Common Chicken Health Issues

None of us ever want our chickens to turn up sick; but sometimes, there's not a lot we can do to avoid it. Certain diseases of backyard poultry are more common than others.
We've put together a quick guide to recognizing illness, remedying the problem and protecting your flock, and a handful of the most frequently-seen ailments. 

Common Diseases of Backyard Poultry

We find that the majority of backyard poultry seems to fall ill with one of these:

• Parasites
• Fowlpox
  • Viral; spread by biting insects and fighting
  • Large caps form around scratch or scrape where virus enters the body
• Nutritional deficiencies 
  • Often caused by table scrap exclusive diets
  • Calcium and vitamin A are most common
• Salmonellosis
  • Bacterial; causes septicemia and enteritis in young fowl
  • Contracted orally
  • Spread by rodents
  • Diarrhea, closed eyes, thirst, dejection
• Newcastle Disease 
  • Acute respiratory disease
  • Rapid-spreading
  • Symptoms may tend towards respiratory, digestive, or nervous
• Coccidiosis
  • Parasitic; damages a specific region of chickens' guts
  • Loss of appetite, diarrhea, weight loss, ruffled feathers, nutrient deficiencies 

What to Do-- Natural and Medicinal Treatments
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Obviously, the exact steps you should take to help your chicken (or chickens) depend on what negative symptoms you've observed. Some things to try include:

• Feed supplements and additives 
  • Look for products that optimize nutrient consumption
• Vet-approved medicinal treatment
• More time outside, more time in dry and warm areas, space away from other birds

How to Protect Healthy Chickens

There are a number of things that chicken owners can do to prevent the spread of disease:

• Quarantine sick birds until symptoms have cleared 
  • Some may need to be quarantined even longer as a precaution
• Clean and disinfect the coop 
  • This means the coop that the sick chicken was in previously and its quarantine area once it returns to health 
• Regularly disinfect feeders and waterers
• Minimize exposure to external sources of contaminants
• Follow a 30-day quarantine when adding new birds

How to Protect Yourself

• Always wash your hands with soap and running water after 
  • Collecting eggs
  • Handling birds
  • Handling food and water containers or other bird equipment
  • Being in areas near poultry
• Don't kiss poultry or let birds sit inside the house
• Stay outdoors to clean poultry equipment

​Keeping yourself and your birds healthy isn't exactly rocket science, but it does take a little work. The good news is that you'll be rewarded with a happy, thriving flock!