What's Up With All These Sick Chickens?

[rosemarythyme]

from what I have seen on all these forums, I don't think there is a sicker animal, than a chicken. Mites, lice, Mareks, Newcastle, Coccidiosis, fowl pox, mycoplasmosis, avian influenza, samonella, bound egg.... then there is the quarateen

I'm nowhere near as experienced as some of the old timers on here, but let's see...

I've had mites once (it was bad but once I treated it was completely under control). I've had coccidiosis once. A few cases of bumblefoot. Wry neck once (but that particular bird had all sorts of congenital issues, and even then she lived over 2 years and even laid).

Salmonella is thankfully NOT an issue in my flock and I can use my eggs raw or undercooked without worry. Mmm caesar dressing!

Hardest part of chicken keeping is that realistically there isn't the option of veterinary care for many of us. And that means learning to do surgery or put birds down yourself.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Honestly, in my experience I would say that chickens are more prone to health issues than any other bird I’ve had. (I’ve had ducks, geese, guinea fowl, quail, and pigeons.) This is partly due to them having so many reproductive issues due to being bred to lay so many eggs, and also partly because chickens are wide spread, with many people having large flocks, which results in infective diseases (such as Marek’s virus) being a lot more common. Things like sour/impacted crop, external parasites, and bumblefoot are a pretty common experience for chickens. Though I will say that I’ve never had a chicken with confirmed internal parasites, whereas my pigeons seem to get internal parasites more easily.

 

[McChooky]

Well let's just look at a few horse diseases for comparison. Here's what AI offered up:

Common horse diseases include contagious viral diseases like Equine Herpesvirus (EHV) and Equine Influenza, and mosquito-borne illnesses such as West Nile Virus and Eastern/Western Equine Encephalitis. Other common issues include non-contagious conditions like colic and laminitis, and bacterial infections like strangles. Vaccination and proper veterinary care are crucial for prevention...

Not to mention the myriad ways horses have of trying to kill themselves, each other and their owners, often with no malice whatsoever ... dogs and cats also suffer from a multitude of maladies. As do goats, sheep (oh, don't even get started on sheep, sheep will die if you look at them cross-eyed!). If you hang out at any forum dedicated to any of these critters (lizards ... fish ... anything, really), you'll come away amazed that ANY creature manages to survive outside the womb without constant intervention.

Chickens are actually amazingly tough and resilient. Unless you're particularly squeamish, you might follow some of the threads where chickens have suffered extreme physical trauma, mutilations, even amputations, and survived. Not their heads, though. I don't think I've seen any instances where a chicken survived a head amputation.

I don't know what the Guiness Book of records is but I saw one flip flop and roll 40 ft to the bottom of a hill all the way to the creek and out of sight after dad rung its neck.I thought it got away