Cluck Clinic
Overview
Molting
Pecking Order
- When you think about health in general, you should be concerned with both mental and physical health. Chickens, just like any other living things, can get sick. As a chicken keeper, you are responsible for helping them get well and for keeping them well. Chickens can contract many diseases.
- Check the chicken’s breast bone. If it feels sharp, your chicken is probably underweight.
- Check the vent, or cloaca (the place where poop and eggs emerge). If it isn't clean, there’s something wrong.
- Free range chickens (like ours) should be checked for worms, because they can pick up all sorts of worms in an orchard or open area.
- Treating your chickens for mites is a MUST. Dust the chickens with insecticide powder to do so.
- Bag Balm is a helpful product, and is used for leg mites and protecting the comb and wattle.
Molting
- If you see your chickens start to lose their feathers, or if their egg laying rate begins to decrease, don't fret! This is probably the effect of a process called molting.
- Molting is the yearly cycle the chicken experiences as it rests and rejuvenates the reproductive tracts. It usually starts in mid to late summer and is finished by around Thanksgiving. However, every breed is different.
- It's important to realize that chickens do not lay eggs when they are molting.
- This process usually starts when chicken begins to lose feathers from the head, then neck, then body, then wings, and finally the tail.
- A chicken is considered broody wen she wants her eggs to hatch.
- A broody hen will sit on her eggs for days and even weeks without leaving her nest.
- Keeping an eye on your brooding hen is very important!
- A pale comb and weight loss may be a sign that your chicken isn't getting enough food and water.
- A broody hen can be quite hostile, so make sure you are careful when handling her.
- If you come across a broody hen, remove her from the coop and put her where she can't see her nest for four days. For a particularly stubborn hen, put her in a wire bottom cage where airflow will cool her underside, and after a couple of days, she will give up.
- Egg binding is a severe problem and it should be handled immediately as an emergency requiring professional attention.
- The number one leading cause of egg binding is infection. (Dirty water can cause this.)
- Other causes of egg binding are obesity, excessive egg laying, and nutrition problems. Some chickens experience egg binding simply because of stress.
- Symptoms of egg binding include depression, straining, lack of droppings, poor appetite, and heavy breathing.
- If you discover you have a chicken that is egg bound, try these strategies: massage the area around where the egg is stuck, put Vaseline around the cloaca, or go to the vet where they can inject them with calcium into the uterus to stretch the muscles and pop the egg out.
- Chickens will die within forty-eight hours of being egg bound if nothing is done.
- Before a new feather opens, it's just a shaft that's full of blood. Once the feather opens, the blood recedes from the shaft and becomes hollow. If the feather shaft breaks while it is full of blood, it can be very hard for the bleeding to stop.
- Tips to prevent serious bleeding: If the split is vertical, you can use Krazy glue to mend the shaft back together. If the whole feather shaft is broken off, you must pull the rest of the shaft straight out of the chicken with tweezers, and then apply pressure to stop the bleeding.
- Chickens can also be wounded by getting their tongues torn or getting caught on things.
- Styptic powder is a useful item to have because it stops bleeding easily when applied to an injury by clotting the blood.
- Chickens naturally attack anything red, so be sure to clean up after injuries.
- A limping chicken or a chicken that may not be moving could be displaying signs of an impaired leg.
- If you spot a chicken with the symptoms of an impaired leg, carefully remove her from the coop. Then, try splinting the leg. Place the splint and wrap a bandage around the leg to firmly hold it in place. (Popsicle sticks make great splints.) Leave the splint on for 2-3 weeks to allow the bone to heal.
- Remember, if your chicken does not accept the treatment or does not show signs of improvement, contact a veterinarian immediately.
Pecking Order
- The pecking order shows dominance in the flock. Chickens on the lower end get pecked.
- Some breeds will naturally fall lower in the pecking order.
- We've found that pecking orders don't always have to do with strength. Sometimes things such as appearance can affect the pecking order.
- Sometimes your chickens just need a few days away from the flock because they are being bullied and need a place of refuge. Other times they require a place to recuperate and heal. This is when a chicken hospital can be very useful.
- If and when you discover you have a sick chicken, you should quarantine it from the rest of the flock as quickly as possible. If the illness is contagious, removing the chicken could save the rest of the flock.
- Also, always remove injured chickens. The hospital will be a place for the chicken to heal.
- The chicken hospital also can serve as a safe place for new chickens. When getting a new flock, you want to separate the new chicks for a few days to make sure they are free of illness.
- A simple and effective chicken hospital could be a large dog kennel. This hospital is easy to set up and quick to prepare for a chicken that needs to be removed immediately.
- Other hospitals you could consider getting are Eglu's, a plastic structure that we bought online, or a rabbit hutch.
- You need to have room for at least two chickens in your hospital. Once your ill or injured chicken is healed, you need to put a healthy chicken with it for a few days and then return both to the flock. This gives some sort of strength in numbers, and keeps the previously sick or injured chicken from falling back to the bottom of the pecking order.
- If you can tell that your chicken is very sick, but can't figure out what is wrong, experts suggest giving your chicken an antibiotic cycle such as Terrimyacin or Bactin. You can get these from a poultry supply catalog. If you don't have any on hand, you will have to call a vet. You might also treat her with powdered vitamins and electrolytes in her water to build up her immunity.
- Do NOT give your chicken dewormer and antibiotics at the same time because it can over stress them.