receive to our series on poultry health . From here , we ’ll point down the ABC , from A through Z , to hatch some of the most vulgar and concerning domestic fowl ailment , unwellness and diseases as well as how to forestall and treat them . have ’s get started with letter A through C. ( Read the other installments of the serial here : Part 2,Part 3,Part 4,Part 5,Part 6 . )
Avian Influenza
We do n’t waste any time , do we ? This is a fully grown one . Before we get into how it might affect your flock , though , countenance ’s first bust one myth about the bird influenza : that you ’ll get the influenza computer virus if your Bronx cheer do . It ’s much more complicated than that . While it ’s truthful that the avian and human influenza viruses are the same type , huge transmitted differences exist between the subtypes that infect snort and multitude . While it ’s potential to become infected when get into contact with a sick chick , the spread to humans is incredibly rare . Shutterstock
When avian influenza hits birds , it ranges so widely in symptoms that it can be difficult to name without the help of an avian veterinarian because it can depend like so many other ailments . Sick birds might show modest symptoms or be so badly afflict that rapid decline and death occur before diagnosis . symptom include coughing and sternutation , loss of appetite or loose faeces , and obvious problems relating to the unquiet scheme . Hens can also intercept put down or lay soft - shell egg .
The beneficial news program is that avian influenza , while widespread when it does occur , is rare in backyard flocks in the U.S. and Canada because the conditions rarely support it . Bird grippe more often sham big poultry operations where living conditions are poor . With this in mind , if you live near one of these large operation , ride out abreast of the health of the Bronx cheer . If an irruption does occur , keep out of contact with sick birds or anyone handling them , and keep your birds indoors for a quarantine period until the outbreak is hold .
Bumblefoot
Far less fatal and far less serious , bumblefoot is an easy preventable yet unluckily rather common ailment in young and mature chickens . Bumblefoot is a chronic infection on the padder , often the result of an injury that became taint . It ’s easy diagnosed by locating the abscess on the footpad .
Bumblefoot is very easily prevented , far more so than treating it once it has happen : abridge — or rule out , if you may — any time that your birds spend on conducting wire . Keep the coop and all enclosures clean with deep , dry bedding , and clean the litter regularly . Keep all roost sand down and at summit birds can reach . In short , forfend situations where the feet might become injured .
Bumblefoot can be very difficult to treat . In some cases , a veterinarian can inject penicillin into the swollen arena . Otherwise , the abscess needs to be removed manually , dress the right way and kept incredibly uninfected . For humans , impetigo is a balmy health peril , so bear gloves when handling skirt with bumblefoot .
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Blowout
Properly call prolapsus , a blowout happens when the lower part of the oviduct is turn in spite of appearance out and end up on the exterior of the venthole . It ’s a procreative complication that can occur in any pullet or hen but is more unwashed in certain breeds and strains of those breeds .
Applying hemorrhoid ointment to the vent and isolate the biddy until she improves can remedy minor prolapsed vents . If she ’s not regale or forget with the flock , the other razzing will doubtlessly pick at the vent and exasperate the post . Do n’t take chance with tidy sum cannibalism .
Prevention is authoritative but ca n’t always save a hen from evolve a walkaway , as some hens are bred to lay early or lay exceptionally big eggs , pee them more prone to prolapse . Raise cover that do n’t lay gargantuan eggs or start too betimes . Feed bird a properly managed diet that matches their age and point of life-time ; hen with too much fat in their diets can roll up fat shop in their reproductive system of rules , construct generative disorderliness more probable .
iIene Kightley/Flickr
Cannibalism
Chicken cannibalism is a highly inauspicious , sometimes grievous , evolutionary manoeuvre bird troop have developed . In a respectable spate , with stack of forcible space for each Bronx cheer , the flock keeps a hierarchy of alpha to subordinate birds . Each birdie knows where she remain firm in the hierarchy . That position is reward in insidious as well as overt ways daily . If a rooster is present in the flock , he is almost instantly considered the alpha , and the hens still return within the hierarchy below him . Mild pecking , pick , give chase and grabbing at plume are natural ways birds will reinforce these roles , but when the pecking order gets out of balance , strong-growing pecking begins and others will follow suit .
Cannibalism is not earmark solely for adult hoot , either . Mature chickens will aim biddy , and even venial pecks on tiny chicks can be fatal . Mature birds will also consume orchis under certain lot , a big problem known as egg - eating .
The old few paragraphs might paint a scary picture show , but there ’s some really adept word when it come to poulet cannibalism : The prevention is exactly the same as the discussion , and that is to simply give the birds more distance . It ’s much easier to build a larger henhouse before you have a stack of chickens that involve more space .
The big takeaway is to make fair to middling housing for a tidy sum bombastic than you anticipate keeping at first , just to be secure . ordinary 10 solid feet of trapping per boo in an outdoor enclosure , and 3 to 5 square foot per bird for the coop ( if the coop is used only for laying eggs and safely rest at dark ) . Allow your birds to free - range on pasturage , if potential , and more often than not . Letting chickens be chickens and demonstrate their rude behaviors — shaving , hunt for bugs , junk bathing and preen in the sun — are the best way to prevent cannibalism , because it basically comes about from tedium .
Prevent orchis - run through by pick up egg daily and leave a nest boxful that is enclosed , low to the ground , dark , easy and ironical . obviate any egg - eating hens from your flock as shortly as you could , because the behavior is quite transmissible .
Coccidiosis
Several phylum Protozoa known as coccidia cause a rapidly advancing , often fatal disease call coccidiosis in very new and break razzing . Nine var. affect poultry .
order Coccidia exist everywhere outdoors and are carried and sometimes transmitted from wild birds or other chicken flocks . While it ’s possible for adult chickens to contract coccidiosis , it ’s most common in chicks 3 to 5 weeks old and in humid , ardent and damp conditions .
Unfortunately , the mortality rate of coccidiosis is very high . It ’s most easy diagnosed by bloodline in the stool , but at that phase of growth , the disease is almost always fatal , and the razzing will not hold out long . Chicks with coccidiosis will show signs of droopiness , crouching with feathers ruffled , little or no appetite , and dull or no increment in the early stages of the disease .
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Good sanitation is a of the essence preventative metre against coccidiosis . Keep chick brooders clean , dry and free of extra muck . Expose chicks gradually to any existing grownup flocks to ramp up their system ’ leeway to the protozoa that be course in their environment . This is important of hiss born in a hatchery and shipped to new surroundings .
Prevention also includes administering a vaccine on the first Clarence Shepard Day Jr. of life . However , there are some caveats . Vaccines must be pass only on the first day of life to be effective , and the vaccination cover only six of the nine strains . Treatment for coccidiosis includes a medication called amprolium , and surviving birds are rarely as inviolable as birds that never contract the disease .
Conjunctivitis
The signs of pinkeye are clear , but you must expect closely at the bird to read them . An unnatural Bronx cheer will avoid sunlight and seek to rub its eyes with its wings . The eyes can appear cloudy , or they might water , afterwards becoming crusty with emission . Blindness follows in go on cases . Mortality motley among birds and flocks , considering the initial and overall health of the hens . It some case , it resembles a respiratory disease .
gratefully , conjunctivitis is not transmissible , but it is environmental , signify sanitation and sizeable management practices are paramount to preventing it . Dusty and dry conditions can exacerbate it , but it ’s often cause by the buildup of ammonia smoke in flocks confined to coops or enclosures without enough flow of air and thus are rather damp . bar is to replace soiled and tight litter with teetotal and clean bedding , and provide the plenty adequate external meter to pasture .
Thank you for join us on this first installment of our yearlong health series , and be indisputable to check in on the upcoming March / April military issue for ailment beginning with letters D ( for digestive ) and E ( for egg - related ) . Until then , stay good for you .
This taradiddle originally look in the January / February 2018 number ofChickensmagazine .
