Is your chicken sick?
Well, here is a deliciously overlong and extensive list of gastrointestinal ailments that it could be suffering from. Look alive, or your poultry sure won't!
Coban, or monensin, is a highly used coccidiostat that is often used from day of age. Toxicities from this drug can result in sternal recumbancy- that is, if your chicken is laying on its chest with its legs sticking out straight behind it, it's probably got monensin poisoning. It may also cause birds to eat less, so adding salt may be beneficial. However, additional salt can lead to salt toxicity, characterized by diarrhea, excessive water intake, stunting, ascites, and cystic testes. All very bad for birds. Also, 3-Nitro is often used in cahoots with Coban as a pigment and growth enhancer. This can cause cervical paralysis- of the neck, not the genital tract, nerds. It also can cause birds to "duck walk".
If your birds aren't dying of these, look in to other problems. Are your birds suffering from excess water intake, wet litter, and walking on their toes? They probably have an Avatec toxicity. Avatec is often used in the summer to help keep litter dryer than it would be in winter, and to help birds to drink. It's generally a withdrawal med, and you may have to reduce salt intake for the birds to avoid even more water uptake.
Using nicarbazine is generally a wintertime treat, because it makes birds overheat very rapidly. If it gets into your hen populations, you're basically screwed, because it wrecks fertility and hatchability.
The only other coccidiostat you might be facing a problem with is Zoalene. Your birds will act especially cracked out when OD'ing on this drug, as it causes them to show neurological signs like walking in circles, cocking the head, falling down, and becoming excessively exciteable. This is more likely to be found in pullets, as it helps confer immunity by pretty much being very weak.
Mineral overdoses are also common. The most common is salt, which we've discussed. You also have to worry about calcium and phosphorus, as they must be kept in a 2:1 ratio for normal development. Excess calcium will result in a relative P deficiency, and also can cause tetany, convulsion, and seizures, as well as generally otherwise fuck up your birds internal systems. Also, they don't grow very well, and their kidneys become very eaten up, as uric acid deposits all throughout their body. They can also get severely dehydrated. The phosphorous will cause rickets and stunting if it gets out of whack. You know how it goes.
Copper sulfate, used to keep mold under control, can be picked out of litter because of it's appearance. When ingested, it causes gastrointestinal lesions, the dark tarry stool that comes with that, and a green gizzard. Arasan's another mold preventative, that will cause bone deformation in the form of slow development, the stopping of bone calcification, and weak or shelless eggs. If you get ammonium nitrate from feed cars in your house, you will get cyanosis and excessive water intake and diarrhea. Formaldehyde is another cleaner, and will cause gastrointestinal lesions and consequent dark stool. When you open the bird up, it'll already be pickled. Yuck.
PCB's come from contaminated meal that got its dose from electrical transformers or a newly paved road. It causes decresed growth, ascites, cirrhosis, and a general dying off. Be wary, becuase people can get it the same way the chickens did. Diazinon, a fire ant killah, will cause diarrhea and lacrimation. They're crying, out loud! All that's really left is quaternary ammonia, which causes mouth burns, sulfur, which forms acid and causes burns all over, and sulfonamides, which are there to help, but really result in less eggs, and those that come are pale. Also, you have to worry about hemorrhage in the skin, muscle, and viscera, paying special attention to the intestine. Also? The birds will be anemic and pale due to decreased hematopoesis. The only other two are rapeseed (canola) which will cause the liver to explode upon impact, and histamine from rotting animal meal, that will cause vascular damage throughout the GI tract and, again, bloody diarrhea. Ugly fates in general.
Tune in next time when I talk about actual diseases!
Coban, or monensin, is a highly used coccidiostat that is often used from day of age. Toxicities from this drug can result in sternal recumbancy- that is, if your chicken is laying on its chest with its legs sticking out straight behind it, it's probably got monensin poisoning. It may also cause birds to eat less, so adding salt may be beneficial. However, additional salt can lead to salt toxicity, characterized by diarrhea, excessive water intake, stunting, ascites, and cystic testes. All very bad for birds. Also, 3-Nitro is often used in cahoots with Coban as a pigment and growth enhancer. This can cause cervical paralysis- of the neck, not the genital tract, nerds. It also can cause birds to "duck walk".
If your birds aren't dying of these, look in to other problems. Are your birds suffering from excess water intake, wet litter, and walking on their toes? They probably have an Avatec toxicity. Avatec is often used in the summer to help keep litter dryer than it would be in winter, and to help birds to drink. It's generally a withdrawal med, and you may have to reduce salt intake for the birds to avoid even more water uptake.
Using nicarbazine is generally a wintertime treat, because it makes birds overheat very rapidly. If it gets into your hen populations, you're basically screwed, because it wrecks fertility and hatchability.
The only other coccidiostat you might be facing a problem with is Zoalene. Your birds will act especially cracked out when OD'ing on this drug, as it causes them to show neurological signs like walking in circles, cocking the head, falling down, and becoming excessively exciteable. This is more likely to be found in pullets, as it helps confer immunity by pretty much being very weak.
Mineral overdoses are also common. The most common is salt, which we've discussed. You also have to worry about calcium and phosphorus, as they must be kept in a 2:1 ratio for normal development. Excess calcium will result in a relative P deficiency, and also can cause tetany, convulsion, and seizures, as well as generally otherwise fuck up your birds internal systems. Also, they don't grow very well, and their kidneys become very eaten up, as uric acid deposits all throughout their body. They can also get severely dehydrated. The phosphorous will cause rickets and stunting if it gets out of whack. You know how it goes.
Copper sulfate, used to keep mold under control, can be picked out of litter because of it's appearance. When ingested, it causes gastrointestinal lesions, the dark tarry stool that comes with that, and a green gizzard. Arasan's another mold preventative, that will cause bone deformation in the form of slow development, the stopping of bone calcification, and weak or shelless eggs. If you get ammonium nitrate from feed cars in your house, you will get cyanosis and excessive water intake and diarrhea. Formaldehyde is another cleaner, and will cause gastrointestinal lesions and consequent dark stool. When you open the bird up, it'll already be pickled. Yuck.
PCB's come from contaminated meal that got its dose from electrical transformers or a newly paved road. It causes decresed growth, ascites, cirrhosis, and a general dying off. Be wary, becuase people can get it the same way the chickens did. Diazinon, a fire ant killah, will cause diarrhea and lacrimation. They're crying, out loud! All that's really left is quaternary ammonia, which causes mouth burns, sulfur, which forms acid and causes burns all over, and sulfonamides, which are there to help, but really result in less eggs, and those that come are pale. Also, you have to worry about hemorrhage in the skin, muscle, and viscera, paying special attention to the intestine. Also? The birds will be anemic and pale due to decreased hematopoesis. The only other two are rapeseed (canola) which will cause the liver to explode upon impact, and histamine from rotting animal meal, that will cause vascular damage throughout the GI tract and, again, bloody diarrhea. Ugly fates in general.
Tune in next time when I talk about actual diseases!