I got my 3 point of lay pullets about 14 months ago, and have been browsing BYC ever since - it's full of so much interesting and useful information from the other members. However, in the last couple of months I have found some - literally - life saving information, for which I will be eternally grateful.
My largest (and lowest in the pecking order) girl, Cinders, was going through her first molt. It wasn't that severe, but she was recovering from the attentions of an over-amorous rooster (that we had to get rid of due to his terrorising her morning, noon and night), so when she started to have diarrhea I didn't worry for the first few days. However, when it continued, I tried to identify it from the famous 'poo chart' ( http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0 ), but without success. Nothing I could find there or anywhere else on line looked even vaguely similar to the watery, smelly mess that my girl was producing.
I phoned a local vet who gave me medication for coccidosis, which I added to the water for a week, but there was no change. I could see that Cinders was looking poorly - lethargic (though she tried to hide it and join in with the flock), not interested in food (not even tinned sweetcorn, which is normally treated like crack cocaine by my girls!), and losing weight. I took her to see the vet, who said he suspected sour crop, and gave me a different medication. She took that fine in some cottage cheese the first day, barely ate anything the second day, and refused it point blank from then on - nothing I could mix it with interested her (and I spent a fortune on all the treats that she normally loves!) I couldn't even force feed her with my husband's help - she just wasn't going to eat. She weighed 3.5kg at the vet, and a week later she was down to 2.7kg, not eating, and looking awful. I had taken dropping samples to the vet, but he said he couldn't see anything in them. He suggested taking her to an avian specialist, but that was a 3 hour journey each way - just not possible for me. He didn't have any other ideas, and so I resigned myself to simply trying to persuade her to eat, and taking care of her as best I could. I planned on bringing her into the house if she became too weak to free-range with the others, and my husband agreed that if she started to suffer too much we would (very reluctantly) do what was best to end her suffering.
Needless to say I was extremely down and depressed about my inability to help a sick animal, but since I was on BYC looking for treatment ideas I decided to try and cheer myself up with a daily dose of Derperella. If you haven't come across Nambroth's thread about Derp yet, then you are missing out - her stories about a very special chicken are absolutely hilarious.
One warning before you click on the link below - it is extremely addictive - once you start reading about Derp, her friends and the 'fud lady' you won't be able to stop. (Don't say I didn't warn you!)
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/563302/derperella-the-weird-faverolles-friends
Whilst looking through the posts I noticed mention of a post about Derp's sister - Coho - who had been suffering with diarrhea. I clicked on the link :
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/613918/undigested-food-in-droppings-update-on-page-3/40
and lo and behold - a description of a sick chicken, complete with photo of diarrhea that was exactly what Cinders was going through! Thanks to Nambroth's updates on the situation I managed to find out what medication to give, and for how long, and to be prepared for a long recovery period.
I couldn't see my vet accepting my on-line diagnosis, but fortunately I had some amoxycilin left from a previous treatment, so I decided to treat her myself. It was 'kill or cure' stage, so I gave her what was probably at least a double dose (she needed about 1/3 of a gram a day, but my scales don't go down that low, so I measured a teaspoonful - 2.5g and then divided it into 3 doses!) For the first few days not a lot of difference, but it's now been 10 days, and what a change! Her feathers are looking better, she's up to over 3kg, and yesterday spent two hours 'helping' me dig over the new run I'm making for them - jumping on worms as soon as I turned them over. A week ago she wouldn't even look at a worm, let alone try to eat it.
I am so happy you wouldn't believe it (actually - anyone who has had a sick animal that recovered probably would believe it!), and I just want to say a big, huge, public THANK YOU to Nambroth (aka 'fud lady' aka Jennifer!) Without her posts and updates I would never have found out what was wrong with Cinders and how to treat her. You are a fantastic writer, artist, and member of BYC Nambroth, and I will be in your debt forever!
I am one of the guilty ones who posts a question on health / treatments, then finds the answer but never bothers to follow-up online to let people know how it turned out. This has changed my attitude - I will definitely be making certain that I post the results of any treatments that I do (good or bad), in the hope that it will help others in the way Nambroth (and Coho) helped me and Cinders.
I hope that others will also consider taking a bit of extra time just to post a follow-up to their questions. You never know - your information could turn out to be crucial to someone else out there!
My largest (and lowest in the pecking order) girl, Cinders, was going through her first molt. It wasn't that severe, but she was recovering from the attentions of an over-amorous rooster (that we had to get rid of due to his terrorising her morning, noon and night), so when she started to have diarrhea I didn't worry for the first few days. However, when it continued, I tried to identify it from the famous 'poo chart' ( http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0 ), but without success. Nothing I could find there or anywhere else on line looked even vaguely similar to the watery, smelly mess that my girl was producing.
I phoned a local vet who gave me medication for coccidosis, which I added to the water for a week, but there was no change. I could see that Cinders was looking poorly - lethargic (though she tried to hide it and join in with the flock), not interested in food (not even tinned sweetcorn, which is normally treated like crack cocaine by my girls!), and losing weight. I took her to see the vet, who said he suspected sour crop, and gave me a different medication. She took that fine in some cottage cheese the first day, barely ate anything the second day, and refused it point blank from then on - nothing I could mix it with interested her (and I spent a fortune on all the treats that she normally loves!) I couldn't even force feed her with my husband's help - she just wasn't going to eat. She weighed 3.5kg at the vet, and a week later she was down to 2.7kg, not eating, and looking awful. I had taken dropping samples to the vet, but he said he couldn't see anything in them. He suggested taking her to an avian specialist, but that was a 3 hour journey each way - just not possible for me. He didn't have any other ideas, and so I resigned myself to simply trying to persuade her to eat, and taking care of her as best I could. I planned on bringing her into the house if she became too weak to free-range with the others, and my husband agreed that if she started to suffer too much we would (very reluctantly) do what was best to end her suffering.
Needless to say I was extremely down and depressed about my inability to help a sick animal, but since I was on BYC looking for treatment ideas I decided to try and cheer myself up with a daily dose of Derperella. If you haven't come across Nambroth's thread about Derp yet, then you are missing out - her stories about a very special chicken are absolutely hilarious.
One warning before you click on the link below - it is extremely addictive - once you start reading about Derp, her friends and the 'fud lady' you won't be able to stop. (Don't say I didn't warn you!)
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/563302/derperella-the-weird-faverolles-friends
Whilst looking through the posts I noticed mention of a post about Derp's sister - Coho - who had been suffering with diarrhea. I clicked on the link :
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/613918/undigested-food-in-droppings-update-on-page-3/40
and lo and behold - a description of a sick chicken, complete with photo of diarrhea that was exactly what Cinders was going through! Thanks to Nambroth's updates on the situation I managed to find out what medication to give, and for how long, and to be prepared for a long recovery period.
I couldn't see my vet accepting my on-line diagnosis, but fortunately I had some amoxycilin left from a previous treatment, so I decided to treat her myself. It was 'kill or cure' stage, so I gave her what was probably at least a double dose (she needed about 1/3 of a gram a day, but my scales don't go down that low, so I measured a teaspoonful - 2.5g and then divided it into 3 doses!) For the first few days not a lot of difference, but it's now been 10 days, and what a change! Her feathers are looking better, she's up to over 3kg, and yesterday spent two hours 'helping' me dig over the new run I'm making for them - jumping on worms as soon as I turned them over. A week ago she wouldn't even look at a worm, let alone try to eat it.
I am so happy you wouldn't believe it (actually - anyone who has had a sick animal that recovered probably would believe it!), and I just want to say a big, huge, public THANK YOU to Nambroth (aka 'fud lady' aka Jennifer!) Without her posts and updates I would never have found out what was wrong with Cinders and how to treat her. You are a fantastic writer, artist, and member of BYC Nambroth, and I will be in your debt forever!
I am one of the guilty ones who posts a question on health / treatments, then finds the answer but never bothers to follow-up online to let people know how it turned out. This has changed my attitude - I will definitely be making certain that I post the results of any treatments that I do (good or bad), in the hope that it will help others in the way Nambroth (and Coho) helped me and Cinders.
I hope that others will also consider taking a bit of extra time just to post a follow-up to their questions. You never know - your information could turn out to be crucial to someone else out there!