Good day all. I have 3 roosters and 6 chickens in three groups, housed in aviaries with coops and shrubs. My oldest chickens are 6 years old, my youngest 3. For about the last 9 months my flock has had recurring issues with infections (respiratory and other) and diarrea affecting some (but not all) of my animals. Some of my animals have been sick several times already, some have never had any symptoms. Right now I have one hen with an infection on the skin of the face and the comb and a hen with diarrea and redness around the cloaca that I am taking to the vet later today. All of my chickens do act lively and vital and they eat well. I have already been to the vet several times. Two deworming cures and several rounds of antibiotics have not so far been a total solution. I feed my chickens a chicken pellet from a Belgian manufacturer. I have given mineral and vitamin supplements this winter. I regularly clean manure from my aviaries and coops. I have also had to take measures to prevent issues with rats found near my chickens. I have had chickens for about 15 years now and haven't really had this many issues in such an amount of time before. I am starting to get really demotivated at this point and sometimes feel anxious when I go to my chickens or simply watch them. Perhaps being home due to corona has increased my awareness of my chickens' health and the time I spend on them, but that just does not feel like an explanation here. Can anyone think of anything I could be doing wrong or that I could do more? I would like to continue and in fact expand my flock a little bit, but right now that is very much in question.
This is a hard question. Diarrea has many causes and you can have multiple causes at the same time. If you can afford it, I would collect fecal samples and let them test in laboratory for the most common chicken infections and parasites. You can´t cure them if you don´t know the reason. Some basic support care would be replacing drinking water with tea and adding activated charcoal to their food. And as much hygiene as possible. For example "eggs" of Coccidiosis species (very common infection in chickens) mature 48 hours after they leave body in feces, so aggresive cleaning every 2 days could theoretically keep them on low level. But in reality, if you have it in your chicken, you will need supplementing anti-coccidiosis medicaments for the rest of their lives. TLDR- if you have emotional bond with your chicken on individual level, you will need to invest into testing and vet care to find out the cause and start medication. If your bond is weak/none, I would kill them all, do very deep cleaning and desinfection of everything, replace top layer of soil in their runs, wait a few weeks and start from zero.
I haven't had coccidiosis in my flock in many years, and a fecal exam earlier this year found no parasites of any sort (no worms, no coccidiosis) so the vet doesn't seem to be considering it. Given that I have not been in contact with any poultry since or haven't brought in any new animals, and that my chickens cannot have contact with any wild bird larger than a blackbird, I would be surprised if they had it. Also with coccidiosis you usually see blood in the feces, and there is none of that. Feces are actually pretty normal right now, just a little greener in color than usual but normal in texture, aside from one chicken with softer feces but not full diarrea. I will also look into the charcoal and perhaps into anti-coc. The tea, what is that all about? What kind of tea would that be? I have since taken two chickens to the vet. He did not find the feces to be sufficiently abnormal to warrant a fecal test, given that one was done earlier in the year. He thinks it is a bacterial infection the previously used antibiotic is not or not fully clearing up, and he is going to order another one for me that I will be picking up soon. The chicken with the soft feces and infection around the cloaca will have to be moved to separate housing for the time being, I luckily have a suitable space for her. I also asked the vet about the nutrition and he thinks my feeding is fine. But I will still try to do some research into different brands of chicken food to see which might be the best. I am going to step up my cleaning yet a bit more. With regards to the TLDR: I don't have a close bond with my chickens but killing them myself (or having them killed by someone) is not something I could do unless in an absolute emergency, and it would also be illegal here to do that without prior anaesthesia, unless it was an emergency or done with veterinary drugs.
