Hen Health Watch
Prevent, recognize and treat the top chicken ailments.
Prevent, recognize and treat the top chicken ailments.
Most introductory chicken manuals fail in their attempt to describe the thousand and one diseases, maladies and afflictions that sometimes befall our friend, the chicken. I will hit on the most common, but there are certainly many more out there and you should continue to do your research and, of course, visit your veterinarian whenever a concern arises.
Preventing Problems
It’s infinitely easier to keep chickens healthy than to doctor them after the fact, and in most cases, keeping them healthy isn’t at all hard. To keep healthy, bright-eyed chickens, begin with healthy, bright-eyed chickens.
Buy from reliable sources. Don’t stock your coop with someone else’s rejects or bedraggled bargain fowl picked up at country swap meets. Instead, consider starting with day-old chicks from reputable hatcheries.
Provide suitable quarters. They needn’t be fancy, but they must be clean, roomy, well-ventilated and draft free.
Feed your chickens what they need to thrive. Keep plenty of sparkling clean drinking water available at all times for every member of flock. Furnish enough feeders and waterers to make certain every chicken can eat or drink whenever it pleases.
Maintain a closed flock. Don’t indiscriminately add chickens to your collection. It upsets the flock’s hierarchy and will likely cause infighting and stress. It’s also the best possible way to introduce disease.
Avoid unnecessary stresses. For example, keep your kids or dog from chasing the chickens, handle them gently, make changes gradually and don’t upset the status quo. Laid-back chickens tend to be healthy chickens.
Recognize problems early, while they’re still fairly simple to fix. Consult the “Chicken Health Check” chart for general signs ill health.
maladies: Parasites & diseases
A parasite-savvy chicken raiser knows early detection is a key to keeping chickens healthy. Most chickens are exposed to wild birds, which commonly spread parasites and disease. Left unchecked, parasites can spread like wildfire through your flock, causing anemia, weight loss, decreased egg production and even death.
PARASITES, LICE AND MITES
Chickens sometimes do have worms. Zap external and internal parasites before they cause problems. However, don’t rely on overthe-counter remedies that treat parasites your chickens might not have. Instead, collect a community fecal sample using material from a number of chicken plops and take it to your vet to be checked for worm eggs. If worms are present, she’ll prescribe a wormer custom tailored for your flock. Do this twice a year to be on the safe side.
Lice and mites are the scourge of the henhouse, and you need to be vigilant and take care of them. The first step is to know what you’re dealing with. See “Chicken Itchies” in this chapter for a description of the big four.
For the scoop on external creepies, scope out the University of Florida’s bulletin, “External Parasites of Poultry” at http://edis.ifas.ufl. edu/ig140. Before applying any commercial bug blaster, read the label carefully and follow instructions exactly.
COMMUNICABLE POULTRY DISEASES: THE BIG, SCARY ONES
It’s unlikely your pet chicken or small farm flock will succumb to one of the big, exotic poultry diseases. However, these diseases are out there, so you need to be able to recognize their symptoms. If you do suspect one such
disease has a toehold in your flock, bring in the big guns. Most of these are diseases that must be reported to health authorities, and it’s your duty to wave the red flag. (See the “Major Chicken Maladies” chart for a summary of the diseases listed.)
AVIAN INFLUENZA: Avian influenza is a highly contagious respiratory infection caused by type A influenza orthomyxoviruses. Symptoms vary widely and range from mild to serious. Death occurs suddenly; the disease sweeps through a flock in just one to three days. Avian influenza occurs in many forms worldwide and must be reported in the United States.
FOWL CHOLERA: Fowl cholera is an acute, relatively common disease caused by Pasteurella multocida bacteria. It spreads rapidly and kills quickly; chickens die within hours after symptoms appear. Humans handling infected birds sometimes contract upper respiratory infections.
INFECTIOUS CORYZA: Infectious coryza is found worldwide; in the United States, most cases occur in the southeastern states and in California. A respiratory infection caused by Haemophilus paragallinarum bacteria, coryza often manifests in combination with other chronic respiratory diseases. While contagious, it usually isn’t fatal.
INFECTIOUS BRONCHITIS: Infectious bronchitis is a common, fast-spreading and highly contagious respiratory disease caused by several strains of coronavirus. While chicks often succumb to the infection, adult chickens generally survive, but they remain carriers for life.
FOWL POX: There are two types of fowl pox: wet, sometimes called Avian pox, and dry, also known as fowl diphtheria (neither is related to human chicken pox). Caused by the same virus and transmitted in the same manner, the former is primarily a skin disease while the latter affects both the skin and the respiratory tract.
INFECTIOUS LARYNGOTRACHEITIS: Infectious laryngotracheitis (sometimes called Avian diptheria) is a slow-spreading, but serious, upper respiratory tract infection caused by a herpes virus. It manifests worldwide and commonly afflicts laying hens during the winter months.
MAREK’S DISEASE: Marek’s disease is a global scourge; it kills more chickens worldwide than any other disease. Marek’s symptoms vary according to its victims’ ages but it often culminates in sudden death. Caused by six different herpes viruses, it is virulently contagious. Chicks vaccinated at one day of age are usually immune for life.
NEWCASTLE DISEASE: Newcastle disease manifests in many forms and in varying degrees of seriousness. It’s not generally fatal, and survivors gain immunity for life. Caused by a paramyxovirus, Newcastle can trigger minor eye infections in humans who handle the live vaccine or infected chickens.
Picking & Cannibalism
Although not diseases, picking and cannibalism are the most vexing aspects of chicken keeping and clearly major threats to the health of your flock. On occasion, chickens literally peck each other to death. Worse, once it happens, the habit is readily established. It’s important to nip this vile habit in the bud with adults and chicks alike.
Cannibalism usually takes root when one of the flock is injured. The sight of blood draws her peers because chickens peck at anything red. Unless the injured chicken is removed from the flock, the pecking escalates and she’s likely to be pecked until she’s dead. Although mildly injured chickens can be left in the flock and treated with commercial products to thwart further
pecking, it’s better to separate them until they’ve fully recovered. Installed in their own quarters and administered antibiotic or herbal ointments, healing will be hastened. By rescuing them, you’ll likely save their lives. In general, don’t leave wounded, lame, weak, undersized, odd-colored or otherwise unusual birds in a flock of aggressive peers. To preserve their lives, move them to safer quarters until recovered.
Many other factors influence cannibalism within a given flock, including overcrowding, intense lighting and heat, diet, breed-related problems and stress.
Address the problems of overcrowding by removing some birds, moving the flock to a roomier coop or turning them outdoors. You can also install additional waterers, feeders and nesting boxes. Dim the lights, install fans and create more shade to prevent the overly high activity level that results from bright lighting and the edginess caused by sizzling, steamy heat. If you suspect that a deficient diet is the culprit in negative behavior, try different combinations until you find something that works. For instance, confined, solely scratch-fed chickens sometimes don’t receive sufficient nutrients from their diet. If they begin pecking one another, switching to commercial feed or a commercial-feed and scratch blend sometimes helps eliminate the problem. Conversely, chickens fed a strictly commercial diet sometimes peck out of sheer boredom.
Strewing scratch grains, garden greenery or acceptable table scraps adds dietary variety, and scratching and nibbling at these goodies gives idle chickens something to do. Flighty, nervous birds are more likely to peck. Avoid situations that will leave your birds stressed, such as rough handling, temperature extremes and abrupt changes in routine. ■
Sue Weaver has written hundreds of articles, including those for Hobby Farms magazine and Chickens magazine, and nine books about livestock and poultry. She lives on a small farm in Arkansas, where she cares for sheep, goats, horses and, of course, chickens.