Keeping your chicken happy, healthy, and safely helps them lay as many eggs as they can. Unfortunately, various chicken diseases can threaten the existence or health of your hatchery.
Most chicken diseases are spread through direct (infected manure and bird-to-bird), vectors ( wild animals, insects), or indirect means ( contaminated people, equipment, or environment). To protect your chicken from diseases and the undesirable consequences, find out strategies to prevent the conditions and treatment for common chicken diseases.
Below is a brief description of the six most common chicken diseases.
Newcastle Disease
Other birds such as wild birds carry Newcastle disease. However, if you touch an infected chicken, you can carry and transmit the disease via your clothes and shoes.
The symptoms include:
- Breathing problems
- Nasal discharge
- Twisted necks
- Murky eyes
- Paralyzed wings and legs
- Low egg production
The mortality rate for Newcastle disease is low as adult chicken recovery, but most baby birds do not recover. As for prevention, there is a vaccine for the disease.
1. Fowl Pox
Fowlpox affects poultry of all ages, and wet and dry form characteristics characterize it. The wet form displays as plagues in the upper respiratory tract and mouth. The dry form involves signs such as wart-like skin lesions, which later develop into thick scabs.
Fortunately, the mortality rate is low unless the infection through the respiratory tract is severe.
An avian DNA pox virus is responsible for fowlpox. The infection takes place through bites, skin abrasions, or ingestion of infective scabs. The virus is highly resilient and can remain asymptomatic for several months. Mosquitos transmit the virus and can harbor the virus for months or more after biting an infected chicken.
Fowlpox symptoms include:
- Loss of appetite
- Depression
- Low egg production
- Sores on the comb.
To treat the disease, give your soft chicken food and relocate them to a dry and warm place. There are also preventive vaccines. Fortunately, a single vaccine application (when the bird is one day and at six to ten weeks) guarantees permanent immunity against fowlpox.
Vaccinate unaffected birds if there is an outbreak to control the spread of the disease. Also, consider mosquito control strategies since they are reservoirs for infections.
2. Thrush
It is a yeast infection that affects the mouth, inside of the crop, and intestinal tract in chickens. The disease is similar to rash in babies.
Fortunately, it is easy to identify the signs, so you can provide timely intervention before the disease becomes chronic. If you notice the condition, separate healthy from unhealthy chicken to lower infection rates.
The symptoms include:
- Decreased appetite
- Droopy feathers
- Noisy/difficulty breathing
- Slow growth
- Crusty looking eyes
- Cheesy looking vent area
- Thick white patches on the chicken’s crop area and mouth
There is no vaccine for thrush, but it is easy to prevent your birds from contracting thrush.
Consider the following strategies:
- Always give your chicken fresh and clean water daily. Dirty water causes distress in chicken.
- Avoid overcrowding as it increases the stress level in chicken. If your birds have to struggle to feed, drink water, or sleep, they become uncomfortable. Insufficient ventilation encourages the growth of fungus and mold in the feed, crook, and chicken house.
- Add probiotics in their water to improve the general health and immune system of the chicken.
- Antibiotics kill good and bad bacteria in a chicken’s digestive systems, so avoid them unless they are necessary.
- Consider a hygienic feeder. Dirty feeds are breeding ground for thrush.
To treat thrush, stop any antibiotic treatment, and use anti-fungal treatment for five days. Add copper sulfate to the chicken’s water and probiotic supplement to their feed.
3. Avian Influenza
The other name for the disease is bird flu. It is a viral disease with a mortality rate of up to 100%. Wild birds are reservoirs for the influenza virus. Most species of swans, ducks, geese, and other waterfowl carry the virus, but they do not present any signs of Avian influenza.
Direct or indirect contact with a migratory bird carrying the virus is one of the most common transmission forms. However, once one bird contracts the disease, humans, water, and objects become avenues of transmission. Although avian influenza cannot be transmitted through the egg, the shell’s contamination can lead to infection. The virus hides in the manure and the eye and nasal discharges of the sick chicken.
The symptoms include:
- Diarrhea
- Low egg production
- Swelling on the chicken’s face
- Discolored wattle and comb
- Respiratory troubles.
Avian influenza virus can survive for 23 days if refrigerated, 35 days at 4°C, and for several days in the carcass of a bird with the disease if it is disposed of in a low-temperature environment.
There is no vaccine for avian influenza. If a bird contracts the disease, eliminate it and destroy its carcass. Do not put new bird stock where the infected chicken was before sanitizing the area to avoid further infections.
If you contact a bird displaying the signs for bird flu, report it to the nearest veterinary officer and seek medical care if you have caught the disease. Also, while you’re at it, make sure you check out https://www.mrchickencoop.com/ for more guides on raising chickens and making sure that they not only survive, but thrive in your chicken coop.
4. Infectious Coryza
Haemophilus paragallinarum bacteria cause coryza. It is most acute, with a high mortality rate and a low morbidity rate.
The disease has a one to three days incubation period. The bacteria can survive outside the chick for two to three days. It can be killed by drying, disinfectant, and heat.
The signs and symptoms include:
- Facial swelling
- Loss of appetite
- Sneezing
- Dyspnoea
- Moisture under their wings
- Purulent ocular and nasal discharge
- Swollen wattles
- A decrease in egg production.
There are various treatment drugs such as sulphonamides, streptomycin, tylosin, erythromycin, and dihydrostreptomycin. The best way to protect your chicken from contracting the disease is to ensure that they do not contact bacteria. Give your birds two doses of bacterin at intervals as a prevention strategy.
Bacterin protects against homologous strains. Birds that recover from one serotype are resistant to other strains. Unfortunately, they remain carriers and can infect other birds. So, you should dispose of the bird once it contracts infectious coryza and discards the body where other animals cannot contact it.
Fortunately, the disease spreads through contaminated birds, surfaces, and water. So, if you keep your chicken away from unprotected chicken and ensure they have clean water and coop, you can be sure they will be safe from infectious coryza.
5. Bumblefoot
Bumblefoot is a foot infection caused by a staph infection. The disease starts with a simple cut on the chicken’s foot when scratching the ground or digging in the garden. If the chicken is cut by an object infected with the bacteria staphylococcus, its leg contracts the infection. Although the disease is not lethal, it can kill the chicken if you do not attend to it urgently.
Treatment of the infection involves surgery in the infected area. There is no vaccination for the disease. However, you can protect your chicken from the illness by maintaining good dietary habits for your birds, cleanliness, and keeping an eye on them( to help you identify any abnormalities.)
It is easy to identify chicken infected with bumblefoot as they limp or hop. In some cases, the chicken might not limp but may have inflamed or swollen tissue. The disease can also appear as a boil or a nasty welt on the surface of the skin. Check the infected area for debris if the wound results from piercing by a piece of debris. Remove the object if it is there and drain the pus.
Conclusion
Whether you are keeping chicken for commercial purposes or as a pet, you have a role in ensuring they are healthy at all times. As long as you know some common signs and symptoms, you can tell when the chicken is unwell. Just like human beings, early intervention saves lives and reduces distress caused by illnesses.
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