AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Hello all.
I am just after some helpful advice on one of my chooks. Brief rundown. we won 3 chooks (1 leghorn, 1 wyandotte and a rhode Is red.) and a chook coop from the geelong show in october. we are unsure of the age of the chooks. the leghorn departed our family just after xmas, she had been suffering quite abit and after 2 vet trips and a dose of antibiotics, aswell as a worming dose in the end it got the better of her and the vet still did not no what the diagnosis was. just before xmas the little wyandotte (silverpants) had a dose of the flu i think as she would do a sort of sneeze/cough once every 45secs - 1minute right through daylight hours. she also had some bubbles coming from the eyes aswell. after a couple of weeks of not getting better and taking special care of her i decided a trip to the vet was in store, the vet confirmed that it was a respiratry infection and gave me some anti biotics to self administer, (not that easy when it is a very flighty bird) after the course of meds was completed, silverpants looked like a new chook with energy to burn. however this was short lived. for the last 4 weeks she has not really ventured outside of her nestbox, she is still eating and drinking but not as much as when she is 100%. All through this Rosie the R.I. red has been a real trooper and has shown no signs of illness or distress, but now her feathers are are all scraggy and are littered all throughout the coop, i feel she may be moulting, but i have noticed some extremely tiny nits/lice crawling through the feathers.

What is the best treatment for the little pests, ( i have a long w/end coming up so obviously the coop will get a complete makeover and scrub). both of the chooks have been of the lay for about 6weeks now aswell and i am missing my fresh eggs for breakky.

Also i have read about vitamin supplements on this forum, where in the geelong region can you obtain these from. and being only a beginner in chook ownership any advice or information will be greatly appreciated.

Hi fresheggs,

Congrats on the lucky entry into chicken ownership. I'm sorry it hasn't all been good since then. If you're anything like me you will be an addict in no time.

I can't help you with the illnesses but I can tell you about the couple of places in Geelong that might have what you need. I would have said Iversons but as that has closed down (and been demolished) my next suggestion would be Pet Stock in Barwon Heads road. They are more stock feed etc and have most of the stuff you would need for livestock. The have layer pellets for good prices too. We have heaps of pet shops that have similar stuff but usually more expensive.

I use pestene for mites. It works well once you clean out their coop and dust them down. Can't remember what the wormer I use is but it's one you put in their water. Some of my girls are moulting at the moment too. Looks terrible doesn't it. I think last time it took a couple of months for them to lay again, so you're nearly there. I haven't used any supplements but I'm interested to see what everyone else says.

cheers, Jo

Congratulations from me too! You're doing the right thing asking questions on a forum, you'll get lots of advice and its also very enlightening reading through 'stickies' in each section. Stickies are information which is general and probably won't change, so its great for learning.

Regarding your Wyandotte not coming out of the nestbox, there is a good chance she is actually broody. Some breeds of chooks are more inclined to go broody and Wyandottes are notorious for this. They have a drive to sit on eggs and hatch babies so stay in the nestbox where normally they'd have a bunch of eggs under them being kept warm. It doesn't matter if you don't have a rooster to fertilise the eggs, the chooks don't realise this and go broody anyway. Generally a chook sits for 21 days only leaving the nest for short times over this period to eat, drink, poo and stretch their legs. If they are allowed to stay broody they can often get in a 'zone' and make themselves sick by sitting too long. She probably has a pal comb and face by now anyway. You may need to debroody her yourself to force her back to normal. This means putting her in a cage with food and water and putting her somewhere out of the weather but where she'll get a good amount of air getting under her. The idea is to make her uncomfortable and cool her body temperature. They sometimes take up to four or so days to snap out of it, but when you see her less fluffed up and pacing to get out of the cage you should be safe. Some people buy fertile eggs to put under their broodies and hatch out their next lot of layers (the cute way). Heaps of fun doing this, but keep in mind you will end up with males and you'll need to know how you're going to deal with them well before you hear the first croaky crow!

Your other chooks losing feathers is probably moulting as you mention, most other chooks are doing at this time of year. They moult twice a year and it sometimes looks like a feather pillow has broken in your yard! Over this time you can give your chooks some treats of meaty canned catfood as an added protein boost. Sometimes chooks stop laying over this time as new feathers require a lot of protein (as does an egg) and they can sometimes only produce enough protein for their new feathers.

Pest control wise there are lots of options, pestene is a good one. Make sure to follow the instructions closely and do both girls and the coop.

Good luck with your girls

fresheggs , and i add my welcome to poultry n our forum , most of your questions have been answered well , bout all i can add is a wee bit more knowlege obtained here may save you the expence of vet visits , so good luck and enjoy . cheers n beers gary

Thanks so much for the replies. great info to help the girls out.
Yes silverpants (wyandotte) has a very pale comb and face, but today was actually the first day in a while she has spent more time out of the nest and she actually came upto me when i arrived at there coop this arvo with there bowl of food, so fingers crossed she is starting to get back to her usual noisy self.

If she tried to attack me when i shooed her of the nest a sign of being broody? I'm 32 and it still made me jump a bit, she looked angry...lol.

Is pestene available as an over the counter product or is a vet visit required?

thanks again for the help guys.

Yup! Young or old, if you disturb them they'll let you know they aren't happy. Thats great she's come off the brood herself. It might take her a week or two to get back to laying though. Maybe you could give her a little boost of catfood (not the fishy one) and it might help her get back to laying quicker?

You don't have to go to the Vet to get Pestene, try your local stock feed place first.

THanks for that Roova.