G. NUTE BVSc
MRCVS
Mrs P.J. NUTE BVSc MRCVS
VETERINARY SURGEONS
THE VETERINARY SURGERY, HIGHER TRENANT,
WADEBRIDGE, CORNWALL PL27 6HB.
Tel No. 01208 813258
NEWSLETTER
FOR CURRENT OR POTENTIAL CHICKEN
KEEPERS
GENERAL
Chicken keeping has become an increasingly popular past time across the country and
indeed here at Nutes 3 of our nurses regularly bring in delicious eggs from their
backyard hens. Particularly useful it was around pancake day too! In an attempt to be
able to offer you better advice and treatment for your backyard buddies one of our
vets Nicky Hallows has recently been on a chicken course and our practice is now
affiliated with ‘The Chicken Vet’ a large poultry practice in Exeter. In this letter we
hope to offer you a little bit of advice but if you have any further questions don’t
hesitate to ring the practice or if your chickens need veterinary attention bring them
into one of our open surgeries and we will be happy to help.
WHERE DO I GET MY CHICKENS FROM??
1) Magazines or internet: ‘Practical poultry magazine’ or ‘The Poultry Club of GB’
are usually used by specialist breeders and can be a good source for hens but care
should be used with dealers advertising here. Dealers tend to pick up chickens
from multiple sources at markets and their health may be very questionable. Think
of buying a chicken as like buying a puppy. It’s good to see where the hen has
been reared and who by.
2) Markets; Care should also be exercised when buying from markets. Remember if
a bird is cheap there’s probably a reason for it, it’s a lot like buying a car, as above
it’s best to be able to see the bird in its home environment first.
3) Dealers: See above, you really need to be careful if buying from a dealer.
4) Agents: These can be quite good people to buy from, they are usually pullets ie
young hens bought from commercial pullet rearers, they’ve usually been
vaccinated.
5) Ex batteries: The British Hen Welfare Trust is doing an excellent job of giving
hens a second chance after a hard start to their life. They are about to re-home
their 250,000th battery hen and can be found on www.bhwt.org.uk.
We’d recommend starting with at least 3 hens so if one dies the others aren’t alone,
also it seems 2 birds take to a new addition better than 1.
WHAT ABOUT A COCKEREL?
Think of the noise and your neighbours but on the plus side a cockerel can keep a
flock of bickering hens in check! Watch their spurs though they can cause feather loss
and scratching along the back of the hens. They may need to be clipped.
HOUSING
A good hen house will give shelter and protection from weather and predators.1 nest
box per 3 birds, perches that allow 25cm/bird (less for bantams), a wide enough
entrance to prevent arguments and a shallow ramp up to the door for stiff legged ex
batteries. Bedded ideally with shavings or short chopped good quality straw, not
paper. NB low perches for ex batteries as they can easily fall off and break their breast
bone.
From time to time the hen house should have the bedding removed and destroyed,
hosed down and cleaned eg with fairy liquid and then left to dry and then disinfected
with eg ‘interkokask’. A good disinfectant will kill RED MITES and coccidia as well
as the regular bugs. Remember red mites only come onto the bird at night but can be
seen in the crevices of the house. They’re more prevalent in the spring and summer.
You need to treat the bird and the house with a suitable product. A heavy infestation
of red mites can make a hen seriously anaemic.
OUTSIDE: They should have a dry area to scratch around in, a dust bath and a fly
trap eg ‘red top fly trap’.
They like eating short grass but be careful if they gorge on long grass it can get
tangled up in their crop.
FEEDING
Its best to feed a commercial ration and not just corn-if you feed corn mixed with
other feed they’ll tend to pick out the corn and not eat the rest. You can give them a
handful of corn to scratch feed at night or now and again as a treat the same applies to
mealworms. Layers pellets are the best thing to feed and an adult layer will eat
approximately 120g of this per day and drink approx. 200ml of water a day. NB a
bantam will need less than this.
Caged birds should have pecker blocks to keep them entertained. You can also nail
half a swede onto the wall for them to peck at or hang a cabbage up or cut a turf of
grass out for them to have.
They also need mixed grit for their shell and to help break food down in the gizzard.
This can be put in a sieve or colander to allow water to drain through. They know
when they need it and will take it as required.
Water needs to be kept clean and you can raise it off the ground to avoid it getting
soiled and take care in winter for freezing, it may be better to keep water in at night
rather than letting it freeze and having to wait for it to defrost.
Obesity is a common problem in backyard chickens and this can lead to all sorts of
health problems including laying large eggs that can get stuck. It’s best to avoid
feeding kitchen scraps unless they’re getting a regular and similar ration as they don’t
tolerate a frequently changing diet too well.
SPECIFIC HEALTH PROBLEMS
DIARRHOEA
This needs to be differentiated from an increase in urine. With the latter there will be
a normal firm poo in the middle of a large pool of watery urine. With the former there
will be a homogenous watery/pastey brown deposit.
There are numerous causes of diarrhoea in chickens the main ones being:
-coccidiosis
-worms
-bacterial infection
-renal or hepatic issues
-egg binding
Coccidiosis- This is a serious condition of birds from 2weeks to 2months and is often
associated with blood in the faeces. You should seek immediate veterinary attention
for this condition.
Worming- we recommend worming at least twice a year in spring and autumn with
flubenvet.
If you are up to date with worming and the diarrhoea has persisted for 24hours or
more and particularly if the bird is off colour then we recommend swift veterinary
attention is sought.
CROP PROBLEMS
SOUR CROP – This is a yeast infection of the crop leaving it dull with foul smelling
breath and a bulging neck. This requires veterinary attention.
CROP IMPACTION – Again these animals may be dull and not eating and have a
large bulge in the lower neck. This may be caused by problems in the muscles in the
crop wall or by swallowing eg a bit of plastic or too much long grass. This may
require surgery to remove so is a veterinary job.
Please remember that a chicken’s crop may take on a natural bulge after eating so
wait a couple of hours after finding a bulging crop before starting to worry.
THE SNEEZING HEN
-There are a variety of viruses and bacteria that can cause respiratory problems
including swollen watery eyes and sneezing. These generally require treatment with
antibiotics and any other in contact hens may well require treatment too.
-TLC is important as is ensuring a well ventilated but not overly draughty house.
-These bugs can return if the bird gets stressed in the future.
-It’s a good idea to keep any new birds away from existing ones for 3 weeks as a
quarantine period.
-Try and get your birds from disease free flocks, ex batteries will usually already be
vaccinated.
-Vaccination if you have a larger number of birds or can group together with other
keepers is a good idea but there’s no point in vaccinating an already sick bird.
THE WOBBLY HEN
It is not uncommon to encounter birds that are wobbly or paralysed or are holding
their heads in a strange way. The 2 main causes are Mareks disease and meningitis.
Mareks disease
This is most commonly seen in younger birds from 3 months to 1 year though older
birds remain carriers and can potentially infect younger birds. For this reason if
possible its best to keep youngsters and adults separate.
There is no treatment for this condition though vaccination of day old chicks is
possible. Good hygiene and thorough disinfection are important in keeping this
disease at bay.
Meningitis
This can affect any aged bird and often will only be distinguished from Mareks by the
fact that meningitis will often respond well to a suitable antibiotic and TLC whereas
Mareks won’t. It isn’t usually contagious.
THE LAME CHICKEN
Trauma- check perch height and roughness of perch
Scaley leg- a mite that does exactly what it says in the name. It requires treatment
with an appropriate anti-mite product plus weekly washing of the legs with a baby
shampoo and soft toothbrush followed by a dunk in surgical spirit and then
application of vaseline.
Foot pad lesions- often caused by wet bedding.
Bumblefoot- a bacteria that enters the foot through abrasions on the foot. Check
bedding as sharp shavings can damage the foot as can perch problems see above. This
condition causes swellings on the foot and usually needs lancing, flushing and
antibiotics.
THE BALD CHICKEN
Moulting-Maybe your chicken is just having a normal moult?? This generally
happens once a year after lay and can last up to 2 months. Disease resistance is
weakened at this time. They can appear very moth-eaten. You can give them a boost
with extra vitamins at this time eg ‘aminoplus’.
Parasites-eg red mites-treat house and bird with suitable products.
Pecking- This may be behavioural or due to a lack of protein. You can supplement
protein with eg ‘aminoplus’ but it may well be their environment that needs
improving. Have they got enough space? Have they got a pecking block? Hang up a
cabbage and nail half a swede to the wall!
Overmating-They can end up with a nasty bald scratched patch on their back if
they’ve been having too much fun with the cockerel! You may need to have the
cockerel’s spurs trimmed or you can buy chicken saddles from ebay to protect the
hen’s back!
Severe nutritional issues-If there’s something badly missing in their diet you may
get feather loss. This won’t happen if the bulk of their ration is coming from layers
pellets but may if you’re just feeding kitchen scraps.
Conclusion
Chicken keeping can be a fun and rewarding past time and is great for the children
too. People can become as bonded to their chucks as they do to their cats and dogs.
Try and be as informed as possible before you get started to avoid problems, but
should you encounter any, we are here to help.