Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[sphinxface]

Wingding, I like your little profile icon picture, it's neat!

 

[Chickielady]

So I've been curious, it's a mix of a general question and area specific one.

Do chickens typically get regular check ups? Is taking fecal samples to a vet a normal thing? And specifically, if I was looking for someone in my area to do something related, how would I know where to go?

No a fecal is not normal, and rarely done, although some have done it in the past as they have suspected a cocci infection.
Of course vets have told me several times that coci will always show up in a chicken's fecal study as they live in the soil & in the bird's intestines.
There will always be cocci in the birds.
To "get rid of" cocci is impossible.
What you have to do is "acclimate" the new chicks to the parasite, slowly, so their immunal systems can blueprint the bugs & thereafter they prevent the bugs from doing any damage to the birds' intestinal walls.
An unacclimated chick, with no medication, can have their intestinal walls attacked and the result is seeing alot of blood all over your brooder floors, and hopefully you catch the issue in time to prevent deaths.
That and most vets have little idea of anything pertaining to birds (or fish) as they have not practiced that area of vet sciences.
There are avain vets out there, though.
If you want to do a "get together" with BYCers in your area, psot/host a tea or luncheon in your area & see who else is around & interested.

 

[sphinxface]

No a fecal is not normal, and rarely done, although some have done it in the past as they have suspected a cocci infection.
Of course vets have told me several times that coci will always show up in a chicken's fecal study as they live in the soil & in the bird's intestines.
There will always be cocci in the birds.
To "get rid of" cocci is impossible.
What you have to do is "acclimate" the new chicks to the parasite, slowly, so their immunal systems can blueprint the bugs & thereafter they prevent the bugs from doing any damage to the birds' intestinal walls.
An unacclimated chick, with no medication, can have their intestinal walls attacked and the result is seeing alot of blood all over your brooder floors, and hopefully you catch the issue in time to prevent deaths.
That and most vets have little idea of anything pertaining to birds (or fish) as they have not practiced that area of vet sciences.
There are avain vets out there, though.
If you want to do a "get together" with BYCers in your area, psot/host a tea or luncheon in your area & see who else is around & interested.

Thanks for all the info! And the suggestion!

What about testing for worms?

Hosting a meetup seems almost too much for me but at the same time I am interested in meeting people.. Ah!

 

[littleredwagon]

@sphinxface
I'd almost have enough room for everyone and their birds just in my front yard, but alas I'm not very central to everyone else :c
A chicken day would be so much fun.

 

[Chickielady]

Thanks for all the info! And the suggestion!

What about testing for worms?

Hosting a meetup seems almost too much for me but at the same time I am interested in meeting people.. Ah!

Most of us worm ourselves.
I do at least 2 X a year.
I use Eprinex in fall, to try & prevent the birds having to deal with a parasitic load over winter, and I do it again in spring when they come into hard laying.
Generally, round worms need to be dealt with 2X or they just come back.
You have to administer wormer, and do so again after 3 weeks.
I just had to do the same thing with my cats.
Eprinex works great, easy to give (at night) and kills topical & internal parasites.
I have heard it does not kill feather louse, as they do not actually bite the birds.
I have never seen feather louse on my chickens, but I have seen it heavy on migrating waterfowl we have hunted.
I am not positive if eprinex kills gapes, and I had not thought gaps a problem here in the PNW, but the avian vet who was here last week says YES, gapes are here, and he just had to deal with a pheasant ranch somewhere up here that had over 1500 birds, infested with gapes.
They dealt with the parasite with a vermifuge in the bird's water system, killing the worms.

A few BYCers have meet ups, I know Carolyn did a few up her way.
There was a few meet ups in the Seattle area for a while.
Some host at home, some meet up at a Coffee or Bookshop.
It is fun to do a meet up at a Sandwich or Pizza parlour too....juat post where you are, scope out a few choices for a meet up & ask if anyone wants to meet up (close by you) to PM you & start making a list where you can all meet & when.

 

[sphinxface]

I just gave them some wazine 17 a couple days ago, it was 1 tablespoon in 1 gallon of water and I ended up dumping out at least half of it.. I was a little worried they didn't get a strong enough dose? How am I supposed to know? ;(

I planned on giving them the safe guard for goats also, I suppose that would/should take care of anything the wazine didn't get?

 

[QuiltinGramma]

That turkey has a face only a mother could love....I agree those feathers are beautiful.

Now then, chickielady, you said,
"Most of us worm ourselves.
I do at least 2 X a year."

That strikes me as something I hope I never have to do to myself...my chickens, yes, but I hope never to myself.

Do you just routinely put it on the calendar (like January & July) to worm the chickens or only when you are aware there is a problem? (and it evens out that you have to worm a couple of times a year?)

This is such an informative, entertaining thread.

 

[Chickielady]

I just gave them some wazine 17 a couple days ago, it was 1 tablespoon in 1 gallon of water and I ended up dumping out at least half of it.. I was a little worried they didn't get a strong enough dose? How am I supposed to know? ;(

I planned on giving them the safe guard for goats also, I suppose that would/should take care of anything the wazine didn't get?

There is a dosage on the label.
It is thought that Wazine can help eliminate alot of the parasite load before you do Eprinex.
Killing alot of parasites all at once is said to be difficult on a bird's (or any animals') immunal system, and can creat a toxin of sorts (IDK for sure) and for a long time most of us did Wazine, and then a week later we did Eprinex, and 3 weeks later we did Eprinex again.
NOW I just do Eprinex, and it paralyzes the worms & they get popped out at night & you can see some in the morning.
Unfortunately, Wazine does not kill them all and Wazine has a withdrawal so you cannot eat any eggs for a while.
Eprinex kills mites, biting & sucking lice, and internal parasites.
Any birds that free range or are on SOIL can have internal worms.
They get it from an intermediate host, such as a earth worm, which they LOVE.
Just like cats (and dogs) get worms from eating fleas...and I do not eat fleas anymore, so I do not have to take Wazine or Eprinex any longer (the dosage was SO HIGH given they go by body weight !!!)

 

[Chickielady]

That turkey has a face only a mother could love....I agree those feathers are beautiful.

Now then, chickielady, you said,
"Most of us worm ourselves.
I do at least 2 X a year."

That strikes me as something I hope I never have to do to myself...my chickens, yes, but I hope never to myself.

Do you just routinely put it on the calendar (like January & July) to worm the chickens or only when you are aware there is a problem? (and it evens out that you have to worm a couple of times a year?)

This is such an informative, entertaining thread.

 

[Natalierose]

Hey, do yall know where I can get some banty cochins? Thinking about calling North 40 (whatever its called, aka Big R) since they got SOME kind of babes in.

I know there is someone on CL in Parkland, WA who is selling Bantam Cochins.

Our feed store got them in ONCE at the very beginning of spring and I got 1 and she was the one chick I lost