We have learned the hard way how to keep our animal alive and healthy. Obviously, the basics of the appropriate nutrition and clean water are always important for all of our farm animals.  

Our tips below concern those things we have found to be a real problem in this area, probably a product of our soil and water bacteria, the prevalence of internal parasites, plus warm temperatures, high rainfall and humidity.  This information may be helpful to others but obviously since we are not vets, this is for reference by others but a qualified person should always be consulted when needed.

We tend to try to find ways that we can care for our animals ourselves. We consult the vet for our dogs and horses when we don't know what's wrong, or when it involves surgery or prescription meds.

CHICKENS & PIGEONS

Fowl Pox - Fowl pox is spread by mosquitoes.  This seems to be specific to chickens.  There is a pigeon pox disease but my pigeons do not seem to get it.  I keep my baby chicks in screened incubators so they are not exposed to fowl pox prior to them being vaccinated with the fowl pox vaccine from the feed store.  Some people vaccinate their chicks at 3 - 5 days old.  With the tiny breeds, like the Japanese Bantams, the chicks are so little and the double needles are so big, I just can't do it till they are larger.    So I keep the mosquitoes away from them.  Just to let you know how prevalent the infected mosquitoes are, I have had unvaccinated chicks in a warmed cage in my house 300 yds from the chicken yard and they became infected.  Yet I didn't even notice any mosquitoes in the house. 

To vaccinate the chicks, you mix the contents of the liquid vial with the solid vial of the vaccine, then withdraw the blue liquid into a shallow container in which you can dip the double needle.  You stick the dipped double needle through the skin part of the chicks "armpit", or is it "wingpit".  The bird squawks a little but quickly recovers. 

Clean Water -

In late 2005, I started changing every open water container every day and adding a small squirt of Chlorox to the water.   Since I started doing this, I  have not had a new case of Marek's disease (the disease that causes chicken paralysis).  .    Update,  2006, I rethought this practice.  If one think of the chicken as a biosystem, one wants to promote healthy bacterial systems in the bird.   By using Chlorox, one is essentially  killing all bacteria, good and bad.  I began to worry about the beneficial bacteria needed in the gut.  I am trying a different system.  I change all water bowls every day, and add BAM (see below). 

Weight Loss - Wasting Away - De-worming

When I first started with the chickens and pigeons, I was de-worming them but I was not religious about it.  I would have individual chickens or pigeons lose weight, get droopy and ultimately die, sometimes with an additional respiratory problem .  I did all kinds of things to try to save them.  I thought the problem was coccidiosis because I saw some blood in the droppings.  Often I seemed to be able to cure one part of the condition, but just when the bird seemed to want to start eating again, it seemed that the digestive system had been so badly compromised that the food would overwhelm  the chicken's system and it would quickly die. 

I went back to the books and found that some of the intestinal worms can catastrophically damage the chickens' intestines.  I then concluded that my neighbors who raise game cocks  were very correct.  They worm  their chickens on a very strict schedule.  I started deworming with either ivermec, fenbendazole, or piperazine.  I deworm at least once a month, or if I see bloody droppings, or have a bird that seems to be underweight. 

Since I have been doing this, I have many less sick birds.  I pick up my birds a lot.  If someone seems a little light, I give them an individual dose of dewormer to make sure they are clear.

The direction I am hoping to progress in is learning how to control internal parasites naturally.  I note that the McMurray hatchery advertises something called Wormguard Plus with Flax.  This product apparently contains multiple types of lactic acid bacteria, enterococcus faecium, and whole flax seeds for the essential fatty acids 3 & 6.  According to the catalog blurb, the product is 100% organic, and rids birds of internal parasites without use of poisons.  Of note is the claim that parasites can not develop an immunity to the product as they do to worming chemicals.   I haven't tried the Wormguard yet.  At $20.45 for 2 lbs, used at a rate of 1 1/4 cups  per 50 lbs. of feed, it seems a little pricey.  I do feed flax seed to my horses to help them metabolize sugars at the cellular level, so I may start adding flax seed to the chicken rations also, and look for other sources of the bacteria.    The concept of properly  nourished animals, with adequate sources of Copper, being able to shed internal parasites was also discussed in an article by Pat Coleby in a recent Acres magazine.  Animals deficient in copper, often as a result of grazing on pastures fertilized with high phosphate fertilizers, are also subject to Crohn's disease, an inflammatory condition of the intestine which reduces the ability of the animal to absorb nutrition.

Respiratory

I have increasingly learned how to treat birds that get respiratory conditions.  I don't get very many of them.  Mostly, they occur when the bird is compromised for other reasons.  Many times bird health conditions compound each other.  For instance, if a bird is hurt or gets an eye infection, it tends to not get enough water and food, then it gets quickly susceptible to respiratory conditions.  If I see any bird that is moving slowly or catches my attention as being in any way lethargic, I pick the bird up and look it over for eye injuries or infection. 

Often, if the bird is only recently looking piquey, I sometimes try intubating the bird with an appropriately-sized rubber/plastic tube, and use a syringe to hydrate the bird without risking having it get water into its lungs.  Intubation is fairly easy once you have learned how to put the tube gently down the bird's throat.  Then I use a syringe (without a needle) to pour the water down the tube.   I give 25 - 30 cc of water or more to the larger breeds, and 15 cc to the smaller breeds.  Remember to fill the syringe with air several times and push the water down through the tube with the air, otherwise you'll fill the tube but not get the liquid into the bird.  If the bird needs some calories, I mix up some sugar in the water.

If the bird is very ill, and you see it breathing open-mouthed after handling, try to minimize the handling and the stress on the bird.  If a bird is at rest and its breathing is labored and opening its mouth to breathe, it is often too late to save them.  I always put them in a warmed cage, give them an antiobiotic, and make sure they are hydrated.  Sometimes I have put them in a tented are and misted VetRx in the air with a bubbling mister.   It is very iffy. 

The other thing that I learned is that susceptibility to respiratory disease can be related to inadequate intake of vitamins, particularly Vitamin A.  I put vitamins and electrolytes in the drinking water several times a week.

The above was written before I discovered BAM in early 2006.  See below.    Now I change out the drinking water every day and add BAM at the 800 to 1 concentration (i.e., 1/2 cc in a gallon of water).   I  had one Polish hen who had a broken leg.  While she was recuperating from the broken leg, she was inactive and came down with some sort of infection that caused her face to swell up. I treated her with antibiotics but she was slowly deteriorating and was getting shocky (open mouth gasping) when I would handle her..  As my first test of BAM, I took her off the antibiotics and started giving her BAM at 100:1 concentration in her water.  I would give her the treated water out of a syringe and moisten a little feed with the BAM and hand feed it to her.  Within several days, she was not gasping when I handled her and the swelling on her face was reducing.  She continued to improve, and started drinking and feeding  herself, so I put her in a bigger cage to encourage her to start moving around more and hopefully using her legs.  Unfortunately, a predator of some kind got into the cage and did the poor girl in. 

At the moment, as of March 2006, I believe that addressing internal parasites, meeting nutritional, mineral and vitamin needs and providing clean drinking water are the most successful things I do to keep my birds healthy, in addition to protecting them from cold and drafts, etc.

Treatment of Injuries

I have tried various things with injuries and eye infections, usually involving treatment of that bird with either oral or topical antibiotics.     As of 2006, I was introduced to BAM (Biologically Active Microorganism), which is made by Harry Arakaki of Organa Agricultural Hawaii, Inc. Now whatever kind of injury it is, I put BAM on it.  If I bird has an eye infection, I put a drop of straight BAM right in the eye.  Chickens get this yukky solid yellow build up in infected areas including the eye.  It is a little gross but the yukky  yellow has gotta come out.  If the eye has been serious infected for some time, either the original injury or the infection may have destroyed the eye and the ultimately the eyeball is pretty much disintegrated and comes out when I am taking the yukky yellow stuff out.  If I'm  lucky, the yukky yellow stuff is built up around the eyeball but can be worked out if I massage the closed eye.  I put some BAM in the eye, then check the eye and reclean and re-treat each day till the eye stays clean.   In one hen, her eye was so badly infected that I thought for the longest time that the eyeball was destroyed.  I used the clean and BAM method till the eye stayed clean each day.  When I checked her a week or so later, to my surprise, the swelling had gone and she had an eyeball which was only slightly clouded.  Update 2006, I now use the analgesic cotton swabs sold for use by humans for mouth pain.   I use the swab to anesthetize the eye area so I can clean it more aggressively in the beginning.  This makes the bird more comfortable and calm while I am working on it and allows me to make a lot faster progress in removing the crud that is impeding the healing.  Before I used the swabs, I had one bird that I worked on for 6 weeks.  I supposed that perhaps his eyeballs were destroyed but finally I cleared away the material and found the eyeballs intact on both sides.  His eyes are free of infection now, the eyes look clear and uncloudy, and the pupils adjust to light levels, but the bird acts as though it can't see.

Before I had BAM....  Muffin acquired a injury from other chickens picking her feathers from her back.  Before I clued into what was happening, the sore developed into an ugly, raised inflamed  area bigger about 1-1/4" in diameter.  I scraped some granular material out of it but everything I did seemed to be making the wound larger.  There was no foul material in there, but it was obviously not healing well.    I put Muffin on twice daily Baytril injections, and started warm compressing the sore.   The sore did not seem to improve, and I wondered if it was getting uglier.  Finally, I decided that it was time for experimentation. I started applying a comfrey leaf poultice on Muffin's sore twice daily.  I microwave the comfrey leaf in a little water for about 40 seconds.  Then I take the warm leaf and squish is over the sore so juice goes down into the sore.  Then I applied Farnum's Tri-Care Horse Ointment over the top of the comfrey leaf to glue it in place.  I also switched to Agricmycin in Muffin's water.  The wound gradually shrank in size but I was not able to fully resolve the problem and eventually Muffin succumbed.  Today, I would use BAM to irrigate the wound.  Now if I see that hens are picking the feathers off another hen's back, I make a duct tape cover over the bare back to protect her and try to relocate her to a cage where the others don't pick her feathers.

One thing that they warn about with comfrey is to be careful with deep injuries that the top layers do not heal over an unhealed bottom layer.

With the later, little General, his wife, Florence, literally hen-pecked his legs.  She pecked at his joints, particularly, his hocks and ankles.  It took me a day or so to figure out what was going on.   Some days after I separated them, little General began to hold up his right leg.  I examined it and was dismayed to find that I could see bone on his hocks.  I now wrap the injury in a microwaved comfrey leaf and cover this with an eleastic adhesive bandage.   The wound did recover and little General regained the use of his leg.   If I were doing this now (2006), I would have treated the wound with BAM.

Crop Blocking

This is does not happen often but occasionally a bird will have a full crop full of stuff that won't pass.  Sometimes it is a lot of liquid, sometimes you can feel solids in there also.  I have tried arious thing unsuccessfully on a series of birds and in each case. the bird became weak and died.  Now I have had some success with a slightly unusual method. I had a hen with a crop full of liquid who was alert and  moving around but not eating. I picked her up.  Her crop was so full that as I picked her up, liquid came out of her mouth.  I held her upside down and drained some of the liquid off.  She was a sturdy hen of about 6 lbs.  For a couple of days, I gave her about 5 cc of copper sulphate solution though a tube inserted down her throat, plus I gave her enemas of 50% BAM that I administered by gently squirting material into her vent from a syringe.  My theory was that no fluid was passing into the gut and that I had to keep her hydrated in some way.   The second day I added 100% BAM to the mixture I gave her orally.  On day three, I decided to give her half a Vitamin C and BAM orally, and 50% BAM as an enema   I thought the BAM would prevent the fluid in her crop from becoming putrid, and it did.  I also thought that the bird would be hydrated from the gut.  Apparently that worked also.   After about 5 days, I was just about to give up, and I found the next morning that the crop had emptied and that the hen was getting a little interested in food.   I continued the therapy for several more days until she was eating normally and very determined that I terminate the treatment.

Mites

I hate mites. I can't stand picking up a chicken and feeling that itchy feeling on my skin.  At first I used a miticide dust from the feed store for the pigeons and chickens.  About once a month, sometimes more frequently, I dusted each squawking chicken and dusted all the pigeon perches and nests. 

In various online publications I read about using diatomaceous earth to keep chickens free of external pests.  I was getting sick of dusting with poisons so I searched for an online supplier of diatomaceous earth.  I now order if from www.groworganic.com .   I bought food grade diatomaceous earth.  This is important, some of the DE sold contains crystalline silica over 3%.  (World Health Org. recommends less than 3% silica for human/animal consumption).  Food grade DE is used in grain and flour storage for human foods to control insect pest,.

I started feeding DE to my chickens and ducks at every feeding over 6 months ago.  I've also started using it with my horses and dogs.  With the poultry, I have totally eliminated using the insecticide dust on them.    I don't have the mite problem in the poultry any more even though the wild doves come in to feed all the time.  I have probably made a significant dent in the local wild bird mite problem also.  The only time I would dust with insecticide at all is if a new bird comes in with mites and I want to knock them down quickly. 

Also be aware that mite infections can cause the chickens to scratch, causing injuries and infections around the eyes.  If their eyes get infected this often leads to other poor health conditions.  This is another reason why it is important to get rid of mites.

Please note that when using DE, you don't want to breathe it and you don't want to get it in your eyes.  The sharp edges of the tiny skeletons of which DE is composed, will really irritate your eyes till you wash it out.  I know this from experience.

Also, if you have the land and a suitable climate, grow things like neem trees which have insecticidal properties.  You can cut neem boughs and spread the foliage around in the chickens bedding for additional control of external pests.  My chickens and goats both nibble on the neem leaves.

FYI on dog fleas, I don't think the DE can knock down a raging flea infestation; in any acceptable time frame.  Maybe it could be effective if used religiously and perhaps it would work really well on a small property where all the dog's favorite spots could be treated.  My dogs are all on monthly Frontline Plus  or Advantix topical.  I have noticed that if they do get some fleas from exposure to other dogs, I can use the DE dust externally on their coats to knock down the fleas quickly and give them some relief. 

DOGS:

Heartworm - We use injectible ivermectin given orally.  The dosage was confirmed by a veterinarian.  If you do this, please check with your vet to make sure that you do not overdose your animal.

Fleas and ticks -  On a large property like a farm, it is not practical, economically, financially, or environmentally to treat the property for fleas and ticks with insecticides.  All of our farm dogs are treated with Frontline Plus which has a adult flea killer and a growth inhibiter.  See the Mites section in the Chicken remedies re use of diatomaceous earth.

Flesh Eating Bacteria  - Apparently this bacteria is around all parts of Hawaii and the world but only rarely causes a problem.  See http://www.ha.org.hk/qmh/micro/strept.htm)  We have had only one experience with it when Kilakila became infected with it after being bitten by one of the neighbor's dogs.    Kilakila thought they were playing and they tore a hunk out of his side.  I looked at the wound, it seemed clean so I didn't treat it.  He woke me up the next morning to let me know that it was hurting him.  I washed it off and put some antibiotic on it, but it was already infected.  Even after a treatment course of antibiotic, a panel of hard tissue was forming under the skin on his side and spreading downward to his underside (necrotising fasciitis.streptococcal gangrene).  Eventually, the tissue all along his underside was involved, swollen, with the skin broken down and exuding fluid.  He was a mess.  By that time he was on a four quadrant antibiotic and pretty much catatonic.  I warm compressed all the affected areas several times a day, sort of massaging the inflamed tissue.  He slept under a heating pad to keep circulation to the affected areas.  I monitered wound progress photographically and sent photos, temps and assessment info. via a daily email to the vet.

Gradually he recovered completely.  About three weeks later, he was thinner but up and about.  He  recovered completely without needing any surgical removal of the necrosed tissue.

NOTE:  This experience has dramatically changed the way I handle cuts and scrapes.  I clean any cut as soon as possible and apply an antibiotic ointment and cover the cut.  That evening, I will soak the affected part in very warm water with Povidone or some kind of antiseptic in it.  This seems to stop local infections pretty effectively so that injuries heal up quickly.  Having seen the flesh-eating bacteria in action, I definitely have a lot of respect for its capability.

Toxic Bacteria - Leptospirosis???? / We Don't Know  - This happened  (December, 2003) to, guess who? Kilakila!  He threw up in the early a.m., and was seen drinking a large amount of water (a suggestion of kidney problems) later in the day.  He then disappeared for the day and could not be found till 9:00 p.m., when he was located on the lower lawn.   He was stone cold and very lethargic and still throwing up clear liquid.  I dragged him to the house, blanketed him, gave him Peptobismol  and  warm drinks of Pedialyte, and lay down with him to try to warm him up. (the vet later suggested Pepto might not have been the right choice because it has salicylates in it, but it did stop the vomiting).  The next morning, his paws, lips and ears were still quite chilled.  His gum refill time was okay and he was not dehydrated.  I wrapped him in a blanket and took him to Makai Animal Clinic in Kailua.   He was able to walk into the Clinic under his own steam.  Dr. Tom at gave him an antibiotic (metronidazole)and took a blood specimen for tests.  He noted that Kila's temp was still sub-normal.

I took Kila home and rugged him up under blankets and a heating pad till he was toasty.  When he was not drinking water by himself, I made him drink mucho warm water fortified with sugar and Pedialyte.   The following day, Dr. Tom reported that Kilakila's blood test showed  grossly abnormal kidney and liver test results.  Kila was in kidney and liver failure.  He was a dying dog.   Dr. Tom prescribed doxycycline for 14 days.   I tried to get a urine specimen  when Kila started to urinate again, but I discovered that my dog just does not want to urinate with me around.  He would stop in mid flow.  We don't know if it was Lepto or what. 

I kept Kila isolated from the other animals for several days.  Kila's recovery was nothing short of miraculous.  From being a dying dog, two days earlier, he was now obnoxiously persistent in asking to go out to play, which I refused. I let him ride in the truck down to the feed store.  He has resumed his obsessive scrutiny of our pet pigeon, and all of his other endearingly frustrating traits.  His kidneys must have recovered a good deal because his water consumption and urination appear to be normal.   He is still on the doxycycline, possibly for another two weeks but we no longer think of him as a sick dog.

A neighbor tells me that their Doberman, was similarly afflicted several years ago.  As in our case, none of their other dogs were affected and the dog quickly recovered .

Yeasty, Stinky Ears in Water-loving Spaniels

My Springer spaniel, Hoku, spent her younger years wet all the time.  As she got older her ears began to be very problematic.  I had to wipe them dry every evening and using a drying agent.   I tried all the remedies I could find.  Ear oil, vinegar, weak bleach solution, frequent ear flushes.     Poor Hoku is so forgiving.  It got so bad, she lost her hearing.  Finally, I found that I could just keep the stinky stuff from growing if I wiped her ears with one of the good mouthwashes every night. 

A chance remark from my friend, Kimberly, an organic farmer, sent me down to the health food store for caprillic acid, which is derived from the meat of the coconut.  Apparently, the caprillic acid does something that controls the growth of candida albicans.  I gather that Candida albicans is everywhere.  I know it's a problem in "white line disease" in horses in tropical areas.  Lo and behold, after giving Hoku caprillic acid pills daily, her stinky ear condition has improved to the point that I do not have to clean her ears out every day, and she is much more comfortable.  It worked so well that I decided to take caprillic acid also.  We have young Samoan coconut palms on our property. When we start to get coconuts, I'll feed the coconut meat to the dogs also.  I need  a little bit of practice with a machete to get good at splitting the coconuts open.

DUCKS

My ducks are de-wormed at the same time as my chickens.  Otherwise, the ducks seem as healthy and disease-resistant as the chickens are disease-prone.  Ducks are tough with one exception.  Some ducks seem to get foot problems, like bumblefoot.

Our duck eggs are sought by cancer patients.  Apparently, duck eggs are alkaline (basic), chicken eggs are acidic.  According to our clients, cancer cells don't thrive in a basic environment, so some cancer patients adjust their body's environment by eating alkaline foods like duck eggs.  We are very careful to discard any eggs laid when the ducks are being wormed or given antibiotics.

Bumblefoot

Imelda, our first Pekin duck, seems to have a tendency to get bumblefoot when the weather get cold and mucky.  Last year, Dr. Tom treated her with antibiotic  and the infection slowly responded.  This year, I couldn't face another expensive course of antibiotics.  I decided to try something else, and hooray, it worked.

First I made her a duck boot out of neoprene.  See the pictures below. 

For a few days I gave her a daily oral dose of Tylan 50 antibiotic (1 ml)  I also did something I learned from the game cock people, I dribbled some Tylan right into the boot and on the wound.  I also daubed her foot with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) to try to reduce swelling and increase circulation.  So the foot was in a moist, clean boot. 

The callous covering the wound became soft after a day or two and I kinda dug at it each day till the wound opened up.  Then I'd sluice Tylan and DMSO in it and wrap it up again.  Finally, the callous came out altogether and there was a nice clean hole in her foot.  At that point the wound seemed to shrink rapidly over the next few days.  I decided to discontinue oral antibiotic and just treated the wound.  The swelling and inflammation which had been large, hot and angry looking was deflated to less than a third of the size with no redness.  The scab area is about a 3/16'' in diameter.    See picture below.   All of this happened in about a week and a half.  So it has been a much faster recovery than the previous 2 month treatment with oral antibiotics.  I'm not afraid of bumblefoot any more.   

I didn't take any photos of the wound when I started.  At that point, I didn't have any confidence that I could treat it successfully.

Bottom of the foot showing the small scab in the upper left.  The soft pink area around the scab was hard and inflamed at the outset.

Boot in place on the foot, secured with velcro closures and with a safety cord of bungee material which is threaded through holes cut around the top edge of the leg section.  The bungee is not tight around the leg, it just keeps Imelda from stretching the neoprene and pulling her foot out of the boot. 

Imelda wearing the duck boot.

2006 Update,  I now have two more Pekin ducks, Haku and Chihira (named after characters in  Hayao Miyasaki's film, Spirited Away).  Imelda's feet stayed healthy this winter, but Chihira's feet needed some help and I am treating her with plastic bag/duck tape boots using electrical tape to make a safe, secure closure around the leg, that doesn't get too tight and stop circulation.

Human Feet

I wear riding boots or closed shoes every day on the farm in Hawaii's tropical climate.  Some years ago I noticed that I was getting a burning sensation on the top surface of my feet and a tendency to get something nasty happening between my toes, even if I dried them really well .  I tried all the human foot care preparations.  The results were so-so.  Then I tried Fungisan, a horse anti-fungal on my feet every morning and that worked better than anything I had tried.  One day I was reading up on animal care and chanced upon a statement about the use of vinegar as an anti-fungal.  I began splashing vinegar on my feet every morning before I put on my socks.  The vinegar did the trick.  If  I miss a couple of days, my feet start to burn again, but it clears up immediately when I use the vinegar again.

IN MEMORIAM:

General, my favorite Japanese Bantam, died in January, 2006.  General lived well and he was certainly treasured.  His wife, Florence, the little black hen, was very lonely, so I found her a new husband to help console her. 

Muffin, my independent, red-brown, frizzled Cochin hen passed away in late 2005,  I just could not get rid of the infection she got on her back from other hens picking at her feathers.  I think if I had had BAM back then, I could have saved Muffin.  I do have Muffin's son, Stud Muffin, a red and gold Cochin rooster who is becoming rather handsome.  He also is independent and standoffish, just like his mother.  I am breeding Stud Muffin to one of the black frizzled hens just to see if I get the frizzled trait, and whether the color trait is passed from hen or cockerel.

One of these days, I'll have to organize these willy-nilly animal care tips.  Not today though!

Liz