My sister rescued 4 hens 1 rooster. Approx. 3 yrs old and spent entire life crowded in cages in a 10x10 room with about 75 other chickens. No windows, no fresh air, but did have ac and low lighting. Looks like they have fowl pox and probably lice/mites too. they now have a large house and 10x20 outside area. seem to be eating well, layer, cracked corn, worms from compost and kitchen scraps. she gets 3 to 5 eggs a day. They seem to be improving but very slowly. we put DE in the spots where they dust the most and have sprinkled some directly on them. shes getting wormer to put in their water tomorrow. Is there something else we shuold be doing and what should we expect as far as recovery
time for them?
help with unhealthy rescued chickens PLEASE
Lucky chickens! It sounds as if she is doing a good job with them. If the DE does not take care of the lice or mites, there are poultry dusts that will. Most important is just to improve their health and living conditions which she is doing. (The corn should be fed only as an occasional treat as it is not nutritionally complete for laying hens.) The wormer will usually say it is not to be used for laying hens. Just don't eat the eggs for a week or two to be safe. I trust they are securely closed in their house at night to protect them from predators. I wonder how she gets 5 eggs from 4 hens; they must not be in bad shape at all!
thanks for the reply. I'd forgotten not to eat eggs during worming. Been a while since I had chickens. i'm surprised shes getting eggs too, they look terrible. No predators can get in the pen, wire is heavt duty and buried to keep out diggers and top enclosed too.
Dust under the wings with sevin dust. They will spread it over their bodies themselves.
Thanks Cajun. Will do
Yes sevin dust will take care of anything then do it again in 7 days to kill any that hatch out.Wood ashes are great to,but I would use the sevin first to kill everything.Do the bedding also. AKA green 04735
This message was edited May 18, 2015 7:29 AM
You are very welcome one. I hope they are in fine feathers soon.
They are looking better, and seem to be happier. Thanks all