Ok, Here's the deal. My chickens have a bad case of the squirts. This has been goin on for about two months. I, first gave them antibiotics and now I have given them piperazine twice two weeks apart. And, all of this to no avail. I feed the layin' crumbles and scratch and then have a side yard for them to get their greens. They are RIR's, about two years old. Of course they haven't laid in that two month's. We have had a ton of rain here in Central Alabama. 'Preciate any help. Gary in AL

-- Gary in AL (rgmattox@yahoo.com), July 11, 2001

Answers

I live in NE Alabama and my Rhode Island Reds are laying very well despite the heat and the rain.....are you feeding them any table scraps? I found through trial and error that when I fed them scraps every day, they had diarrhea for about a week..now, granted, what I was feeding them was rice and beans and leftover chili and alot of tomatoes...when I stopped doing this, they stopped having diarrhea. Now I only give them scraps twice a week and omit the beans! Might be coincidence since others have told me that hens can eat anything and not get "sick"..don't know.

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), July 11, 2001.

Could be coccidosis. I guess you need to use a sulfa type of powder. You can get them from the feed store.

-- sb (sb@notreal.com), July 11, 2001.

Gary, it's been so wet for the last 3 or 4 months down here, your birds might have cholera. Keep them on fresh grass as much as you can. Keep their bedding fresh and dry. Keep their waterer off the ground to keep the water clean. An easy herbal idea to try: shake tumeric (the yellow spice for curry) over their food each day.

-- Rags (RaggedReb@aol.com), July 11, 2001.

Cholera!!??? Rags, really.....? I think I would agree with the cocci suggestion. What does the tumeric do? I hate curry. Can't stand the smell of cumin or tumeric. But that would be a good thing to keep in the arsenal if I only knew what it was good for!

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), July 11, 2001.

Doreen

Tumeric is being touted along with ginger and garlic as being a wonder element to have in our diet. It is supposed to work against anti-inflamatory reactions in the body. Tumeric (the funky stuff)is used in pickling, and can be put in soup and rice dishes. (not to mention the above mentioned use for chickens).

-- rick K (rick_122@hotmail.com), July 14, 2001.

When I lived in Florida I had this problem during the rainy season. It was coccidia, and I used "Corid" from the feed store. Works wonders, and I never am without it! In His Grace, Sissy

-- Sissy Sylvester-Barth (jerreleene@hotmail.com), July 16, 2001.

Do you know what the white stuff is on the top of the chicken poop????

Chicken poop

Sorry but I just had to

-- grant (organicgrange@yahoo.com), July 17, 2001.

If your chickens have the squerts keep them out of the yard . they dont need any greens. Al.

-- Al. Kaida (Al3po@aol.com), December 18, 2001.

Lick their harry assholes. That is a sure way to stop the Squirts.

-- Mr Beobio (weed_killa333@hotmail.com), November 13, 2002.

I hear chicken shit is high in nutrition. Maybe you could take some of it and fix up a stew

-- Brandon R K (nomail@nomail.com), November 18, 2002.

This is a truly bizzare topic. But, I would like to know how you can tell it is diarreah and not, you know, normal shit. I really got a kick out of this! Of course not the poor chicks with the hershey squirts.

-- dano (danyelleclough@hotmail.com), January 09, 2003.

I am just a chickenaholic but I would try using a seringe and squirting pepto bismal down the chickens mouth. I recently had a hen that sounded like she had bronchitis when she breathed, a running nose,kind of a cough/sneeze. I brought her into the house out of the cold, putting her in a small cage. I put in fresh water and some baby grow mash. I also added a fluffly towel for her to cuddle in. I then draped towels over the cage leaving just a spce open in front of the door, closing it totally at night. I also dipped my finger in the vicks vapor rub, dabbed it on her beak, and on her upper chest, then I dabbed the towell one or two times. I went to the feed store and got something called bird biotic-crushed one tablet mixing it with 12cc of water then giving her 3cc 2 times a day. it took about 4 or 5 days and she got her strength back and doing just fine. now she is running around in the peak of health. i hope this helps susan

-- susan schulte (weaver03@aol.com), March 14, 2003.

have you tried chopoping their heads off?

i am not sure what this accoplishes, but i seen it done before.

-- john guglielmelli (john@sfgardening.com), March 18, 2004.