Before we touch on helping sick chickens, it seems appropriate to cover the best ways for you to keep your flock from getting sick in the first place.

Backyard flocks are typically healthier and less prone to disease than commercial operations. To keep your flock as healthy as possible, follow these basic guidelines:

• Never overcrowd your chickens
• Always ensure clean water is available
• Regularly sanitize waterers and feeders
• Prevent birds from getting feet or droppings into feed or water supplies
• Eliminate rodents from chicken areas
• Minimize exposure of your birds to other flocks
• Keep stress on your birds to a minimum

Hopefully, if you follow the guidelines above, you will be able to avoid illness altogether. If not, and you are the unlikely owner of an under-the-weather chicken, we always recommend you make a quick visit to your vet at first indication that a chicken appears to be sick.

For more detailed information on common ailments, you may also want to read:

• How to Identify Sick Chickens
• Coccidiosis
• Pasting up (i.e. when chick’s dropping get stuck to their vent)
• Egg Binding (i.e. 2 eggs get stuck inside the vent)
• Mites (e.g., red mites, northern fowl mites, scaley leg mites, or lice)
• Parasitic Worms (e.g., roundworms and flatworms)