#poultrydvm

[homeofhousechickens]

If you do not live in a tropical area and your chicken is showing symptoms of gasping or constantly adjusting their crop, they likely do NOT have Gapeworm! It's more likely sour crop or a respiratory infection, both of which will not be treated with worming medication. Your first thought at seeing these symptoms should be to worry about your birds ability to breathe and if it is contagious to your flock. Respiratory illnesses or canker are the most likely culprits if multiple birds are affected.

A lot of new chicken owners see those symptoms and read online about gapeworm but it really isn't that common. If you have a chicken who passed away who showed those symptoms it's incredibly easy to confirm it at home since the Gapeworms take up residence in the trachea. I even see people just assume that's what killed their chicken without checking.

So to reiterate, unless you are in a tropical climate where your birds have access to lots of earthworms and slugs they likely do not have gapeworms, especially if it is multiple birds displaying symptoms at once. Gapeworm is also easily identified by an experienced vet as all it takes is checking the trachea.

[poultrydvm-blog]

Belinda the Therapy Hen | PoultryDVM

Belinda was one of CrossKennan Lane Animal Sanctuary (CLAS)’s special rescues. Belinda was very unique. She was a cheeky little bird, who possessed a very calm, gentle personality. Belinda was the kind of bird that was always intrigued by her surroundings---always wanting to investigate and explore. She absolutely adored to be in the company of people---and would be perfectly content to sit a person’s lap or perch on their hand, arm or shoulder for hours at a time. Belinda enjoyed to be ‘pet’ by humans, and would even push her head into a person’s hand or chest as a means of communicating that she wanted to be petted. However, funny

[homeofhousechickens]

Here is a nice first aid kit from PoultryDVM

I do have some suggested substitutes though number 21. I would get calcium tablets instead of tums, tums has additives that arent necessary for a chicken. If your in an emergency and your hen is egg bound they can work to get her some calcium but for your first aid kit why not just buy calcium tablets? number 23. KY jelly isnt even a great lube for humans, instead pick up a medical grade water based lube from the drug store. It wont have artificial "scent" and other additives that could irritate your bird You should also ALWAYS have Corid on hand if your a chicken keeper, it case your bird/birds develop coccidosis which is EXTREMELY common. Its not an antibiotic so there is no reason for you not to have it in your first aid kit. In serious cases it can help keep your bird alive intill you get better medications to treat. All in all this is a good first aid kit, its not meant to help treat every possible chicken ailment but its a good place to start and i like poultrydvm's infographics

[homeofhousechickens]

PoultryDVM made a poultry feed comparison tool! This is a great way to compare the feed brands you have access to so you can choose the most nutritious feed for your birds.

You can also sort feed by ingredients so you can look at corn and soy free feeds, organic, non gmo, ect

I use Kalmbach's henhouse reserve for my grown chickens as whole/unprocessed feed helps decrease the gizzards ph which helps prevent digestive upset due to bacteria. I personally also find that unprocessed feed helps for chickens to have firmer less smelly stools. Henhouse reserve also has added vitamin D which is very important for my house chickens. If you want to compare our feeds for fun you can find henhouse reserve by sorting for "textured" in the feed form filter.

PoultryDVM: Poultry Feeds Comparison Lookup Tool

An interactive tool to allow poultry owners the ability to look up and compare nutrients in the various commercial poultry feeds available i

[poultrydvm-blog]

Glo’s Case of Splay Leg | PoultryDVM

Glo, short for Gloria Vanderbilt, is a 10 week-old hen who was nicknamed after her ‘day-glo’’ like appearance. She lives in Atlanta, GA with 13 other chickens in Jesse’s backyard. Jesse loves coming up with unique, fun names for each of her little birds, and often takes her time with naming to make sure that each bird’s name correctly matches their own individual personality. Donna Martin and Kelly Taylor, named after 90210 TV show characters, are the older “Mean Girls” of the flock. Alejandra, a white crested black Polish, was named after Lady Gaga’s hit single, “Alejandro”, due to her dramatic nature. Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Sonia Sotomayor are black

[poultrydvm-blog]

Mrs. Buffington’s Fly Strike | PoultryDVM

Buffy, short for Mrs. Buffington, is a 2-year old Buff Orpington. She lives with another hen named Tuffy, who often hangout with Einstein, their cat friend. Julie keeps them outside in her fenced in backyard and locks them up every evening in their coop. She absolutely adores her little hens and enjoys watching them forage and play around in the garden daily. Buffy, Tuffy and Einstein One morning in June, when Julie let the girls out of their coop she noticed Buffy was walking a bit funny, and had a lot of feces stuck to her vent feathers. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that Buffy’s abdomen was very swollen (why she

[poultrydvm-blog]

Miss Adzuki Bean’s Ovarian Cancer | PoultryDVM

Miss Adzuki is a two-year old Golden Laced Wyandotte. She lives in an urban backyard environment in Oakland, California with five other hens as part of the ‘Bean Team’. The other members of the 'Bean Team' include Lentil, Fava, Jellybean, Kopi (which means coffee in Indonesian), and Cannellini Molasses-face). The flock of sweet hens are kept in a large predator-proofed enclosure outside, within a fenced in backyard. The enclosure contains a chicken coop for them to sleep in at night and to lay eggs in built in nestboxes during the day. Whenever one of their owners, Alex Witte and Zac Diener are home, they let the girls explore the remainder

[poultrydvm-blog]

Titch’s Hormone Implants | PoultryDVM

Titch is an ex-battery hen, who spent the first eighteen months of her life living in a tiny cage at a commercial egg laying factory in the United Kingdom. Titch was rescued from slaughter by the British Hen Welfare Trust (BHWT). Since relocating out of the city and into a 2.5 acre home in rural Norfolk, Nicky Cullum and her son, Peter, decided to participate in the BHWT’s ex-battery rehoming programme. In 2014, they adopted Ginger, Nutmeg and Cinnamon. In July 2015, Nicky decided to rescue a couple more hens through the BHWT, which is how she came to know Titch. Titch when she was first released from the egg