Wild Chicks Limping

[Eber]

Is it possible for you to contact local conservation officials for advice on how to keep the hawks away?

Thanks, Kneedles, for thinking of protecting them. To be honest, living in Hawaii, I think they would probably laugh at me. A friend mentioned she was talking to a local friend who was describing the magnificence of the hawks in her area as they were catching wild chicks. She then caught a baby and threw it up in the air for the hawk to catch, which it did, hoping her friend could snap a photo.

I intervened in the natural order when I started feeding the wild chickens, who then had chicks. If I had it to do over again, I would not have interfered. . . .

 

[Kneedles]

It was just a suggestion based on the fact that hawks are a protected species in Hawaii, and shooting them would get you in a lot of trouble.
You could lie slightly and say that you are raising free-range table birds?

 

[aart]

IIRC there are hundreds of feral chickens in Hawaii...to the point they are a nuisance.
Kind of like pythons in Florida, people let their pets go and they can survive and reproduce in the climate...a sort of invasive species.

 

[Eber]

As for the limp, you could try giving it Poultry Nutri-Drench.... I hear it's a life saver.

We started giving some Goat Nutri-Drench, since the ingredients are almost identical and the brindle one is really liking it! The others have access to a dish of it, too. Thanks, again Shamo.

The brindle one is still down and the light-colored one with the bump on her nose is still limping. I tried b-vitamins yesterday and it seemed to kind of bring the brindle down so I started giving nutritional yeast twice a day instead, on top of a bit of cracked corn. The feed store is 1.5 hours away but hope to go soon.

I'm starting to wonder if it's Marek's disease as the Brindle now has some wort-like bumps on his face. Also found some mites on them today . . . .

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Can you post some photos of the bumps?
If you found mites, you can treat those with a Permethrin based poultry spray or dust.
Mites can weaken birds so it's best to get rid of those as soon as possible.

 

[Apocalypse]

I recently read an article on the feral chickens of hawaii. They are reverting back to jungle fowl with some interesting improvements .

 

[Kneedles]

I recently read an article on the feral chickens of hawaii. They are reverting back to jungle fowl with some interesting improvements .

They won't be 'reverting back'; feral chickens can't become actual red junglefowl. It must have been a poorly-worded article.

 

[Eber]

Can you post some photos of the bumps?
If you found mites, you can treat those with a Permethrin based poultry spray or dust.
Mites can weaken birds so it's best to get rid of those as soon as possible.

Thanks for the tip on Permethrin - I was going to research what might be best and add that to the list at the feed store.

Here are some pictures of his face with the mole-like bumps around his eyes.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thanks for the tip on Permethrin - I was going to research what might be best and add that to the list at the feed store.

Here are some pictures of his face with the mole-like bumps around his eyes.

Look like it could be Fowl Pox which is a virus spread by insects, mainly mosquitoes. It usually will run it's course over several weeks.

https://the-chicken-chick.com/fowl-pox-prevention-treatmen/

 

[Eber]

Thank you, Wyorp Rock! I called our extension office and was told that Fowl Pox is most likely what it is . . . . I appreciate the link. This week I picked up some vaccines per his suggestion but it's spreading within all four chicks so I don't think that would be helpful. We could give it to our two (currently running free) big chickens but I've heard they can die from sudden stress (and we armatures are not too excited to poke our birds).

With the help of Poultry Cell, and Nutri Drench (goat formula, since it's similar and we had some), the Brindle is doing better and it's able to get around a little bit. The other birds are enjoying the vitamin waters, too. I'm still adding nutritional yeast to their Broiler Mash.

I bought a power pyrethrin and a concentrated spray for the mites. We are going to dust the chicks today. It looks like the concentration would call for about 2.25 grams of powder per bird. The spray is a little scary to use -- so toxic. We'll take our birds out and spray the pen and surrounding area, let it dry and put them back in. If anyone has a sense of how long to leave the pen empty after using the pyrethrin spray, please let me know. Will look it up online, too.

Very grateful for everyone's help. You all probably saved these birds lives!

Mahalo!