Keeping your chickens healthy healthy and safe can be easy. With a little daily care; safe, clean living environments; a well designed coop; fresh food and water, and a few preventative measures your flock should thrive and live a long, happy life. But occasionally, even the most diligent chicken keeper can experience sickness or injury in their flock.
It can be hard to find veterinary care for chickens. Many vets don’t work with poultry so chicken keepers must rely on sites like Community Chickens to help diagnose and treat sickness and ailments.
Many chicken keepers must do their own research and become self taught “home vets” for their own flock. Hopefully this guide will help our readers to prevent, diagnose, and treat common ailments with chickens. I’ve also included posts on chicken anatomy.
The second part of this post deals with common predators to chickens, how to identify them and how to keep your chickens safe from attack.
Preventative Measures
In chicken keeping, it’s always best to use preventative measures. Being proactive will help reduce the amount of illness and injury in your flock. A little daily care goes a long way. Here are posts for preventing many common ailments before they become a problem in your flock.
Keep Your Flock Safe: Avian Influenza
5 Ways to Prepare for Chicken Illness, Injury, Death & End of Life Decisions
Flock Watching– “Just In Case”
Why I Think Chickens and Wild Bird Feeders Don’t Mix
Tell it to the Vet: Thoughts on Medical Treatment for Chickens
9 Tips When Medicating Your Flock
5 Tips to Reduce the Chance of Contracting Salmonella
5 Conditions Not Worthy of a Death Sentence: The No-Cull Zone
Salmonella: Protecting Yourself and Your Flock
Curb Your Chickenthusiasm: Let’s Talk Health & Safety! Part 1
Curb Your Chickenthusiasm: Let’s Talk Health & Safety! Part 2
Diagnosing Problems
Even the best kept chickens can experience health problems. Learn to identify changes in your flock early and educate yourself on a variety of symptoms.
Coccidiosis in Backyard Chickens-Symptoms,Treatment and Prevention
Treating Shock in Backyard Chickens
Fatty Livers and Heavyset Chickens
How Your Chicken’s Cecal Pouches Affect Its Droppings
Bio-security
Bio-security is very important. As chicken keeping is continuing as a growing trend, it’s important to keep outside viruses, bacteria and parasites from entering your flock. Proper quarantine of new birds, and standards about who is allowed to walk in your coop should be established to keep diseases from other flocks spreading to your birds.
Biosecurity for Backyard Chicken Keepers~Part 2
Biosecurity for Backyard Chicken Keepers~ Part 1
Coop Tours – a Biosecurity Nightmare
Parasite Control
Chickens are subject to quite a few internal and external parasites. They can get lice, mites and worms to name a few. Here are a few posts to keep parasite infection at a minimum with your flock.
Deworming the Flock: What You Need to Know
How to Protect Your Poultry from Pests
Got Fleas? 13 Chicken Flea Facts
Controlling Flies in the Chicken Coop
Dusting Chickens for Mites: Taking Care of Business
Grooming
Chickens are pretty self sufficient when it comes to grooming. They will stay fairly clean if the coop is tidied on a regular basis. They also keep their feathers in tip top shape by daily sand baths and the annual moult. Occasionally humans can step in and offer additional cleaning or care. Learn about chicken grooming in the following posts.
How to Trim a Chicken’s Toenails
Products and Supplements
Learn about different tried and true products that can help keep your flock healthy and free of parasites. Also, learn to put together a first-aid-kit so you have what you need on hand should an injury occur.
Using Diatomaceous Earth in Backyard Poultry Keeping
Pizzeria Herb Blend for Chicken Health
Comfrey and Chickens–A Good Idea?
Wondering How to Overcome a Calcium Challenge?
DIY Health
Learn about homemade remedies for preventing and treating common chicken ailments.
11 Uses for Vinegar Around the Coop
Using Squirt Bottles to Discourage Pecking
Spraddle Leg in a Young Chick – What You Can Do
9 Point Comb to Toe Chicken Check Up & DIY Antiseptic Ointment
Facts or Myth?
There’s a lot of information out there about healthcare for chickens. Learn what’s myth and what is fact in the following posts.
Can Chickens Drown in a Rainstorm?
Ticks and Lyme Disease in Chickens? Jury’s Still Out
Top 5 Myths and Facts about Treats for Chickens
Chicken Anatomy
Knowledge is key to a healthy flock. Learn about the different body parts of your chickens, how feathers work, how eggs are laid, and much, much more!
How Your Chicken’s Cecal Pouches Affect Its Droppings
Laced Feathers – A Fun Color Variation
4 Reasons Why White Chickens Turn Yellow
Talking Chicken – A Guide to Common Terms
A Chicken’s Comb — more than a fashion statement
An Eggs-periment in Egg Anatomy
Predators
Unfortunately, in the natural world, chickens are relatively low on the food chain. Almost every wild carnivore is able to make a meal out of a chicken. In the following posts learn how to identify predators around your coop and in your area, learn how to protect your chickens from attacks and even how to deal emotionally with loss, should your chickens be victimized.
Know Your Enemy: Chicken Predators & Nite Guard Giveaway
Protecting Chickens From Predators (Video)
Giveaway: Predator Proofing with Nite Guard Solar
10 Tips for Predator-Proofing Chickens
A Patriotic Predator: The Bald Eagle
Chicken Tales! ~ An Egg-Eating Snake!
5 Ways to Keep Rodents out of your Chicken Coop
Surviving the emotional toll of a chicken attack
Keep Predators Away From Your Flock
Hawks or weasels or bears? Oh my!
Chickens and Dogs
It’s not only wild animals that can be a threat to your flock, sometimes family pets like cats and dogs can harm chickens. Learn how to keep your flock safe from domestic animals.
Is YOUR Canine Chicken Friendly?
Preparing your chickens for a dog adoption: It doesn’t work
Chickens, Dogs and Chicken Dog Treats!
The neighborhood cat – Friend or foe of the backyard chicken?
2 Comments
How can I get all of this info printed out. It’s too much for my printer. Can I order a copy of all of this with each site printed out. I am old school and like a. Hard copy in my hand. Thanks beth
I beat the odds.I saved my hen penny.She had a soft egg burst in her several days ago.I Have been reading anything and everything on treating my chickens.and I knew what I needed to do.But I was told that most of the time that it was fatal.But she is back to her old self.So read all you can and be prepared in case of a injury or sickness.