran out of organic pellets and was waiting for more to be delivered so fermented some coarse feed up. Maybe I caused issues with that. I have to clean up my plymouth today which I'm not looking forward to because its cold and I feel bad doing it to her but shes got a messy butt so perhaps her and my Australorp have bacteria issues.

I will get them some probiotics but also I was reading that red wine is meant to help this really quickly? Does anyone have experience with that?

We don't drink but luckily I have found some we have used for cooking in the cupboard.

My Australorp seemed ok today she went straight to her feeder this morning.

 

[islafarm]

@lalaland and @Lacy Blues

thanks, will try the cod liver oil, looks like a good weekly addition to the feed! She seems a bit perkier today (I guess raw hamburger will do that), weigh in was 31 grams heavier than same time yesterday. I read and read Mareks' threads last night and I'm pretty sure she doesn't have it. The tiredness and the lack of issues with leg paralysis doesn't seem to add up. I'm not ruling it out, but after having read various threads on BYC (some excellent information on here!), I'm feeling a lot more confident that it's not Mareks. Plus today I got a good look at her eyes with DH's glasses and a flashlight, and they are goopy. Nothing coming out the eye, but there is a line of thin white goop on her lower eyelids. I'm hopeful but now concerned about an eye infection that has gone too long. I really saw nothing before and there was / is no inflammation or redness. I'll take her to the vet on Monday. As far as necropsy, there is a veterinary school in the capitol city, will have to find out if they do necropsies, thanks for the suggestion. Figured I would do one myself, though obviously that wouldn't be anywhere near professional.

Thank you, I'll keep you posted.

@SherrieC
sorry, got nothing to suggest, but to offer my best wishes. The red wine sounds interesting, it's certainly fermented and a good anti-oxidant, never heard of it being pro-biotic. Definitely not something to tell the DH

 

[SherrieC]

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/14/really-red-wine-is-good-for-the-stomach/

 

[HeritageGoose13]

I would not give red wine, try something else. Alchohol is too much of a risk, even a small amount is dangerous for a little bird.