[Kitchen Cottage]

She is puffed up, has lost a lot of weight BUT still eats a bit.  She is in my utility room. I tried to put her outside today but the others (including the teeny Chinese Coq)  bullied her.

I've brought her back inside and given her porridge with Honey, which she is scoffing.  I have had her on pellets, but I might give her this for a few days.

She seems not to like eating big bits of anything.

Given she is eating, I don't want to cull her but any ideas would be gratefully received.

I did hand feed her and am afraid I damaged her gullet cos she doesn't like eating big bits.

Having found porridge agrees with her, I'll keep with this.

2 Weeks is a long time to have a hen inside but she doesn't seem sick enough to cull, just out of condition and loosing weight. 

I use worming stuff on their food.  Could this be worms?  Do you see them in chickens?

[Bodger]

With all due respect, I think that she should be culled. I'm sorry to have to say this.

[chrismahon]

Hello Kitchen Cottage. Chickens do get worms so they should be wormed at least every 6 months with a system that actually works -Flubenvet we use. She has the symptoms of worms -have you seen any in her poo? When you actually see worms in the poo they have a very heavy burden indeed. Our sickies get crushed rearers pellets soaked and rolled into balls small enough to swallow. They are fed a few at a time and allowed to swallow. We give them syringed water to help wash it down. Not eating big bits could be because her crop is full- is she crop bound? The best clue to her problem is her poos, but I don't know what effect the honey and porridge will have on her?


We hand fed our pet cockerel for over well over 3 months whilst trying to find out what was wrong with him. Carbon Monoxide poisoning from the wood burner it was in the end. So two weeks isn't that long. We have hand fed many sickies with about 50% success rate, so in my opinion it is an exercise worthwhile if you have the time and patience.

[Kitchen Cottage]

She doesn't need feeding or water, she is eating and drinking and, well, enjoying being in the kitchen! She just isn't fit enough to go into the coop...  I put some stuff on their food which I thought was a wormer.  Definitely seen no worms but  I'll worm all of them.  She has mites and I am trying my damnest to get rid of them!   She is run down but not dying so I'll carry on until she is up to scratch ...

   |Hens... who'd have 'em!  Naturally she is now very tame and called Sandra 

[HesterF]

The only true wormer approved for poultry is Flubenvet which must be prescribed (even if you order it mail order, a vet will phone you to check your usage). You can buy premixed pellets or you buy the powder which you weigh out and mix in with the food (a little powder goes a long way). I don't think you'd see worms on a normal basis - the only worms I've ever seen have been vomited up by my cats  - but your vet can check faeces for worm burden if you take a sample in for them to look at under a microscope.

The vet should also be able to give you something for mites. If you're fighting hard for her, it'd be worth taking her in to be seen - I've found our vets to be great with chickens!

H

[chrismahon]

We've bought Flubenvet from many different Agri-merchants and they only asked for our name and address. But we were registered with Animal Health as Poultry Keepers, but they didn't ask for our registration number so perhaps that is irrelevant? Never heard anyone tell me they couldn't buy it anyway.


It does sound like worms still. Mixing Flubenvet can be a pain, certainly if you are not using pellets. If you want me to explain our method PM me KC. It's a bit long winded. We usually see them pick up by the second day of treatment. If you can actually see worms in the poo they are in a bad way.

[doganjo]

The only true wormer approved for poultry is Flubenvet which must be prescribed (even if you order it mail order, a vet will phone you to check your usage). You can buy premixed pellets or you buy the powder which you weigh out and mix in with the food (a little powder goes a long way). I don't think you'd see worms on a normal basis - the only worms I've ever seen have been vomited up by my cats  - but your vet can check faeces for worm burden if you take a sample in for them to look at under a microscope.

The vet should also be able to give you something for mites. If you're fighting hard for her, it'd be worth taking her in to be seen - I've found our vets to be great with chickens!

H

I bought mine online without a prescription, no problems at all.

[Kitchen Cottage]

I bathed her yesterday.... which seemed to get rid of the mites!  I blowed dried her and put her on the radiator for a final dryout.  She seems to be putting on a little weight, so its worming and then bulking her up! I'll need to do the coop again and wash the other hens now! 

She seems not to want to eat big things.... I may have damaged her slightly in the feeding stage.

[chrismahon]

Good news KC. Doubt you damaged her. We have noticed sickies will only eat small bits of everything. The only birds that gulp huge pieces down are laying hens. One of ours was a bit under the weather last week and poo'd a huge green mess. I concluded she had eaten one of the many small green frogs, which didn't agree with her!

[darkbrowneggs]

Make sure you keep on top of the mites - the little blighters breed again in 3 or 4 days I think so if you washed off the mites but left eggs they will soon be back.  Johnsons Cage Bird mite spray seems very effecitve and you could use it every few days till you are sure she is clear.


I know lots of folk use ivermectin/novomectin type drops but you shouldnt really do that unless prescribed buy a vet but that kills worms and biting lice/mites I think

[Kitchen Cottage]

she's not laying.... and I have a bit of ivermectin.... I might try that.  Another bath mid week then 

She is getting a lot of attention, and seems to like it indoors, but I lost 3 birds this year (2 inexplicably) and it would damage my pride and confidence to loose another one.

[HesterF]

I bought mine online without a prescription, no problems at all.

Did they not phone you up? I think legally they should have done. I get mine on-line from Farm and Pet place and the order is always followed up by a phone call where they check that I know how to use it. It is a very short conversation once they've established I've used it before but they did say it was a legal requirement. So it's not a prescription but it is a vet checking I'm using it correctly (and for some reason it's not approved for ducks but fine for chickens and geese, so they have to make that clear too).

Sorry, diverting thread. Glad your chook is feeling better Kitchen Cottage. Not sure what the active ingredient in Frontline is but I've used that on broodies to keep them lice free. If you've lost that many, it might be worth considering whether there is something else going on too.

H

[hughesy]

The rules regarding the selling Flubenvet and other animal medicines such as wormers are quite simple. The retailer must have a suitably qualified person(SQP) on site who can prescribe the product. It doesn't have to be a vet, just a person who has had relevant training and is qualified to do so. That is why if you buy such things online an SQP should ring you to discuss usage of the product. The retailer needs to keep a record of who they sell these things to with batch numbers etc which is why you are asked for your name and address when you buy them. If a retailer sells products without an SQP being present, either in a store or online, they can be prosecuted and could have their licence taken away. Our local supplier has been warned about this before to the extent that they will not sell products if the SQP is not present, which is how it should be.

[Kitchen Cottage]

Hester,  I lost one that went downhill very quickly..... the other two were bizarre.  I gave them to my tenant (who lives in my adjacent annexe) in their own coop.  I cleaned it, creosoted and then painted it.  It didn't have mites.  They were running with mine and fine for about a week then,one day about a week after they moved, my tenant came in tears and had found them both in the coop, one dead and one dying.  I have NO idea what happened.  They were with mine during the day and mine were and are fine.  They simply roosted separately.  I still don't understand what killed them and what killed them to quickly.  They were perfectly fine the previous day! 

[HesterF]

Oh, yes, I remember those - it wasn't so long ago was it? This sounds different then  she's getting better.

H