Treats with flubenvet 1%

[Marigold]

As I understand it, Ivermectin is usually sprayed or spot-on externally (though as I've never used it myself I'm open to correction here.) obviously for a bird, it's easier than trying to get it down their throats.yes it will still kill worms if applied externally, but the dose is quite tricky to determine accurately, as it's not licensed for use on poultry and thus there aren't reliable instructions for dosage in relation to body weight. Too little won't kill the worms, but an overdose could be very dangerous. Some of the packs yo can buy are intended for use on pigeons, which isn't much help with dosing chickens.
Maybe best to just stick to Flubenvet for worms, regularly, and lice powder or redmite powder when needed.

 

[Tim]

No, you mustn't dose the bird orally with Harkemectin - it's a spot on product.

Yes, it kills internal worms - it will cover the body by translocation to treat lice and mites and to the skin where it is absorbed into the blood stream to treat worms.

 

[breedx]

well, I brought in rooster into house 2 days ago to keep it warm as it seemed to be getting slightly worse. Manually making sure it was getting it flubenvet.

Then yesterday I was in the kitchen, and all of a sudden I heard rooster screeching/screaming loudly like i've never heard it do before and I could hear it flapping it's wings real loud. I quickly ran into bathroom, as I thought it was trying to escape from the temporary corner box with mesh around it I had made for him in the bathroom. I go in and see a really freaky site. He is in the box flapping and screaming like mad, pretty much jumping around in the box/rolling over and over whacking itself off the mesh, wings flapping faster than I have ever seen any chicken do, sending pine shavings all over the bathroom, thats' how powerful and fast it was flapping and rolling about. I just stared, shocked, not knowing what to do, but after about 15 seconds just as I was about to try and grab it, it dropped dead! Just like that. And only the same morning it had seemed to be getting slightly better in the bathroom. Maybe it was a heart attack or something I don't know.

Anyway, I cut it open to see if I could tell anything from it's insides (first time I ever did a post mortem), not that I knew what to look for or anything, but when I cut it open, I noticed straight away how huge it's liver was. It was massive, long and wide. Gall bladder was also pretty big.

With my chickens outer symptoms, and after seeing how big this liver was I am guessing the my flock has Lymphoid Leukoisis.

 

[Marigold]

What an extraordinary experience. Well done for trying the P.M. Did the results look anything like the pics in this link?
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/6/diseases-of-poultry/202/lymphoid-leukosis

 

[breedx]

You can probably get an idea of the liver size from this pic I took of it.

here's a close up of the liver. Does not have many of all those white marks on it as in the pic of the link you sent, but if you look closely it does have a few of those white marks. I was going based on just the size of it though.

 

[chrismahon]

It looks as if the liver occupies most of the abdominal cavity Breedx. It is a large organ but not that large! My knowledge of Lymphoid Leukosis is limited to my own experience with one individual. I know it is often mis-diagnosed as Mareks because the symptoms are pretty much the same. It is also not a contagious disease but hereditary. As such it will hit any individual but not affect the whole flock. It is the formation of tumours along the lymphatic system I was told and in our first case it started with a rapidly growing tumour in the abdomen of a pullet that had just come into lay. Triggered perhaps by hormonal changes.

I would say your heart failure diagnosis is probably right, but an enlarged liver wouldn't be the sole reason perhaps?

 

[Marigold]

Out of interest, were there any visible worms?

 

[breedx]

Marigold, I did not see any worms although I did play around with the intestines and all the other goo. But I did not expect to see any, because he died one day before the end of the flubenvet treatment, and remember, a week before that I had given ivermectin drops also, so the worms must have been pretty much finished.

Your probably right Chris. I think I jumped to conclusions to fast after seeing that big liver. I think it was more than one thing at play here. I have his sister in my flock also so if it is hereditary I hope she does not have it, or atleast is strong enough to handle it.

I am now pretty confident that worms was definitely a major trigger if not the cause of a third of my flock dying (at least in the early sages of the problem/s) because now that I have finished my flubenvet treatment, my remaining flock finally seems healthy and happy. 3 of my pullets that had stopped laying in the last couple of weeks have also restarted now just yesterday (a sure sign that the problem stopping them laying (worms) has now been removed from their insides), after getting wormed and there are no visible problems in any of the flock now, except for the eye of the welsummer whose pic I posted earlier in the thread. But even this welsummer is still laying almost daily and the eye is actually getting visibly better everyday. I hope the worst of it is over, 5 deaths in the space of a month is pretty difficult to see for a first time chicken keeper.

 

[Marigold]

Sympathies, Breedx, yes as you say deaths from unknown or partially-understood causes are hard to deal with, especially such a lot in a short time. I'm really glad they seem to be better now. If you do think a heavy worm burden was to blame in part, you should give them a second treatment in 3 weeks time and every 4-6 months thereafter should keep them sorted out. Remember that earthworms, slugs and snails are intermediate hosts for worm eggs - yes the girls do like the protein snack and a few won't harm them but do avoid deliberately feeding earthworms etc. Also poo picking as much a s possible will help to keep things clean as you will be removing possible worm eggs from droppings and helping to break the cycle.
This has been a very instructive thread for us all, especially the photos, thank you for sharing your problems.