Sometimes, despite all your best efforts, your birds come down with something icky.

Excerpts taken from “Poultry and Waterfowl Problems” by Michael Roberts

To take a bird’s temp: insert a thermometer into vent. Normal temp of a hen is 103°.

 

ASPERGILLOSIS: Birds stretching their necks to breathe, hoarse breathing, birds dying within 24 hours.

Cause: fungus which thrives in warm, damp conditions. Also can be caused by old, stale food.

AVIAN DIPHTHERIA: Bird develops yellowish lumps on comb which turn into crusty warts covering the head and sometimes feet and legs. Bird gasps for air, which is caused by yellow cheesy growths inside the mouth and top of throat.

Cause: fowl pox virus spread through abrasions, fleas, lice and mosquitoes.

AVIAN TUBERCULOSIS: Birds look off colour, quit laying, gradually become thinner and weaker.

Cause: Mycobacterium avium spread by contact with infected birds, soils, hands, feet, housing, crates and wild birds.

Birds can be injected with avian tuberculin in one wattle and checked in 48 hours to see if there is a reaction – the wattle will swell and feel hot.

BLACKHEAD: Birds are listless, uninterested in life or food, bright yellow diarrhea.

Cause: Histomonas meleagridis parasite infecting the caecal tracts and liver. Spread by Heterakis roundworm. Roundworm eggs carrying Histomonas are eaten by bird, which multiply rapidly inside caecal tracts, causing holes in intestines.

Treatment: Dimetridazole in drinking water.

COCCIDIOSIS: Milky white diarrhea, sometimes with blood. Mopey birds, thirsty, sudden death. Young stock between 3-8 weeks especially vulnerable.

Cause: Eimeria protozoa parasite. Spread through fecal matter, thrives in warm, damp conditions.

Treatment: anti-coccidiostat medicine in drinking water (Baytox)

E-COLI:  Chicks stand off by themselves, hunched and cheeping ‘weep, weep.’ Larger birds are off colour with runny brown droppings. Sweet-sour smell, bird not interested in food nor water.

Cause: Poor hygiene, stale food, stress or something else (like coccidiosis) are present, causing the e-coli microbes, which normally live in the intestines, to multiply rapidly causing blood poisoning.

Treatment: Probiotics in food or water. ie: yogurt or sour milk

FAVUS: white crusty or scaley fungus growth around face and wattle. Offensive odour.

Cause: ringworm seen mainly in tropical areas

Transmissable to humans – best to cull bird and dispose of body properly to avoid contracting the disease

FOWL CHOLERA: Turkeys more susceptible than chickens.Outbreaks occur when birds are stressed during heat waves. Bird looks mopey with a discharge from the nostrils, watery green/white diarrhea. Birds appear to have swollen heads and difficulty breathing.

Cause: Pasteurella multocida bacteria. Highly contagious to other birds, wild birds, vermin, water, people, equipment, food bags, etc.

Treatment: sulphur based drug (Sulphamezathine)

FOWL POX: a link to help identify and treat:

http://hoeggerfarmyard.com/how-to-easily-diagnose-and-treat-fowl-pox/

INFECTIOUS BRONCHITIS: Young birds: gasping/rattling air. Birds appear mopey and cold, uninterested in food. Can develop into another strain of the virus called Nephrophilia, which affects the kidneys, causing the birds to drink more, resulting in watery droppings. Older birds: wheezing/gasping air, drop in egg production, messhapen eggs, loss of pigmentation, poor quality egg shells. Eggs appear rough in texture. Egg white will be runny, and yolk will slide around in white rather than being attached with choriza.

Cause: Coronavirus spread from bird to bird by breathing, but can also be spread via equipment and clothing.

Treatment: disinfect living quarters. Layers may retain damaged fallopian tubes, thus laying misshapen eggs.

LEUCOSIS: Around 18 weeks old, sudden death or off colour. Enlarged spleen and liver.

Cause: Uncommon carcinogenic disease. Passed through the egg. Fayoumis appear to be resistant.

No treatment – cull birds.

MAREKS DISEASE: Deaths between 6-20 weeks, birds with legs stretched out, unable to walk, or using a wing as a crutch. Look off colour and not growing. Sometimes ravenously hungry, but thin, sometimes gaping.

Cause: Stress disease caused by herpes virus. Classical Mareks affects legs and wings. Acute Mareks affects liver, kidneys, lungs, spleen or heart. Spread by feather dust. Long incubation period. Hamburgs, Sebrights and Silkies appear more prone to catching it. Can be spread by wild birds.

Treatment: Keep young birds separate from older birds, don’t swap drinkers and feeders. Regularly remove dust and cobwebs from living quarters. Mareks vaccine is available, and often day-old chicks from the feed store have received the vaccine.

MYCOPLASMA: discharge from nostrils, bubbles in the corner of the eye, scratching the eye area with the foot,wiping infected eye in the base of the neck leaving a tide mark, sneezing and rattling often with a noise like ‘putark.’ Putrid smell from bird’s nostrils. Eyes close with swelling (which will harden) which will cause loss of sight. Bird becomes thinner from not being able to see well enough to eat. Infectious synovitis causes hock joints to swell, resulting in difficulty walking.

Cause: Mycoplasma gallisepticum and Mycoplasma synoviae spread by sneezing and in the drinking water. Can be transmitted through the egg.

Treatment: smell the nostrils of the birds you are buying to make certain they don’t have a putrid odour. Antibiotics such as Terramycin suppresses the disease and it tends to recur. Oxytetracyclin drugs are better (injectable Tylan).

NEWCASTLE DISEASE/FOWL PEST: necks twist around, birds flop about, unable to stand, or just twitching. Difficulty in breathing, discharge from both ends, drop in egg production.

Cause: Paramyxovirus affects all domestic fowl and some wild birds (sparrows and pigeons) by attacking nervous and respiratory systems. Can be spread via wind, work boots, crates, feed bag, wild birds, occasionally in eggs.

Treatment: vaccination available for adding to drinking water or misting the eyes. If contracted in your flock, mandatory slaughter.

PSITTACOSIS/ORNITHOSIS/CHLAMYDIOSIS: Affects mainly younger birds. Runny nostrils and eyes, both very smelly. Off food, hunched and cold, runny/gelatinous yellow-green droppings, drop in egg production.

Cause: Chlamydia psittaci bacteria. Mainly affects pigeons and parrots, but can affect chickens. Transmission by droppings, cuts on hands (people can get it), inhaling feather dust, crowded living conditions.

Treatment: regularly cleaning of coop, broad spectrum antibiotic (Terramycin)

SALMONELLA: hundreds of types of salmonella – some more harmful than others. Because a chicken has a high body temp (103°) most Salmonella are killed off.  Chicks develop ‘poopy butt’ with blocked up vent area, look miserable and cheep constantly, standing apart from the others.  Adults look off-colour, stop laying, and run a high temperature.

Salmonella enteriditis found in infected foodstuffs, poor hygiene, dirty nest boxes, mice, wild birds.

Treatment: probiotics, vaccine available.

VENT GLEET: constant dribbling of white/grey discharge from vent, smells nasty. Vent area looks red and sore.

Cause: inflammation of cloaca. Doesn’t appear to infect other birds.

Treatment: cull bird

ENDO-PARASITES/WORMS: loss of weight, sometimes birds appear hungry, sometimes lazy, sometimes no sign. Loss of weight is big key – breast bone will stick out like a razor blade. Droppings can be white/green.

Cause: internal parasites/worms: large round worms (Ascaridia galli), Hairworm (Capillaria), Tape worm (Davainea proglottina) live in the intestines. Caecal worm (Heterakis gallinarum) and Gape worm (Syngamus trachea)

Treatment: worm hens every six months (Flubenvet)

 

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Items that we’ve run into not covered in the book:

ASCITE: occurred in Cornish Cross. Chicken has trouble breathing and then dies gasping for breath. Post – mortem exam reveals water in lungs and body cavity. That and leg problems stem from genetic engineering of Cornish Cross. They can’t live to physical maturity (past 8 weeks old), they have to be genetically engineered.

MUSHROOM POISONING: Chickens collapse and die within hours. They vomit up fluffy white stuff that looks like the underside of a large mushroom.

KIDNEY/LIVER FAILURE: Compliments of GMO feed. Switched to organic feed and heavy doses of probiotics (yogurt/sour milk).

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BUMBLEFOOT: Swelling around the toes and foot of a bird.

Cause: birds coming down from a high perch and landing badly, cut in the foot, thorn/sliver in the foot

Treatment: Extract thorn/sliver if possible, drain pus, administer dose of penicillin to help avoid staph infection from spreading.

CANNIBALISM:  Pecked tails, vents, wings, shoulders and toes.

Cause: Primarily stress, too much light, overcrowding, lack of food, poor quality food, low barometric pressure, boredom.

Treatment: Remove badly pecked birds to recuperate. Spray with BluKote. Switch to a red heating lamp, or a heating mat of sorts.

CROOKED TOES: Chick(s) have one or more toes that have curled  sideways.

Cause: genetic, riboflavin deficiency, or too bright of heat lamp for the chicks.

Prevention: Cull adult birds that display the curly toes, add yeast to feed of breeding stock.

Treatment: Use sticky tape or a bandage and make a ‘sandwich’ of sorts around the chick’s toes, straightening them in between the ‘sandwich.’ Leave tape or bandage for a week or so, and then remove it.

EAR INFECTION: Bird is unbalanced; obviously having trouble hearing. One or both ears blocked with yellowish matter.

Cause: local infection, probably caused by a seed or other irritant

Treatment: Clean out yellowish matter as carefully as possible (stinky job). Penicillin or other antibiotic injection.

EGG BOUND: Muscles around vent have seized up and don’t allow egg to pass. Hen is crouched and straining.

Treatment: bird needs warmth. Give hen an enema of warm olive oil.

ECTO-PARASITES: Birds scratch and peck at themselves. In acute cases, birds appear off-colour, stop laying and look miserable. Close inspection will reveal creepy-crawlies around the base of the feathers and in the vent area.

Cause: Fleas can jump and can cause anemia. Lice area flat, yellow and tough. Often transmitted from wild birds.

Treatment: Flea powder sold in farm stores. Allow birds free access to wood ashes to dust themselves in. An unlicensed treatment is using liquid flea solution for dogs (Spot On), and dribbling it down the bird’s neck and back. The solution spreads around the body.

 

AFLATOXIN: Food, particularly grains, are stored in damp conditions, allowing Aspergillis flavus fungus to grow.

SCALEY LEG: Scales lifted on the leg, toes and legs look as though they are encrusted with white flaky matter. Caused by Cnemidocoptes mutans.

SEX CHANGE: A hen usually lays from her left ovary. But if it becomes infected, the hen switches to her right ovary. She will cease to lay, and often start to crow, growing long tail feathers.

SOUR CROP: A bulging soft crop. Caused by Candida Albicans, crop fills with foul smelling liquid.

Treatment: feed yogurt/probiotics

IMPACTED CROP: A bulging hard crop. Caused by too much fibre (grass,straw,hay) intake.

Treatment: feed yogurt/probiotics.