# Sticky  Quarantine



## powderhogg01

This is a step that ALL chicken owners should take when adding new birds to the flock, whether they be chicks or adults purchased from craigslist or word of mouth. by taking the time to properly assimilate your new hens into the flock you will guarantee the health and safety of the flock, and take it from me, treating a few birds is much easier then 15 at the same time... 

I am learning more and more how important it is. Normally if I were to add an adult hen to my flock she would spend some time in a cage by herself so I could watch and check her out. This last time however I replaced an entire flock, and with that came all the issues this flock had.. 

So far I have found feather picking, lice and ticks, im sure I got some mites on them as well, one lady was egg bound and emaciated(not sure which came first), a few have runny butts, one hen has a slight limp, ones missing a few toes... the list goes on and on.

So you adopted a flock and its issues and your focused on fixing it. but where does a person start?

I look at fixing these issues individually based on whats causing the most harm. To be honest feather picking, to me, is something that will happen in the wild as much as in the yard(ever watch a large flock of wild turkeys... they are ruthless when it comes to pecking order) so that is not something I am focused on.. at least not right away(feather loss will be addressed, just not the picking itself). Once you get the health of the birds sorted their feathers will fill in faster and it will be much easier to address.I decided to look at the birds health first... what am I seeing? All the hens are wide eyed and alert. All the poops look more or less normal. The runny butts and bare butts is the first thing striking me as an issue. 

NAKED BUTTS ~ what is the causes for the bare butts, molting, lice, mites, feather pickers, over breeding, and stress could all be factors here. I know its not rooster. First he is not very hard on them, when he breeds them I never see feathers fly. I have 1 roo to 14 hens, before they came here a few weeks ago they had never seen or even heard a rooster. Moving a flock can be stressful, but the effects of stress usually subside a few days after the move. I know for a fact that they were feather picking at their last home, but is this the cause of the naked butts im not fully certain. After moving the birds, I found several ticks in my truck, is this a coincidence? I do not think so, coming from a crowded coop with many different types of birds I think the potential for ticks and lice is quite high.

LICE ~ I decided to error on the side of caution here and have opted to start treatment for lice and mites. I will be cleaning out the coop both new and old, I will spray everything down with bleach solution, lock the girls out for the day and let it sit and air out, I will then add fresh pine shavings and a nice helping of DE. I have some sevin5 which I keep around for this purpose, i applied last night to the birds, will sprinkle some in the corners of the coop as well as make a liquid mix and spray the roost boxes. I also added one bale of cedar in the mix, using it in the nest boxes and just mixed thoroughly into the pine shavings. I will also give all the hens a solid bath using a dog shampoo designed for ticks and fleas, though I intend on waiting a day to let the sevin5 dust do its thing.
lice and mites check.

**I will make a special note here that sevin5 dust is very harmful when not used properly... I do not just shake the stuff around.. I do my utmost best at keeping the stuff from being airborne, as it will kill honey bees within a very short order of contact. 

I will also state that cedar may cause some issues with younger birds, and should not be used on its own as a sole source of bedding... it does a fantastic job of keeping bad bugs out though, and it smells quite nice when mixed into pine shavings. I tend to only use it as an additive to pine shavings, and generally only in the adult coop.**

RUNNY BUTTS ~ I have not had much issue with this in the past.. mostly just chicks with pasty butt and a few hens when it gets real hot, but real hot its not. based on the temps I would think its likely a bacterial infection. Based off pictures I have seen, it could be vent gleet or some other bacterial infection like it. In order to treat this I will give the ALL the hens a dose of epsom salt, then I will give them a bath with dog shampoo designed for fleace and ticks, followed by a good soak in a warm epsom salt bath, once dry I will treat the area with proviodine. 
runny butts check

WORMS ~ While I have not seen any signs that there are worms in my birds I feel that now is a great time to treat them just in case. Worms can spread fairly quickly between animals... which is why I decided to pick up a thing of wazine as well as ivermectin. I have a real nice supply of eggs right now, so I am going to go ahead and treat the wazine first, then follow up in 2 weeks with the ivermectin. 
***special note~ wazine takes 2 weeks to clear the birds system, do not eat a bird that has been treated with wazine for at least 2 weeks. I have been told by a vet that you can feed the eggs back tot he birds, but that you should not eat them.
the ivermectin is 7 days for eggs and a month for eating the poultry, so it is generally advised you do your working or medicating when the birds are not laying and are not likely to be butchered and consumed by humans. ***

FEATHER LOSS ~ Not a whole lot I can do here, I have treated any sore spots with blu-kote. With no more red to be seen hopefully the feather picking will end itself. Especially now that these ladies have a nice large yard to run and play in... less one on one confrontations. If I see the picking continue I will place a camera in the coop, isolate the offender and cull.
The feather growing process is tough on birds, so I feed FF in the evening, the birds have free choice of feather fixer feed, meatbird feed, as well as layer ration but mostly I find them out digging for bugs in the yard. I am hoping this high protein diet will help bring those new feathers out.. 

All these birds lay an egg at least every other day, so judging health based on eggs being laid is not always the best.. observation and dedication to improving their lives is really the only measure. Until I have my full flock fully feathered.. fluffy butts blowing in the breeze I will not be happy... when it comes to the welfare of my critters nothing is as important.
I like to keep blu-kote, prep H, quick chick, mineral oil, caster oil, sevin5, DE, antibiotics, epsom salt, ivermectin as well as some medical wraps for injuries.

I will make a formal statement that I do not try to keep sick or injured birds around, it may seem harsh but if a bird dos not show signs of improvement or is incapacitated completely, I will cull. Where do we draw the line though.. as we cant always chase ailments or cull our birds because of a sprain, IMO if the animal is unable to move on its own power or cant do chicken things its time to go. clearly a stinky runny butt is not something I will cull over, a broken leg, however, is. For me as a steward of these animals I feel that it is my job to insure the birds are happy and healthy, if they are not.. I will try and fix any issues, and if I can not do so in a timely manner they simply become dinner for me or my dog(if they were not looking real tasty).

I wrote this so people might be able to see that taking some small steps in the beginning can really make things much easier in the end game.. If you have any other input or thoughts please do not hesitate to share.. Maybe you have a proven cure, or even some sort of voodoo that has worked for you, we all like a little magic in our lives from time to time, please share.


----------



## robin416

Desitin is an excellent item to have on hand for red, irritated skin from pecking. It will also prevent scald caused by runny feces. Saline. It matches the body's chemistry so that when you wash out a wound or flush and eye it keeps the surrounding tissue in balance. I generally keep saline for contact lenses on hand. Works great on the birds and me when I forget to wear my protective glasses.

Voodoo? LOL Observation is your first tool in the first aid kit. Establishing what is going on first prevents incorrect treatment or doing more harm. Practice the ABC's, airway, breathing, circulation. But I'll add one more, observation. Stand back, watch, remember what you see. And if you are not certain ask. Be prepared to list everything even if it doesn't seem to be important because many times it is. 

And I'll toss in this caution, be careful with throwing too much at them at once. Too many chemicals, whether it's a drug or parasite treatment can over whelm their immune systems and make them less able to recover.


----------



## powderhogg01

very valid points. I try to go through and fix one issue at a time, though some issues may take a while to show the effects... observation is the number one way...


----------



## robin416

Yep, our eyes are the most important tool in the first aid kit.

Too often we read that people are throwing antibiotics at things that are totally unnecessary. First rule, do no harm. Second rule, don't make things worse.

There was one poster years ago that said everything just right, her observations about her bird were impeccable and it saved her bird's life because we knew what she was dealing with immediately. No back and forth trying to dig out all of the information.


----------



## powderhogg01

it is also worth noting that my whole process takes about a month. By that time the FF has really started to work its magic, and if it was a nutritional thing it is usually cleared up. I typically would recommend letting one medication completely clear the system.. like wazine and ivermectin... 
Anytime I treat with wazine or anything like it I will take close looks at the morning poo, being sure to clean any off the poop board that day so I can see the fresh each morning.. If there were worms in the system, generally they will start to die and get passed through the system, you will find them in the poo.. 
If I am seeing them, after 2 weeks I will use ivermectin which will take out the rest of the bad critters.
prevention is the best cure though.. keeping the coop and run clean and free of pests will help the most in the long run.


----------



## Fiere

Worming and delousing are pretty safe to do together. I wouldn't worry so much about that.
Vent gleet can definitely cause bare butts. A bit of vagisil smeared on the vent after an Epsom salt soak should do a good job of clearing that up and isn't adding anything to the hens system where it's topical. 


My usual treatment with new birds is a worming/delousing, repeated in 10 days; a good ration with additional protein; and a vitamin/mineral supplement in the water. This way I clean out any creepy crawlies on the birds and give them a really good boost of nutrients after the stress of a new home. That usually fixes up any issues the birds may have, although I don't buy birds in rough shape so they're problems are usually minimal.

I actually was filing beaks on my D'Anver and one hen has a very heavy muff that I found a cluster of nits in, so I have to do that flock. Never found any on the other birds but if one has 'em they all will. That's the one thing I dislike about muffed/crested breeds, I find their headdresses can often get lousy. I just use a sevin dust, myself. Quick and easy.


----------



## robin416

Knock on wood, I've never had to deal with lice. Call me lucky, I guess.


----------



## Fiere

I'd rather deal with lice than some other things chickens get, lice are easy, two dustings and you're free of them! 
I will have a perfectly clean and clear flock and go over to my bearded breeds and find a clump of nits it the middle of the muff. I don't know if it's because they're beards collect bits of everything the bird sticks it's head in or what. But it's very hard to dust their faces, so I resort to globs and globs of vaseline which really gets things in a mess!


----------



## robin416

Having tried to put vaseline on the feathered legs of mine, I can imagine how bad it was around the face. Its amazing they don't collect so much dirt in it they can still lift their heads.


----------

