The road less traveled...back to good health! They have lice, mites, scale mites, worms, anemia, gl

[Miss Lydia]

Oh gosh, I dont know. I go out soon to get the nustock down the road so I can make an extra stop and get some ACV. The Redwine vinegar just says naturally fat and cholesterol free, Diluted with water to 5% acidity

Ingredients are red wine vinegar and sulfur dioxide (added to protect color)

I have red wine vinegar and it's not raw.

 

[Leahs Mom]

easy for you to say B, you want to come show me how to open a word doc? pretty dumb when it comes to computers.

Hey...if you PM me, I can help you with that. Even if you don't have word, you can do it on the free software that lives on your computer.

 

[familycomp3]

oh okay! Good to know! I got ahold of the hen who has now lost 50% of her feathers (it nearly made me sick to my stomach with sadness to hold her) but She is SUPER CLEAN! Her skin is so pink and fleshy, the feathers that are coming out are so so clean. Not a single red or black spot on her or any of her lost feathers. I dont know that mites is any sort of an issue here. It is possible that it is starting out so slow that I wont see any evidence until it is a full on investation? The pictures I am seeing online of mites in chickens, the birds where THIS featherless but GROSS looking. You could see the evidence of mites without even being close. They almost look dirty! That is not her case at all. She looks so clean. The other wierd thing is its almost like the feathers are BREAKING off. the hard barb part is still in here?!?! Is that usual, I thought when they lost feathers the whole thing fall out right at the skin. NOT HER. Could the wrom problem cause feather loss?

 

[Beekissed]

Yes, I will update! May I use Red wine vinegar by chance? I only ask because I think they have allot of the same properties as many recipes say either ACV or Red Wine. I have to go out to get the Nustock so I will have to stop and grab the vinegar too if the RWV wont do. I HATE keeping them in their coop, but have to this morning until I get back because they are not all easy to get in my hands. Easiest when I first let them out of the coop or at night when they go in and I dont want to wait that long!!

RWV is fine for an electrolyte booster and Vitamins but not much for fermentation or probiotics. You'll need the mother vinegar....if you can't find it at your local store, request that they start ordering in such things and I bet they will. Any health food store or section of stores should have mother vinegar.

Someone in another thread I had actually created said that the blood on the shell the day before they completely stopped laying, was a sign of worms! This is exactly what he typed...would you agree?

"Blood on the shell could be caused by capillary worms. Valbazen cattle/sheep wormer or Safeguard liquid goat wormer will take care of capillary worms as well as other types of worms. 1/2cc given orally undiluted with one wormer or the other will take care of them. Then repeat dosing again in 10 days. Toss eggs in the garbage for 14 days after the last worming"

Nope. Eggs come from the oviduct, not from the intestines where most parasites dwell...and they usually live in the small intestines which have a greater blood supply than the large intestines(which is a far piece from where the eggs come from)....that's why they are clean instead of covered in poop when they come out~different tube. Blood on an egg could mean any number of things and it's usually not repeated...as in one hen always having bloody eggs. I've seen it on too large eggs, on new layers, getting back into laying from a slow down, etc.

This obsession folks have with chickens and worms is often a source of amusement for me. I've never seen a worm in any feces of any chickens I've kept down through the years and neither has my mother. It's just not that common to have worm infestations in healthy flocks. Anyone who is dealing with heavy worm loads are doing something wrong along the way and need to stop what they are doing instead of subjecting their flocks to harsh dewormers on a scheduled basis.

Take it from someone who has seen the inside of a freshly killed chicken more than most ordinary folks have~been killing chickens since I was 10 yrs old...high loads of internal parasites are just not a normal part of backyard flocks. If they are becoming so, it could be because people are creating "super worms" by constantly and needlessly deworming their flocks. Super worms are created by worms that survive the dewormers and breed more worms that can survive, causing the person to have to switch up dewormers to get effect, which leaves the survivors of THAT dewormer. Now you have worms that can and will survive two dewormer applications...and it goes on and on. Sort of the same way we get lethal e.coli and other pathogens that do not respond to antibiotics...because of the overuse of antibiotics in the human population creates germs that are survivors of anything that comes down the pike.

I'll give the same advice here that I gave earlier...stop staring at poop, stop obsessing over every little egg abnormality, stop giving medicine on a scheduled basis out of fear of things. Start just using good, simple flock management practices so that we can stop worrying over every little fart the flock lets. Then we can rest easy and any bird that isn't doing well will stand out like a sore thumb against all the glossy, fat and healthy birds you have. Then you take that bird and kill it. That leaves all the pretty and healthy chickens still standing, leaving nothing to worry about.

If you have more than one bird that isn't doing well...look to your flock management practices, not a quick fix of medicines that just create more problems.

 

[thedragonlady]

RWV is fine for an electrolyte booster and Vitamins but not much for fermentation or probiotics. You'll need the mother vinegar....if you can't find it at your local store, request that they start ordering in such things and I bet they will. Any health food store or section of stores should have mother vinegar.

Nope. Eggs come from the oviduct, not from the intestines where most parasites dwell...and they usually live in the small intestines which have a greater blood supply than the large intestines(which is a far piece from where the eggs come from)....that's why they are clean instead of covered in poop when they come out~different tube. Blood on an egg could mean any number of things and it's usually not repeated...as in one hen always having bloody eggs. I've seen it on too large eggs, on new layers, getting back into laying from a slow down, etc.

This obsession folks have with chickens and worms is often a source of amusement for me. I've never seen a worm in any feces of any chickens I've kept down through the years and neither has my mother. It's just not that common to have worm infestations in healthy flocks. Anyone who is dealing with heavy worm loads are doing something wrong along the way and need to stop what they are doing instead of subjecting their flocks to harsh dewormers on a scheduled basis.

Take it from someone who has seen the inside of a freshly killed chicken more than most ordinary folks have~been killing chickens since I was 10 yrs old...high loads of internal parasites are just not a normal part of backyard flocks. If they are becoming so, it could be because people are creating "super worms" by constantly and needlessly deworming their flocks. Super worms are created by worms that survive the dewormers and breed more worms that can survive, causing the person to have to switch up dewormers to get effect, which leaves the survivors of THAT dewormer. Now you have worms that can and will survive two dewormer applications...and it goes on and on. Sort of the same way we get lethal e.coli and other pathogens that do not respond to antibiotics...because of the overuse of antibiotics in the human population creates germs that are survivors of anything that comes down the pike.

I'll give the same advice here that I gave earlier...stop staring at poop, stop obsessing over every little egg abnormality, stop giving medicine on a scheduled basis out of fear of things. Start just using good, simple flock management practices so that we can stop worrying over every little fart the flock lets. Then we can rest easy and any bird that isn't doing well will stand out like a sore thumb against all the glossy, fat and healthy birds you have. Then you take that bird and kill it. That leaves all the pretty and healthy chickens still standing, leaving nothing to worry about.

If you have more than one bird that isn't doing well...look to your flock management practices, not a quick fix of medicines that just create more problems.

Bee,

Do you believe, as I do, that most of the problems new people have with chickens comes from over crowding? I am constantly amazed at the numbers of birds that people expect to live in tiny coops and yards.

 

[familycomp3]

It really is just he one hen not doing well. The rooster is looking better each day. Some of his scabs fell off last night even YAY

I have thought of doing away with my half featherless bird but the only thing that gets me is....what IF she CAN recover? And it seems as though whatever is going on with her is likely going on with the rest, just VERY SLOWLY! As the 3 layers went from laying almost EVERY single day to no eggs what so ever after the day where 2 of my layers had a tiny amt of blood on the eggs. It really WAS a tiny amount. It would NOT have alarmed me at all had the egg production continued after that, or had my chicken suddenly lost so many feathers. Maybe the new coop REALLY stressed them out...and MORE SO the one who is half bald!

And to kill...the helpful and NOT SO helpful lady I got the hens from said to grab their necks firmly and give a quick jerk as though you are snapping a towel to kill in the fastest and least stressful way for the bird! IS THAT AT LEAST CORRECT??

 

[Beekissed]

Yes. Leads to barren, packed down runs covered in slick, damp fecal matter also. Too many animals in one space always, always creates management problems. Then it starts stinking...so they throw DE, sweet PDZ, lime or other such quick fixes on it but it doesn't really manage the overload. Then they bleach and clean, bleach and clean, constantly trying to get it to smell better or to make their flock healthier, when the answer lies with the fact that they took a bunch of livestock and crammed them into a small pen...and they could just stop doing that to fix the problem.

It's a viscious cycle that never ends until they get some sense or until the poor management has killed off their flocks.

 

[Beekissed]

It really is just he one hen not doing well. The rooster is looking better each day. Some of his scabs fell off last night even YAY

I have thought of doing away with my half featherless bird but the only thing that gets me is....what IF she CAN recover? And it seems as though whatever is going on with her is likely going on with the rest, just VERY SLOWLY! As the 3 layers went from laying almost EVERY single day to no eggs what so ever after the day where 2 of my layers had a tiny amt of blood on the eggs. It really WAS a tiny amount. It would NOT have alarmed me at all had the egg production continued after that, or had my chicken suddenly lost so many feathers. Maybe the new coop REALLY stressed them out...and MORE SO the one who is half bald!

And to kill...the helpful and NOT SO helpful lady I got the hens from said to grab their necks firmly and give a quick jerk as though you are snapping a towel to kill in the fastest and least stressful way for the bird! IS THAT AT LEAST CORRECT??

Yep...that is correct. It takes some practice, though.

Don't worry...it's not the coop that is causing the problems unless it is too tiny and doesn't have enough ventilation and they have been there longer, which they haven't. Not long enough to have created these problems.

Just slowly work on correcting these things and I bet you will see positive changes. You really can't cull anything yet because you don't know the true story of these chickens....get them all healthy by using good management and then you can start to weed out the poor doers. That takes awhile and there's no rush.

As for the eggs...I know everyone wants those eggs and they get impatient but your flock has bigger worries right now and needs all their nutrition going towards recovery. Once that has been done you will see more eggs. They are young and will bounce back...especially once they get some good fermented feeds into their systems!

 

[galanie]

I was looking at such things yesterday but, you are right, they are not sturdy enough for the quick yank against the metal.  Wouldn't want a head slipping out or bending.  The pic of the Chicken Wringer that guy markets is welded at the seams and looks way sturdy but $32.99???????  For a hunk of metal???  I'll buy a truck and use the tailgate again before I pay that.....

It just hit me. Drill a hole in the end (really about 1" or so from the end) of an 18" 1x2 that's of old wood, that you know is solid. Then use a sturdy deck screw to attach it to the bottom of a 2x4 that is part of a building or something. Or if you have a bit of iron rod with a hole in the end, same thing.

Wouldn't work exactly the way that metal hunk does, you'd have to attach the free end back to the 2x4 unless you held it, but I bet it would work. And if you used a bit of chain to attach it back to the 2x4, you could then fold it away when not using it.

 

[Beekissed]

oh okay! Good to know! I got ahold of the hen who has now lost 50% of her feathers (it nearly made me sick to my stomach with sadness to hold her) but She is SUPER CLEAN! Her skin is so pink and fleshy, the feathers that are coming out are so so clean. Not a single red or black spot on her or any of her lost feathers. I dont know that mites is any sort of an issue here. It is possible that it is starting out so slow that I wont see any evidence until it is a full on investation? The pictures I am seeing online of mites in chickens, the birds where THIS featherless but GROSS looking. You could see the evidence of mites without even being close. They almost look dirty! That is not her case at all. She looks so clean. The other wierd thing is its almost like the feathers are BREAKING off. the hard barb part is still in here?!?! Is that usual, I thought when they lost feathers the whole thing fall out right at the skin. NOT HER. Could the wrom problem cause feather loss?

You have one young rooster and not very many hens...could the rooster be giving her this broken feathers and excessive loss? Is most of the feather loss on the back and sides? Can you post pics of this flock, your coop, individual birds with the biggest problems? Pics are so very helpful.