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- #21
This is so true! This forum has been very helpful, but it also makes me go crazy because every sickness has a "solution" and I feel guilty if I don't treat it. I was proud that I nursed a fully paralized marek's chicken back to health, but then my mom was like, "don't you have anything better to do with your time?" lol.If you had 15 of any creature I suspect it would be the same. It's not so much that chickens are sickly fragile creatures, it's we tend to have a lot of chickens compared to the more usual household kept creatures.
Then one has to account for the keeper who often sees problems that they believe need intevention which in all probability don't, even with the seriously sick.
Sometimes one does get a chicken that catches everything much like some children. I think one of the skills one learns through experience is knowing when and what one is prepared to treat and what one isn't.
The forum boards on chicken sites are full off sick chicken posts. The problem is often that the poster is advised to treat when experience and reasearch shows even with the best care the chicken is going to die. One might hold death back a few months, but at what cost to the stress of chicken and keeper.
Some prefer to let nature take it's course, others kill the bird when it's apparent that they won't survive without assistance.
There is a very long list of chicken health problems and an equally long list of medications and treatments. Research the more common diseases and problems and make a decision on which you are prepared and capable of treating and which you're not you may find helps.