Chicken Illness

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Davarm

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65
Location
North Central Texas
In the last month I've had four hens get sick and two died before I started bringing them inside.

They start out lethargic, then stop eating and their eyes start matting shut and swelling.

Two died before I noticed the problem, I brought the next four In the house, fed and watered them with with a syringe and tubing.

I dosed them with pennicillin twice a day and two have recovered and are back in the pen.

All the sick hens are/were about 2 years old, are cooped in a semi climate controlled coop and have free access the outside.

The flock is about 40 birds.

Anyone know what this could be?
 

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I've never had sick birds 'yet' thank goodness but will bump this up to see if someone else may know what the problem may be.
I think though out of 40 this is not a real bad problem and if antibiotics are helping it must be some kind of bacterial thing going on. They get sick liek us at times so good luck and hope things work out.
 
Listeria? Antibiotics helps if that is what it is. It can be caused by moldy feed. Especially grains.
 
Listeria? Antibiotics helps if that is what it is. It can be caused by moldy feed. Especially grains.

I know that can do it ,we always check the date and feed too. Sometimes is peeves off the feed store but so be it.
 
We've had chickens [ducks at one time] for 20 years and I'm learning a lot from this thread.
 
Don't think it could be a feed issue, I buy it from a feed store that's been here almost 100 years, no one else I know that buys there has had this problem.

I keep all the feed clean and dry and in pest proof containers.

I put one more hen back out in the coop, only have one left inside recovering.

My eggs have dropped by about half in the last month, way down from this time last year, if it goes any lower it will start costing me instead of making a profit.
 
We've had chickens [ducks at one time] for 20 years and I'm learning a lot from this thread.

We had chickens when I was growing up, only in the last 20 or so years have i had them myself.

I thought I knew chickens but I'm learning something new all the time.

My BIL raises meat chickens, those things grow up to 12 pounds in 45 days! That blew my mind, he feeds them 30% feed and they grow so fast they don't survive much older than 8 weeks.
 
My BIL raises meat chickens, those things grow up to 12 pounds in 45 days! That blew my mind, he feeds them 30% feed and they grow so fast they don't survive much older than 8 weeks.

It's amazing how fast they grow. People never believe me....
 
It's amazing how fast they grow. People never believe me....

It's kinda scary, go from a fluffball to 12+ pounds in that short time.

I'm going to give it a try this spring, I'm going to make my own feed though.

I'm pretty sure I can do it for a lot less than $20.00 For a 50 pound bag.
 
It's kinda scary, go from a fluffball to 12+ pounds in that short time.

I'm going to give it a try this spring, I'm going to make my own feed though.

I'm pretty sure I can do it for a lot less than $20.00 For a 50 pound bag.

$20? That's getting off easy, 30% feed is $32 for 50lbs here. We only use it when we are raising birds for the fair. Otherwise I use 15% layer crumbles to slow the growth down a bit.
 
$20? That's getting off easy, 30% feed is $32 for 50lbs here. We only use it when we are raising birds for the fair. Otherwise I use 15% layer crumbles to slow the growth down a bit.

My BIL buys it in bulk when he orders the chicks, he is/was the president of the local Livestock Association and has "connections"! lol

He has the process down to the point that when all the feed is eaten it's exactly time to process the birds.
 
We had chickens when I was growing up, only in the last 20 or so years have i had them myself.

I thought I knew chickens but I'm learning something new all the time.

My BIL raises meat chickens, those things grow up to 12 pounds in 45 days! That blew my mind, he feeds them 30% feed and they grow so fast they don't survive much older than 8 weeks.

Dave, these chickens who grow so fast suffer and IMO not very healthy for them or us.
Below may be a better alternative for meat birds.
Cornish hens are GMO bred.
A good heritage dual purpose bird is best ino.



 
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We use food grade DE to worm our hens. And now and then add vinegar to their water.
We have never bought medicated biddies or fed them medicated feed. I think it harms their immune systems but that is just me. But so far we have never had but one sick chicken peep or hen.
Always have grit available and we have never fed then eggs. We had one we killed by not changing its bowl when we first got chickens. Feed too old and turned toxic. Putting new feed on top of old feed killed Lucky our first rooster and second bird given to us . Chicklet was first bird given to us and she had lots of peeps. We don't name any animal here Lucky anymore since both had bad luck first was a baby bull got from stockyard.
In 21 years of raising them this seems to work for us. I only wish we could go all natural but since they eat feed store feed and scratch that is probably GMO so we aren't there yet.

Picture of unlucky Lucky on my beautiful donk Rosies back. She was having a bad hair day in this pic.


 
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$20? That's getting off easy, 30% feed is $32 for 50lbs here. We only use it when we are raising birds for the fair. Otherwise I use 15% layer crumbles to slow the growth down a bit.
$20? That's getting off easy, 30% feed is $32 for 50lbs here. We only use it when we are raising birds for the fair. Otherwise I use 15% layer crumbles to slow the growth down a bit.

I talked to my BIL a few days ago, he pays $16.00 per 50lb bag of 28% feed, paid $420.00 for enough to feed out 80 birds.
 
I talked to my BIL a few days ago, he pays $16.00 per 50lb bag of 28% feed, paid $420.00 for enough to feed out 80 birds.

That's just not right. I feel so ripped off... At least the kid got awesome prices when she made sale at the fair.
 
In the last month I've had four hens get sick and two died before I started bringing them inside.

They start out lethargic, then stop eating and their eyes start matting shut and swelling.

Two died before I noticed the problem, I brought the next four In the house, fed and watered them with with a syringe and tubing.

I dosed them with pennicillin twice a day and two have recovered and are back in the pen.

All the sick hens are/were about 2 years old, are cooped in a semi climate controlled coop and have free access the outside.

The flock is about 40 birds.

Anyone know what this could be?
This thread got off topic a bit. Dave, did you ever find out what was wrong with your birds?
 
I was going to say, not my fault this time!
Maybe the weather is making them sick. It has been all over the place weather-wise.
 
Not really sure what it was but they are all healthy now. I'm leaning toward bronchitis, that seems to fit the symptoms.

I used amoxicillin and pinkeye drops for their eye symptoms.

Glad they got well.
 
Several chickens have runny poop and they've had it for some time. They're not underweight. They don't act sick. I put the whole flock, chickens and Guineas, on probiotics for five days. Didn't help. Pardon the graphic verbiage; however, a few of them really blow it out the rear. I haven't changed their food. I know they're missing the grass they enjoyed during the summer. I thought about putting some apple cider vinegar with mother in their water . I haven't seen any worms and all the birds on which I've had necropsies done over the past few years have never had worms.

Any thoughts?
 
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