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Chicken Diseases and Treatment

Treat common poultry diseases with simple, cheap home remedies and preventative care. By Patricia Earnest March/April 1974

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Feed your chickens onions and garlic as a preventative for worms.


PHOTO: FOTOLIA/ NINO PAVISIC

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Even with modern antibiotics and premixed medicated poultry rations, chickens still get sick . . . sometimes with fairly lethal diseases that can sweep quickly through a flock. We rely on our few hens for their eggs and want them to be healthy, for their sake and ours, so we started digging around in the older farm books and asking questions about the birds' ailments. The remedies we came up with use simple, cheap, easily available ingredients and methods that are surprisingly like those frequently employed in home nursing.

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Caring For Chickens


Since the best cure of all is prevention; knowing something in advance of your flock's needs can ward off a lot of trouble. Basically, chickens should be kept warm and dry, get plenty of exercise and eat a well-balanced diet . . . sounds familiar, doesn't it? Hens left to roam will satisfy their dietary needs and busily keep the local bug population under control (just take care to protect the vegetable garden, because the birds also love young green stuff ).

Onions and garlic fed regularly are a natural preventative of any worms that might be thinking of a home in your fowls' warm innards, and sour milk or buttermilk mixed in their feed or drinking water will deter diarrhea. Feet and droppings in food or drink are a potential source of infection when birds are confined, so equip your chicken house with feeders and watering equipment that force the biddies to observe sanitary table manners. New birds should be quarantined a few days before joining an existing flock and, to control the spread of parasites and disease, henhouses and brooders should be thoroughly aired and whitewashed between flocks. During the winter, keep chicken house litter dry and exposed to air by scattering scratch feed around on it every day. This serves the added purpose of providing the hens with exercise so that they stay warm and healthy. On especially cold mornings try adding one tablespoon of kerosene to their drinking water as a pick-me-up.

Chicken Illnesses
Among the actual diseases that infect domestic fowl, diarrhea is the most common. This condition-revealed by white or greenish, loose droppings-can be caused by cold, dampness, dirty surroundings and unclean food. Isolate the patient in warm, dry quarters and give her potassium permanganate solution to drink. To make this remedy, dissolve one tablespoon of the chemical in one quart of warm water. Then, for each bird, take one tablespoon of this concentrated solution and further dissolve it in one cup of warm water. In severe cases use a stronger solution, potent enough to turn a dipped finger slightly brown. (Don't keep potassium permanganate mixture in a metal container.) Another remedy for diarrhea is Epsom salts in the feed, half a pound per 100 birds or 1/2 teaspoon each. Then feed the sick chickens wheat bran moistened with sour milk or buttermilk.

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/sustainable-farming/chicken-diseases-and-treatmentzmaz74zhol.aspx#ixzz1zXuGYZr6 Roup is caused by cold, damp or drafty quarters or by overcrowded housing, and is spread through the drinking water or feed. The symptoms are like those of the common cold: sneezing and a watery discharge, which later turns foamy white and then yellowish, from the eyes or nostrils. Sometimes diarrhea, weakness and swelling of the head will also occur. You'll find on examination that the bird's throat is inflamed, with patches of gray and yellow forming a membrane that almost closes the passage.

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To treat this illness, isolate the hen in a warm coop or box lined with hay or straw. The container should be placed in a sunny spot and covered at night. Feed the patient stale bread moistened with milk (preferably milk in which onions have been boiled), or try cooked rice mixed with chopped parsley and onion tops with a tablespoon of powdered charcoal added, twice a day. For drink use a weak potassium permanganate solution. Gapes is a disease caused by a parasitic roundworm which is about 5/16ths of an inch long and looks like a fine thread. These pests lodge in the hen's throat and multiply there, so that the bird frequently opens its mouth wide

as if yawning. To treat this condition make a salt brine, or steep tobacco in water for ten minutes. Pour one teaspoonful of either mixture down the chicken's throat. Then, keeping its head up, close the bird's nose holes and count slowly to five. Next, hold the patient by the feet, head down, and it will usually cough, sputter and evict the worms. Scaly legs-which makes even young hens look like old crones with bumpy underpinnings-is actually caused by a parasite and is contagious. Combat the disease by bathing and softening the bird's limbs for a few minutes in a medium strong solution of that old cure-all, potassium permanganate. Wash the skin thoroughly, dry it and rub on some vaseline. Repeat the treatment every three days. Liver trouble is a non-contagious ailment that affects mostly older, heavier birds in the late winter and early spring. Sometimes the fowls die without warning, or they become sluggish and their faces and combs turn either yellowish or purple. The chickens may also have diarrhea and lose their appetites. The disease is caused by too little exercise and too much heavy, rich feed. It can be prevented by giving the flock a good supply of greens year round. If this disorder does occur, the remedy is a dose of Epsom salts as for diarrhea. Feather pulling is not a disease, but indicates a dietary deficiency which can be remedied by regularly feeding meat and animal scraps to your chickens. All these remedies were thoroughly accepted in the early part of this century, before the age of antibiotics. If they worked then, they should now . . . and I, for one, intend to give these no strums a try if it ever becomes necessary. P

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Common Chicken Illnesses and Treatments


By Kimberly Willis and Rob Ludlow 1 of 12 in Series: The Essentials of Tending a Sick or Injured Chicken
Serious illness is unlikely in a backyard flock, especially if you vaccinate the chickens. All the same, its good to be aware of them in case you ever are wondering, is my chicken sick? Diseases can spread from wild birds and pests, so keep an eye out during your daily health checks for the symptoms listed below.

Avian Pox/Fowl Pox: Symptoms: White spots on skin; combs turn into scabby sores; white membrane and ulcers in mouth, on trachea; laying stops; all ages affected. How contracted: Viral disease; mosquitoes, other chickens with pox and contaminated surfaces. Treatment: Supportive care, warm dry quarters, soft food; many birds with good care will survive. Vaccine available: Yes; recovered birds are immune and do not carry the disease.

Botulism: Symptoms: Tremors quickly progressing to paralysis of body, including breathing; feathers pull out easily; death in a few hours. How contracted: Caused by a bacterial byproduct and by eating or drinking botulism-infected food or water Treatment: Antitoxin available from vet but expensive. If found early try 1 teaspoon Epsom salts dissolved in 1 ounce warm water dripped into crop several times a day. Vaccine available: None; locate and remove source, usually decaying carcass, meat near water, or insects that fed on the meat or the water the carcass is in.

Fowl Cholera: Symptoms: Usually birds over 4 months greenish yellow diarrhea; breathing difficulty; swollen joints; darkened head and wattles; often quick death. Does not infect humans. How contracted: Bacterial disease; wild birds, raccoons, opossums, rats, can carry. Also transmitted bird to bird and on contaminated soil, equipment, shoes, clothing contaminated water and food. Treatment: None destroy all infected birds if recovery occurs the bird will be a carrier

Vaccine available: Yes, but only your state Department of Agriculture can administer it.

Infectious Bronchitis: Symptoms: Coughing; sneezing; watery discharge from nose and eyes; hens stop laying. How contracted: Viral disease; highly contagious; spreads through air, contact, and contaminated surfaces. Treatment: Supportive care; 50 percent mortality in chicks under 6 weeks. Vaccine available: Yes. Give to hens before 15 weeks of age because vaccination will cause laying to stop.

Infectious Coryza: Symptoms: Swollen heads, combs, and wattles; eyes swollen shut; sticky discharge from nose and eyes; moist area under wings; laying stops. How contracted: Bacterial disease; transmitted through carrier birds, contaminated surfaces, and drinking water. Treatment: Birds should be destroyed as they remain carriers for life. Vaccine available: None.

Mareks Disease: Symptoms: Affects birds under 20 weeks primarily; causes tumors externally and internally; paralysis; iris of eye turns gray, doesnt react to light How contracted: Viral disease; very contagious; contracted by inhaling shed skin cells or feather dust from other infected birds. Treatment: None; high death rate and any survivors are carriers. Vaccine available: Yes, given to day old chicks.

Moniliasis (Thrush): Symptoms: White cheesy substance in crop; ruffled feathers; droopy looking; poor laying; white crusty vent area; inflamed vent area; increased appetite How contracted: Fungal disease; contracted through moldy feed and water and surfaces contaminated by infected birds. Often occurs after antibiotic treatment for other reasons.

Treatment: Yes. Ask a vet for Nystatin or other antifungal medication. Remove moldy feed and disinfect water containers. Vaccine available: No.

Mycoplasmosis/CRD/Air Sac Disease: Symptoms: Mild form weakness and poor laying. Acute form breathing problems, coughing, sneezing, swollen infected joints, death How contracted: Mycoplasma disease; contracted through other birds (wild birds carry it); can transmit through egg to chick from infected hen. Treatment: Antibiotics may save birds see a vet. Vaccine available: Yes.

Newcastle Disease: Symptoms: Wheezing, breathing difficulty, nasal discharge, cloudy eyes, laying stops, paralysis of legs, wings, twisted heads, necks How contracted: Viral disease; highly contagious; contracted through infected chickens and wild birds and is also carried on shoes, clothes, and surfaces. Treatment: None. Birds under 6 months usually die; older birds can recover. Recovered birds are not carriers. Vaccine available: Yes, but the U.S. is working to eradicate the disease.

Omphalitis (Mushy Chick): Symptoms: Newly hatched chicks enlarged, bluish, inflamed naval area, bad smell, drowsy, weak chicks How contracted: Bacterial infection of naval from unclean surfaces or chicks with weak immune systems. Can spread from chick to chick on contaminated surfaces. Treatment: Antibiotics and clean housing sometimes help, but most chicks will die. Remove healthy chicks immediately to clean quarters. Vaccine available: None. Use caution handling staph and strep that cause this disease may infect humans.

Pullorum: Symptoms: Chicks are inactive, may have white diarrhea with pasted rear ends, breathing difficulty, or die without symptoms. Older birds coughing, sneezing, poor laying.

How contracted: Viral disease; contracted through carrier birds and contaminated surfaces, clothing, and shoes. Treatment: Destroy all infected birds birds that recover are carriers. Most chicks infected will die. Vaccine available: No vaccine, but there is a blood test to find carriers. While the U.S. is trying to eradicate this disease, buy chickens from Pullorum-negative flocks only.

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