Chicken Medicine Cabinet

I have just added a new page to the site called Chicken Medicine Cabinet. On it I will/have list/ed some of the remedies I use in caring for my chickens. There are also recipes for special diets to feed to sick chickens. Where the information is not mine, I have tried to refer to the websites I have gleaned it from with links included to the original source.

Please be aware that these are just some things I have tried over time with varying success rates. You should not presume that these remedies are a replacement for the expert opinion of a qualified vet or specialist. I am not a vet, nor do I have any training in animal medicine. Please take these hints and tips in the spirit they are offered in, and consult a veterinarian if your animal does not improve within a reasonable timeframe.

You can view the page by clicking on the tab above.

Diary of a sick cockerel

One of our young Australorp cockerels has been sick for the past couple of weeks. I first noticed that he was making a strange noise on inhalation every so often, about two weeks ago. It didn't seem to be distressing him, so I just decided that as long as his color was good, he was eating and active as usual, I'd just keep an eye on him and see how things progressed.

He was much the same for about a week, and I was glad to think the condition wasn't getting any worse. I posted on a couple of forums and facebook groups about him, and was advised that what I was doing  (or not doing) was okay as long as the bird seemed well otherwise.

At the beginning of the second week, I noticed that his wheeze was more pronounced and more frequent, so I was a little bit more concerned at that point. I took a video of him making the noise and posted it on my usual poultry haunts.

As you can hear in this video, the sound was now happening on both inspiral (breathing in) and expiral (breathing out). The bird still seemed well otherwise. No nasal discharge, no bad smell, no watery or bubbly eyes and his appetite was still good. Apart from this wheeze there was nothing amiss with him.

A couple of people suggested dosing him with vitamins in the water (which I had already commenced the week before) and trying some garlic oil or getting him an antibiotic or trying to nebulise him with a product called F10 SC.

Not having a nebuliser, that option was impractical, and I couldn't find any local feed barn that carried the antibiotics I'd need.

By now, I had tried vitamins in his water, and had given him some naturopathic tissue salts (Combination 12) to help him fight off the infection on his own.

Finally, lacking any ideas for what else I could do, I mixed up a wet mash of vegetables with oatmeal, molasses, garlic and oregano and fed that to him. He wolfed it down with great gusto and his wheezing stopped almost immediately! Apart from a small raspy wheeze if he gets stressed now, he hardly wheezes at all anymore.

I am putting it down to one of three possibilities.

1. The illness had run its course and he was going to get well anyway
2. He had something lodged in his trachea and the wet mash helped to dislodge it
3. My naturopathic and organic methods gave him the support he needed to fight off the infection

I think it could possibly be a combination of all the above. I'm just glad that he seems better now.

Giving Pills to Chickens

From time to time, chickens can and do get ill, just as humans do. This can range from something as simple as eating something that disagrees with her, right up to life threatening illnesses such as cancer or a form of paralysis called Marek's disease.

Sometimes it is easy to diagnose the problem, and other times, it is really just guesswork and or acting on a hunch.

I have been watching Rosie (pictured) my little ISA Brown for about a week now, not entirely happy with her state of health, but unable to decide if she had anything really ailing her or not.

She's been just... different. Not her usual self. She's lost a little weight, has had some diarrheoa, and keeps shaking her head, all of which can be signs of a respiratory illness in chickens, and yet, otherwise she's been well. No sneezing, no sniffles, no wheezing, no signs of lice or intestinal worms. I'd been treating her symptoms by feeding her a little extra protein, and just making sure there was plenty of fresh, clean water available, and monitoring her condition for any deterioration.

Today, deciding it won't kill her, even if it doesn't cure her, I decided to give her a dose of tissue salts combination 12. This is a homeopathic remedy which I take when I feel the onset of a cold and find that it helps to fight off the virus/infection before it takes hold, so I figured it might be worth a try for Rosie. It is a general tonic which is useful in the treatment of overall fatigue and exhaustion.

Given the tiny trace amount of active ingredients in these pills, I decided to dose her with a whole pill and see how she goes.

I was a bit nervous going up to the pen to get her, having never done this before. I caught her and took her into the coop, away from the others and got her settled on my lap. I then calmly got hold of her head and opened her beak, to which she objected a little bit, but not strenuously. I looked down her throat and then tossed in the pill and closed her beak again. I felt her swallow as soon as her beak was closed. She sat on my lap and turned her head to look me right in the eye as much as to say "Hey, if you wanted to give me a treat, you could just give it to me."

She sat and cuddled a little while and I gently scratched her belly under the feathers which always makes her close her eyes and drift off for a short nap. After a while she lightly hopped down from my lap and went off to eat some greens, neither of us the worse for wear.

The other hens crowded around her, asking "What did you get? Is there any for us?" Rosie seemed a little bit smug about getting something that the others hadn't been given. (Typical chook politics!)

I got several 'no fair!' glares from the other hens as I left the coop. hehehe

Wow! I wish it was that simple to worm my cat!!