What the heck- having a rash of egg binding here- why?!

[coldinnh]

Thank you.
It has been awhile since Ive been on and battling it again with my other red hen.
Her belly is solid and I know that she is laying internally.
I have had enough pass (Lost my two naked necks to it) to know when they are uncomfortable. I thought it may have been peritinitis earlier and gave antibiotics. Seemed to help but she still hasn't laid. I keep her comfortable and happy. My other hens seem to be fine from same batch from McMurrays. I did get some other hens after from TSC... now I am thinking that maybe I should just go to the swaps or order from small hatcheries. I don't have the heart to go through this. (What hadn't been lost to other animals I have lost to the internal laying.)

 

[speckledhen]

Remember, your swaps can be a tricky place to buy stock. Most are probably still of hatchery lines and sometimes, you bring illness home with the birds. Getting eggs or chicks from a reputable breeder of good stock, not just a propagator of hatchery stock, may help you see this malfunction less and less. It's not a complete guarantee, but once my direct hatchery hens were gone, I saw it on a much less frequent basis. Now, I have a large batch of 4, 5 an 6 yr old hens who are still laying and seem fine for the moment. My 6 1/2 yr old hatchery Brahma hasn't laid in a year, and just now, her abdomen seems enlarged, but at her age, I more suspect reproductive cancer and impending congestive heart failure than EYP or classic internal laying.

 

[casportpony]

I've lost four in the last 8 weeks to cancer or EYP and there are a few more with large bellies that I don't think will last much longer.

 

[rancher hicks]

Please allow me to interject some thoughts from my reading.

FAT or overweight hens are more prone to have laying problems.

Based on what I read about the coddling and spoiling of birds I'm not surprised there aren't more problems. Like the Cats and Dogs we see that are fat and can hardly walk I suspect this is true with some hens. Fat hens do not lay well even when they do lay. I personally am not impressed by these hens that lay gigantic eggs.

Respiratory problems can most likely be traced to a poor ventilation system. Hang a hygrometer in your coop and you may be surprised. Recent reading in Practical Poultry magazine again reiterates that heat in the coop is NOT necessary and yet many keep insisting on heating the coop. Keep things dry. While the deep litter method keeps things warm it also keeps thing humid. Not a good thing.

As for hatcheries? I call them the "puppy mills" of the chicken world. I personally have been contacted for large supply of hatching eggs.

Finally keep in mind that Stress kills. Not only chickens but humans too. When I'm out and about with the birds they are much more calmer than not. If there is squawking going on they seem to calm down and come out hiding.

Even little things like a change in the placement of a feeder can throw them off, I've noticed. At these times I need to be around for their security, even if it's just putzing in the garden.

Take care,

Rancher

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Please allow me to interject some thoughts from my reading.

FAT or overweight hens are more prone to have laying problems.

Based on what I read about the coddling and spoiling of birds I'm not surprised there aren't more problems. Like the Cats and Dogs we see that are fat and can hardly walk I suspect this is true with some hens. Fat hens do not lay well even when they do lay. I personally am not impressed by these hens that lay gigantic eggs.

Respiratory problems can most likely be traced to a poor ventilation system. Hang a hygrometer in your coop and you may be surprised. Recent reading in Practical Poultry magazine again reiterates that heat in the coop is NOT necessary and yet many keep insisting on heating the coop. Keep things dry. While the deep litter method keeps things warm it also keeps thing humid. Not a good thing.

As for hatcheries? I call them the "puppy mills" of the chicken world. I personally have been contacted for large supply of hatching eggs.

Finally keep in mind that Stress kills. Not only chickens but humans too. When I'm out and about with the birds they are much more calmer than not. If there is squawking going on they seem to calm down and come out hiding.

Even little things like a change in the placement of a feeder can throw them off, I've noticed. At these times I need to be around for their security, even if it's just putzing in the garden.

Take care,

Rancher

All good points. Especially the ventilation and coddling issues. Coddling helps neither the bird or the breed. I'll lay odds that at least half of the people who post in the emergencies section about breathing, coughing issues have tight coops.

 

[casportpony]

FWIW, mine all free range, most sleep in trees or ladders, and most of my poultry health issues have Marek's, histomoniais (peas and turkeys) and EYP.

 

[rancher hicks]

FWIW, mine all free range, most sleep in trees or ladders, and most of my poultry health issues have Marek's, histomoniais (peas and turkeys) and EYP.

I can't address Mareks, but if Histomoniasis is caused by a protozoan parasite isn't there some way to deal with how it get introduced to the bird?

Drugs have been produced that will control the disease but there may be restrictions on their use in commercial flocks. Frequent worming of flocks with benzimidazole anthelminthics helps reduce exposure to the caecal worms that carry the infection. Good management and biosecurity principles are important control factors. Good sanitation, housing birds on wire or concrete floors or intensive re-littering for floor-housed birds can reduce the level of infection. Chickens and turkeys should be kept separated. Control relies on good management and control of the caecal worm (H. gallinae).


Would it help to use DE to dust on the floor of the coop? I dust the floor liberally when cleaning and then sprinkle DE on top of the wood shavings, so that birds dust them selves when they roll around in the shavings.

On the Mareks, I will venture this. I ordered chicks last year from a breeder recommended. I sold most of the chicks after a few weeks but the ones I kept all came down with Marek type symptoms and I put them down.

I knew they were this breeder line as I had banded all my own stock. These birds were young and just came into lay. Perhaps the Mareks problem you're having is being brought in?

The moral for me is that no matter how well recommended a breeder problems can and do happen. I will be very reluctant to buy chicks from others but rather keep a closed flock.

Also some breeds are more resistant to Mareks than other.

 

[speckledhen]

Free ranging has nothing to do with reproductive issues. Those are related to hormones and genetics.

I have had no Mareks or Mareks-like symptoms here, ever, and I have free ranged in my mountain woods ever since my first chicks were about 12 weeks old, years ago.

When those issues began when my first hens were 2 years old, I began consulting very knowledgeable folks, including a PhD in poultry science. After years of losses to the same thing in my hatchery stock, the consensus was that I must get my stock elsewhere from better genetic lines. And that has been the key for me.

 

[rancher hicks]

Free ranging has nothing to do with reproductive issues. Those are related to hormones and genetics.

I have had no Mareks or Mareks-like symptoms here, ever, and I have free ranged in my mountain woods ever since my first chicks were about 12 weeks old, years ago.

When those issues began when my first hens were 2 years old, I began consulting very knowledgeable folks, including a PhD in poultry science. After years of losses to the same thing in my hatchery stock, the consensus was that I must get my stock elsewhere from better genetic lines. And that has been the key for me.

I agree. Strangely enough none of the birds I mentioned, were free ranged, but in enclosed runs. I have had no problem since. They were all from the birds I got as chicks. Was it Mareks I don't know, but none of them are alive today. The rooster or the hens all got sick. Three total. None of my free ranged birds have had ANY problems. Other than the hens keep going broody.

 

[gg706]

I had a round of this as well several months ago. I had 2 hens eggbind at the same time on their first egg. I culled them. It seemed to me from the advice I recieved here on BYC that once they bind they tend to bind again over and over. The birds were in distress and very uncomfortable. I feel like culling them was the best choice for me and my hens. Of course you need to do what is right for you. But I would cull them and get some new stock as suggested.