pouletfrancais
Hatching
- Jun 29, 2022
- 3
- 0
- 9
Hi. Sorry, this is probably going to be a really long and complicated case. If you find it too long to read, please tell me and I'll shorten it.
I adopted 3 hens from my neighbour, about a month ago. Two of them died, in circumstances I'll detail later. In total, I have 7 hens. I had 9 before two died.
First, let me speak of the live one. Let me specify the signs are very subtle and I wouldn't have noticed anything if I didn't know two hens died prior.
Type of bird : just a regular red laying hen. She is about 3 years old, I adopted her from my neighbour so I don't know exactly.
Behaviour : She has seemed tired for two weeks at least. As you can see on th pictures, her attitude is tired : tail down, head kind of burried in the shoulders, doesn't come to greet me and is apart from the rest... She still is somewhat active, she doesn't look completely beaten, but there's a clear decrease. Sometimes, I even see her looking sleepy while the others are in good shape.
Other signs, poop : None in perticular. No diarrhea, no blood in the poop, still eats consistently (though less than her friends). She doesn't lay eggs anymore. I notice that her butt is a little dirty though.
Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? :
There is one hen that looks kind of tired too, but not as much. It's time for me to speak about the two dead hens.
A month ago, one of my hens, who was also adopted from the neighbour, died. She started off looking extremely tired, about a week before dying. When massaging her crop, she would puke out brown, smelly liquid. Her poop looked green-yellow-ish at times, normal at other times. They didn't contain any visible parasites. 3 days before dying, she was so tired she couldn't even stand, which allowed me to weigh her and she was 1.75kg (they are supposed to be 2-2.5 kg..). She was about 3 years old. Here's a picture of her a day before she died.
A week ago, another hen died, who was also adopted from my neighbour. This one died much quicker. I didn't notice her exhibiting any signs of deep fatigue, until 2 hours before her death. Her crop seemed not to contain any liquid.
What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation? A lot, hard to untangle. A month ago, I noticed they had mallophaga. The first hen that died didn't seem infected. You might notice on the picture, some of my hens lost a lot of feathers. I am treating them with diatomean powder twice a week ever since I noticed, and we also let them bathe in ashes. However, that one tired hen seems to be less attained than the rest.
Spring coming by, red mites started proliferating. We took out the wooden henhouse and replaced it with plastic planks, we are treating everything with fire and diatomean powder in every corner. We also used insecticide on the henhouse, which will remain outside of their cage until the end of summer. They aren't that many but I guess it might not have helped my fragile hens survive.
These disturbances were enough to impact egg laying. My 7 hens usually give me 6 eggs, it went down to 2-3 eggs a week ago, but is now rising back up to 5 eggs.
We also have rats that come swoosh the food every now and then, small sparrows too
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far Rubbing her with diatomean powder.. I know my mom massaged them with oil two weeks ago to help with the mallophaga, and rubs vaseline onto their bare skin to help with the irritation.
She kind of freaked out when a second hen died.. A few days ago, she put some flubendazole in their water (from a prescription she had for herself)... It was 100mg in 3 liters of water, for 7 hens. I don't know if that dosage is correct, the hens all drank it and most seem fine. (I was really mad she did this and she won't do it again. She could have poisoned them!).
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? We want to treat them completely by ourself, as a vet is beyond our budget.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use Originally, they used a small wooden henhouse, which is placed within a 9m² cage where they live, with a 9m² "court" next to it that they can access during the day. We use wood chips or straws for bedding. Poop is removed and straws changed every other day.
With the red mites infestation, we replaced the henhouse with plastic planks and a crate.
I don't know if I should worry. What can I do to heal her? I haven't gotten the chance to weigh her, but even if I accounted a weight loss, what could I do?
I adopted 3 hens from my neighbour, about a month ago. Two of them died, in circumstances I'll detail later. In total, I have 7 hens. I had 9 before two died.
First, let me speak of the live one. Let me specify the signs are very subtle and I wouldn't have noticed anything if I didn't know two hens died prior.
Type of bird : just a regular red laying hen. She is about 3 years old, I adopted her from my neighbour so I don't know exactly.
Behaviour : She has seemed tired for two weeks at least. As you can see on th pictures, her attitude is tired : tail down, head kind of burried in the shoulders, doesn't come to greet me and is apart from the rest... She still is somewhat active, she doesn't look completely beaten, but there's a clear decrease. Sometimes, I even see her looking sleepy while the others are in good shape.
Other signs, poop : None in perticular. No diarrhea, no blood in the poop, still eats consistently (though less than her friends). She doesn't lay eggs anymore. I notice that her butt is a little dirty though.
Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? :
There is one hen that looks kind of tired too, but not as much. It's time for me to speak about the two dead hens.
A month ago, one of my hens, who was also adopted from the neighbour, died. She started off looking extremely tired, about a week before dying. When massaging her crop, she would puke out brown, smelly liquid. Her poop looked green-yellow-ish at times, normal at other times. They didn't contain any visible parasites. 3 days before dying, she was so tired she couldn't even stand, which allowed me to weigh her and she was 1.75kg (they are supposed to be 2-2.5 kg..). She was about 3 years old. Here's a picture of her a day before she died.
A week ago, another hen died, who was also adopted from my neighbour. This one died much quicker. I didn't notice her exhibiting any signs of deep fatigue, until 2 hours before her death. Her crop seemed not to contain any liquid.
What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation? A lot, hard to untangle. A month ago, I noticed they had mallophaga. The first hen that died didn't seem infected. You might notice on the picture, some of my hens lost a lot of feathers. I am treating them with diatomean powder twice a week ever since I noticed, and we also let them bathe in ashes. However, that one tired hen seems to be less attained than the rest.
Spring coming by, red mites started proliferating. We took out the wooden henhouse and replaced it with plastic planks, we are treating everything with fire and diatomean powder in every corner. We also used insecticide on the henhouse, which will remain outside of their cage until the end of summer. They aren't that many but I guess it might not have helped my fragile hens survive.
These disturbances were enough to impact egg laying. My 7 hens usually give me 6 eggs, it went down to 2-3 eggs a week ago, but is now rising back up to 5 eggs.
We also have rats that come swoosh the food every now and then, small sparrows too
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far Rubbing her with diatomean powder.. I know my mom massaged them with oil two weeks ago to help with the mallophaga, and rubs vaseline onto their bare skin to help with the irritation.
She kind of freaked out when a second hen died.. A few days ago, she put some flubendazole in their water (from a prescription she had for herself)... It was 100mg in 3 liters of water, for 7 hens. I don't know if that dosage is correct, the hens all drank it and most seem fine. (I was really mad she did this and she won't do it again. She could have poisoned them!).
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? We want to treat them completely by ourself, as a vet is beyond our budget.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use Originally, they used a small wooden henhouse, which is placed within a 9m² cage where they live, with a 9m² "court" next to it that they can access during the day. We use wood chips or straws for bedding. Poop is removed and straws changed every other day.
With the red mites infestation, we replaced the henhouse with plastic planks and a crate.
I don't know if I should worry. What can I do to heal her? I haven't gotten the chance to weigh her, but even if I accounted a weight loss, what could I do?
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