what top issues do I need to be aware of with chickens!

[stacey52783]

We just bough some baby chicks and I'm so new to all this. I want to raise these babies all natural and organic if possible. What are your natural cures or remedies for the most common chicken health issues? I'm also into essential oils and was hoping I'd find some info on using EO's safely with Chickens for common health problems? I am having a hard time finding info. Our babies are only 2 weeks old, so far it's been easy

 

[chooks4life]

Greetings and

Oregano oil, clove oil, black cumin, rosemary, etc are all oils I've read scientific peer-reviewed studies on the efficacy of in treatment of many diseases. Asides from that, for a bit of general advice, you could try this thread:
Quote: And wading through these threads for bits of info here and here may yield you some nuggets:
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Best wishes.

 

[Michael Apple]

We just bough some baby chicks and I'm so new to all this. I want to raise these babies all natural and organic if possible. What are your natural cures or remedies for the most common chicken health issues? I'm also into essential oils and was hoping I'd find some info on using EO's safely with Chickens for common health problems? I am having a hard time finding info. Our babies are only 2 weeks old, so far it's been easy

With my preference of high quality organic feed rations, there are no organic methods effective in preventing or treating Coccidiosis or intestinal worms, both of which are detrimental to young birds. At 2-3 weeks of age, if birds are not treated with an effective preventative such as Amprolium, periodically, until they reach 7-9 months of age, you can expect a higher rate of mortality, underweight birds, and poor egg production.

Here's some good information about coccidiosis:
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/1138/coccidiosis-control/

 

[chooks4life]

Garlic is extremely effective as coccidiosis prevention, actually. I've never had a single case of coccidiosis in any birds. I've also never had a mortality rate in chicks to anything but avian leukosis virus, in a few birds and for a very short time before I removed that family line, and the occasional accident or predator kill. No parasite problems either. Garlic given in the diet regularly does wonders.

Using calcium carbonate (lime) on the soil helps too, and there's a lot of other natural controls for parasites. I've used them to remove adult parasites from various species including roundworms, tapeworm, barberpole worm, and more internal parasites, and external ones as well.

They come to my place worm-riddled, go onto natural treatments, and never have any problems again. After all these years it's clearly not wishful thinking or imagination as some would believe.

Definitely doable, but perhaps not advisable for complete newbies who may be safer using chemicals because it's easier and requires doing no homework. If in doubt and if you think the animal's life is at stake, use whatever you feel will do the job. But please don't be fooled into thinking only chemicals work, lol. It's just not true.

Best wishes.

 

[chooks4life]

Regarding natural anthelmintics and other parasite controls... As with other natural treatments like those for cancer, viruses, bacteria, etc, they most certainly do exist and do work. There's quite a few verified, peer reviewed studies on them.

'Chemicals' exist all throughout the world and the only reason wildlife in plant and animal form persists is because there are natural controls against disease and parasites. Unfortunately some people think it has to be put into a bottle before it works, but that's just incorrect.

'Chemical' pesticides, referring to things that treat everything from agricultural pests to parasitic pests, are mostly derived from natural sources that work in natural form as well, after all.

Here's some links if you're interested, which I found on the first two pages of a google search, only took me a few minutes... I found this last year, skimmed it, and just saved it to share and read thoroughly later on, but I've since found many more, and better studies too. If you actually want to learn this stuff, it's out there.

Note: none of these are what I've based my practices or beliefs on, in fact I'd never seen these studies until last year when I did a casual search for this sort of info, whereas I've been keeping animals of many species for most of my life now and naturally treating them with success.

These are just a sample of the sort of studies which you can find in which herbal products have been tested against parasites. As I'm sure we both agree, though, you can find studies pro or anti anything. The proof is in the testing and every time I've tested natural treatments I've been amazed at the success rate. It's why I moved off chemical treatments and onto natural ones. I tested first, didn't just decide on a whim and leap in headfirst.

Results vary between studies, this isn't a definitive anything much, but it's some decent info on the topic anyway. Studies on the topic have been in existence for decades, but methodology is sometimes either questionable or incorrect and often biased.

Some PubMed studies finding herbs 'don't work' only list 'herbal product' and not species, dosage, form, nothing else.

So for all we know they 'extracted' the skins off garlic and threw it at the chickens, lol.

Other PubMed studies finding they do work list species and the relevant and necessary additional information.

Kinda strange discrepancy there, I don't get it...

Anyway, main point being such studies do exist, herbal anthelmintics and other parasite controls DO work. Application, product potency, and ignorance are the main weaknesses in herbal medicine as far as I've seen, people use the wrong things or the right things in the wrong form, or not enough or too much of them. Too many herbs share a common name with useless or even dangerous plants, or have useless commercial, 'culinary', or ornamental cultivars and not enough people know that. Education is key and if you lack it and choose to use 'chemical'/artificial wormers etc in the meantime, so what? Don't beat yourself up about it, the survival of the animal is the most important thing here.

Here's one where they tested sheep and goats with both conventional and herbal therapies. It's relevant to poultry because the very same herbs are used.
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Here's another study, on pigs this time... Again relevant to poultry because the same herbs are also used to kill worms in poultry:
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Here's a PubMed study on liver fluke treatment using 3 different herbs which again are also used in poultry:
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Here's a study (long read though) about infectious diseases caused by parasites in humans (many of which are similar to, or identical to the animal counterparts) and the herbs they found worked or didn't work against them. Again, the herbs can be used in poultry for the same or similar issues.
Quote: Here's a quote from that article above listing plants they found worked... Again, many are used by wild animals, and by/on domestic animals, including poultry.

There were more plants listed but this will do for now. Many of these herbs aren't commonly known to the modern farmer but used to be used by our ancestors and have been used for thousands of years, but each country has an almost entirely untapped lore of knowledge on the properties of herbs.

Most modern plant extracts used in chemical wormers etc were developed based on exploration into old knowledge bases of different countries and cultures; in fact this is still ongoing; one example of old herbal treatments being permethrin/pyrethrum family chemicals, aka 'Persian Gold' or 'Persian Pellitory' --- ancient farmers used that as a broad-spectrum insecticide long before it was put into a bottle, and it still works in natural form as well.
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As that shows, naturally occurring chemicals in plants can even treat worms that never come into contact with the actual plant matter itself, i.e. worms that do not live in or visit the digestive system to breed etc.

My experiences and personal research are what I base my methods on, I don't trust any claims about herbs or whatever without testing thoroughly, my animals are too important to me to gamble them on a theory. I'm pretty skeptical of things I've not proven for myself. But I test it before I dismiss it. Makes no sense to dismiss things one knows nothing about, after all!

There are uncounted other studies on this subject out there if you're willing to spend the time, and if you're not that's understandable and best wishes with your choices. Whatever works for you. Different strokes for different folks.

Best wishes.

 

[Michael Apple]

Stacy, if you want to know what is beneficial for your birds based upon laborious research and fact, visit a local Department of Poultry Science website such as this: http://poultry.ces.ncsu.edu/brooding/
Seeking the advice of accomplished Avian veterinarians, should you question prevention or treatment of disease, will be more beneficial for you and your birds than some of the common misinformation perpetuated on public forums.

 

[chooks4life]

I agree, it's very important to learn to ID a reputable source, whilst bearing in mind that all accepted science is perpetually in progress and constantly replacing old 'facts' with new information. Quite a few 'facts' taught on this forum are in fact only opinions and assumptions, especially the notions that there are 'no studies' and 'no proof' of herbal anti-parasite treatments working. It's not like it's hard to look up the facts of the matter.

My personal pet peeve is when assumptions and theories are taught as immutable facts, by the very sources we trust to know and mark the distinction between the two, e.g. 'reputable' sources, like universities, educational professionals (teaching biology etc for example), industry professionals (such as pathologists, veterinarians), etc. There are always many schools of thought on any topic even among the most highly accredited individuals. So testing things out can end up the only way you will really know for sure.

Teaching theories as facts without noting they are actually just theories closes most people's minds and prevents them from actually finding the truth because their minds are so set on an untrue 'fact' that they can no longer question or objectively evaluate anything, even if the results they're getting are clearly pointing to one or more 'facts' they've swallowed wholesale as being patently incorrect.

The sources I linked to before are in general very widely considered to be reputable, I highly doubt you'll find anyone on this forum that will argue with them. If in doubt, read the studies themselves, not just the conclusions derived from them. You can find how they obtained the results they did and judge for yourself.

Best wishes.