Re: HELP !!

Peggy wrote:
All I know about his feeding of his chooks is they get aprox 5 or 6 kg of wheat a day. As I looked after them once when they went away for the
weekend. And I know he did not get me to look after them again beause I fed them to much. I have been thinking that if he got seed wheat it may have had some sort of pestercide on it .which maybe slowly poisoning them .
peggy

Hi Peggy, a bit slow catching up on my emails and such.

Treated seed wheat should be coloured either blue/green or bright pink. Zinc makes a white powder and while I wouldn't like to eat it, it probably won't kill them.

Now he has 30 hens? How many have died altogether? Are they ex battery hens? If so it won't be one of the diseases like Mareks 'cos all commercial egg farms immunize day old for those. If they are not from a commercial farm chances are it could be Marek's or something like that. It is rampant in back yard Perth - niece bought silkies which started dying after a couple of weeks. She works for the vet so got the postmortem done for zilch and it was Mareck's. They were skinny, looked listless, difficulty breathing and finally become paralyzed and die. Not a quick death.
If you think it's a disease and know some of the symptoms check here:
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp

Some diseases we don't have in Au but it is a good place to start.

BTW I'd burn any of the bodies you get and if you have to check his place out take off your boots before getting in the car and wash them in bleach when you get home. I won't walk around my SIL chook yard in my own boots any more - I wear some of theirs.

--
Ginny - in West Australia

Plan ahead ... It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. -- Unknown
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