Today we tried giving the hens a bath to clear up their infections. Judging by their speed and agility as we caught each one for their bath, most of them aren't too sick so far. Arwen is our smallest and oldest chook, and a favourite with all but the Ginger Ninja's special pet.
She is one of the least affected, but you can see the fungal spots on her comb. We gave each hen a bath in warm water with lavender oil, then sprayed them all over with Triguard Plus (our favourite cure-all), clipped their wings and let them roam in the garden.
When granted freedom, they usually spend their hours raking debris onto the paving, but today they were relatively well-behaved and rather subdued after their ruthless washing experience.
The sickest hen is still unable to walk properly and is spending the night in isolation. Ginger Ninja has been hand feeding and watering today, and her condition has improved but I'm still not optimistic about her long-term prognosis.
Although it's probably a case of bolting the stable door after the horse has bolted, I've put lavender cuttings in the nests and on the floor in the hen house. And we're going to let the hens risk roosting loose in the garden tonight rather than putting them back into the mite-infested house.
The mites are utterly horrible - we're all changing clothes frequently after handling the birds, but dh has found himself hosting a bunch of them just from wheeling the henhouse flooring around to the front of the house. The frequent showering is going to wreak havoc on our water conservation efforts!
1 comment:
OH No the poor chooks :(. Hope all the hard work can clear out those pesky mites and they can be healthy again. Wish I could send you down masses of my lavender cuttings. It is growing like a weed here.
Post a Comment