Treating Chicken Diseases Naturally

One important aspect of raising a homestead flock naturally is knowing how to care for their injuries and diseases using natural remedies. By treating chicken diseases naturally, you will hopefully not have to resort to using chemicals on your chickens. Although natural treatments may not be the quickest solution to every problem, they are definitely healthier for you, your bird, and the environment. Natural treatments include using the items you have around you to treat illnesses or purchasing natural treatment solutions. I have done both and love knowing that I am not harming myself or my chickens while I am trying to make them healthier!

a mason jar filled with wildflowers and herbs with a speckled Sussex chicken in the background

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Why I Use Holistic Remedies

Chemicals may not only be bad for your chickens in the long run, they may also effect you through the eggs that your hens lay. I prefer to use natural remedies to treat my chickens for a number of reasons, here are just a few:

better for the environment
healthier for both me and my birds
do not have side effects
no egg withdrawal time
more economical (most of the time)
can be more effective

Through my personal experience and the knowledge that I have gained about natural treatments I have been able to learn a lot about treating my flock’s issues naturally. The following are some health issues I have encountered personally and how I have treated them naturally.

Disclaimers

Do keep in mind that if you suspect your chicken has a serious disease, such as Avian Influenza or Salmonella Pullorum, you will need to contact professional help and may even need to file a report about the issue. Such serious diseases can be life threatening to your chicken, your flock, other people’s flocks, and yourself.

Holistic and natural remedies do NOT always work! While these natural remedies are supposed to work with a chicken’s body to get it back into good health, they do not always work in time. A mis-diagnosis could result in the wrong remedy being used and could even prove to be fatal. If you suspect a certain issue, do more research about it before you treat the chicken.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding using natural remedies and holistic methods with chickens. If you do not feel comfortable administrating these remedies or don’t feel knowledgeable enough about them, don’t use them!

Bumblefoot

Minor Cases

I have treated minor cases of bumblefoot using Epsom salts, anti-biotic ointment, and Vetericyn Plus. Here’s how I did it:

Daily soak the chicken’s feet in a bucket of warm water with Epsom salts in the water.
Then, spray the Vetericyn on the bumblefoot scab and put some anti-biotic ointment on a gauze pad. Using vet wrap, secure the gauze pad on the foot.
Make sure that the Vet wrap does not hinder the chicken from walking properly. I cut the Vet wrap into two strips and wrap one strip around the foot, going in-between the toes and around the leg.
Then, I use the other strip on the other foot if needed, or I save it for the next soaking.

The Vetericyn and antibiotic ointment work to dissolve and eat away at the staph infection kernel, which is the bumblefoot. Eventually you will be able to peel off the black scab. Continue soaking, spraying, and wrapping on a daily basis until you are sure the infection will not return.

Serious Cases

For more serious cases, you may need to do surgery to remove the kernel. You can find a very good tutorial on how to do surgery on serious cases of bumblefoot by visiting The Chicken Chick’s blog. I have tried an alternative to surgery on bumblefoot cases that were border line serious.

First I soaked the chicken’s feet in Epsom salts. Then I took a very sharp scalpel and made a small cut right next to the black scab. I sprayed Vetericyn into the cut, put antibiotic ointment on a gauze pad, and then wrapped the foot. The idea is to get the Vetericyn under the scab so that it can eat away at the infection.

However, you have to be very consistent with re-spraying the cut, applying anti-biotic ointment, and re-freshening the bandage on a daily basis to keep the cut from getting infected.

chicken first aid kit supplies checklist FREE printable

Fowl Pox

Although there is no ‘treatment’ for fowl pox, there are ways that you can help your chickens fight it and keep it from spreading. Fowl pox is a virus, so anti-viral remedies are the best defense against fowl pox. As soon as you suspect fowl pox, quarantine the chicken who is showing symptoms immediately, as fowl pox can spread quickly. Clean and sanitize the area (coop, pen, cage) that the chicken was kept in and keep an eye on the other chickens for any more signs.

Sunshine is the best way to kill the fowl pox virus. I sprayed Vetericyn Plus on the bumps/warts. If the bumps begin to ooze, clean them and apply anti-biotic ointment to prevent a secondary infection. You can also apply anti-viral herbal salves to the scabs. Here are a few anti-viral herbs:

echinacea
ginger
licorice root
oregano

Also, make sure you take care of your healthy chickens before caring for your sick chicken to avoid spreading the virus to the rest of your flock. Your flock can build up immunity to the strain of fowl pox that they encounter. Survivors from a fowl pox case will have the immunity for that strain of virus but they will be carriers of that virus for the rest of their life.

Additional Support

Adding additional nutrients and vitamins to the bird’s diet can help fight the virus. I added kelp to my chicken’s feed for additional vitamins and nutrients. Probiotics are also helpful at this time. Garlic is anti-viral and would be a great supplement to add to the afflicted bird’s water (1-2 large cloves per gallon of water).

I really encourage you to check out Natural Supplements for Chickens or How to Use Herbs for Backyard Chickens before administering additional supplements to your sick bird. Supplements can be beneficial when used properly, when they are not used properly they can actually be harmful.

guide to using herbs for backyard chickens FREE printable

a silver Leghorn rooster in an infirmary pen so that his wounds can heal after he got in a rooster fight

Minor Cuts/Injuries

My go-to cut and scrap remedy is Vetericyn Plus. This handy spray is safe for use on almost all farm animals and is non-toxic. It does a great job at preventing infections and helping the wound heal quickly. To treat minor cuts and injuries, here’s my go-to procedure.

Stop the bleeding…

Before applying treatment to a cut or scrap, you will want to stop any bleeding, as blood loss can lead to death. Start by holding a clean cloth or paper towel to the injury and applying constant, steady pressure. Check every few minutes to see if the bleeding has stopped. If a wound won’t stop bleeding, you may want to apply some cornstarch or tapioca starch to help clot the blood. There are several herbs that can help with healing as well, and can be applied directly to the wound. These herbs can be made into a salve or be used fresh:

Blood Clotting- calendula, cilantro
Wound Healing- calendula, slippery elm bark, yarrow
Pain Relievers- calendula, chickweed, rosemary

Combs, wattles, and earlobes tend to bleed profusely because they have a lot of blood constantly circulating through them. This also means that they heal very quickly as well.

Once the bleeding is stopped…

Once the bleeding is stopped, I apply Vetericyn wound spray to help prevent any infection from setting in. If the injury is minor and the cut or scrap does not draw attention to the chicken, I put the chicken back out with the rest of the flock. Here are a few injuries that I had to deal with that were minor:

My black Copper Maran hen had dry skin on her feet and a spot had started bleeding. I rinsed off her foot, sprayed Vetericyn on the foot, made sure it stopped bleeding, then put her back out with the flock.
One of my Speckled Sussex hens had some frostbite this winter and one of the points on her comb had started bleeding. I held a paper towel over the bleeding point and applied steady pressure. Once the bleeding stopped, I sprayed on Vetericyn and put her back out with the flock.

If the cut or scrap is serious or may start bleeding again, I keep the chicken quarantined in my infirmary pen until the wound is healed up. Here are a few examples of chickens who needed to be quarantined because of their injuries:

My Silver Leghorn cock got into a fight with my Svart Hona cockerel and got really beat up. He had blood staining his feathers and blood all over his comb, wattles, and earlobes. I kept him inside until his wounds healed and he was all cleaned up so that the blood would not attract the other chickens’ attention.
My Svart Hona hen had ripped off a portion of her toenail and her toe was bleeding profusely. I slowed the bleeding, applied Vetericyn, and wrapped the toe with Vetwrap. She was able to go back out with her flock since the injury was contained.

a Buckeye pullet free-ranging in the chicken yard during the summer

Internal Worms

Treating worms naturally is a hot debate in the chicken world. My stand is that there are holistic administrations that we can use to make a chickens’ body inhospitable to worms, however, no single natural remedy will eliminate a worm overload. Here are a few natural remedies that have been claimed to help with worms and what I think of them.

Diatomaceous Earth is a common internal and external parasite treatment. It is not quite as affective on internal parasites though as a chicken’s salvia softens the crystals. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the use of DE on chickens, so you may want to read my free ebook on The Truth About Keeping Chickens Naturally before using DE on your birds.
Pumpkin and squash seeds are coated with a substance called curcurbitin acid that works to paralyze worms. However, these seeds need to be created into a formula with other natural worm preventatives in order to be effective. They can be used as a worm preventative though.
Garlic can help make a chicken’s body inhospitable to worms.
Nasturtium, nettles, wormwood, chamomile, and catnip are all herbs that can help prevent worms.

A Word of Caution

All these natural remedies work together to prevent or treat minor cases of worms. I do not advice you just randomly give your chickens all these natural remedies at once and expect them to work. It takes specific ingredients in certain amounts to be effective and not harmful. A single one of these natural remedies will not treat a worm overload, and even all of them used together may not treat serious overloads.

However, they can be fed on occasion to your flock to help maintain overall health and to promote a hostile internal environment for the worms.

The One Cure…

The one natural remedy that I have found to be effective against roundworm overloads is this Wormer Balance Tonic by MoonLight Mile Herb Farm (www.moonlightmileherbs.com). This is a tonic that is mixed into a flock’s drinking water. I supplied it to my flock for 5-7 days when I knew that my flock was dealing with a roundworm overload (I saw clumps of roundworms on the droppings board). This herbal tonic helped clear up the overload and restore my flock back to good health.

a speckled sussex pullet free-ranging in the yard with her flock

Crop Issues

While I have not been able to successfully cure a positively diagnosed crop issue like sour crop or impacted crop, I do know of some natural remedies that help promote a healthy crop and can be used when you suspect a crop issue in your chicken.

Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)- apple cider vinegar can help maintain a healthy pH level in the crop which promotes the growth of healthy bacteria and prevents the fermentation of food in the crop (a cause of sour crop)
Probiotics- help replace and maintain health crop flora to aid in the breaking down of food
Grit- make sure chickens have access to small stones or sand so that they can properly break down the food in their crop and in their gizzard

When supplementing with apple cider vinegar make sure there is a free-choice calcium supplement available for the chickens to eat too. The properties of ACV require the presence of calcium bicarbonate in order to be processed correctly. Don’t give apple cider vinegar during warm or hot spells. To learn more about how calcium and vinegar work together, read How Vinegar Affects Chickens.

a designer breed that is a cross between a lavender Cochin hen and a Svart Hona cock

Respiratory Issues

I have dealt with mild respiratory issues in my flock. Sometimes changes in the weather can cause chickens to have some congestion in their respiratory system. If dust or litter is riled up in their coop and the chickens breath the dust laden air, it can cause respiratory congestion. Symptoms of mild respiratory issues include:

frequent sneezing
gurgling
rattling noises

Respiratory symptoms can also mean serious illnesses like Bronchitis or Chronic Respiratory disease, so monitor your flock carefully if signs of respiratory distress linger or get worse (coughing, wheezing, week long symptoms).

Here are some holistic remedies that I have used when I notice mild respiratory issues in my flock.

Elderberry syrup- administered via pipette directly into the bird’s mouth, .5 mL per day per bird (I use homemade elderberry syrup that is made with elderberries and honey) (learn more about elderberries for flock health!)
Apple Cider Vinegar- apple cider vinegar helps clear the mucus from the respiratory system
Herbs: cinnamon, thyme, echinacea, slippery elm– you can make these into an herbal tea or offer them free-choice

I administer these remedies for as long as the chicken is still showing symptoms or up until 7-10 days. I try not to administer a natural remedy for more than 7 days in a row. Then take a break, if the symptoms return or persist, try another round of the supplement for 7-10 days.

a speckled sussex pullet searching for insects while free-ranging in a green pasture

Diarrhea

Chickens can have diarrhea for a number of reasons including the temperature, diet, minor ailments, or serious diseases. Whenever you see diarrhea in your flock consider if it could possibly mean something serious.

The best thing to do when one of your chickens has diarrhea is to make sure it continues to drink plenty of water. Dehydration is a threat when lots of liquid is expelled in the form of diarrhea. Electrolytes will help the cells in a chicken’s body retain the water. Do not give electrolytes to a healthy chicken though. If diarrhea persists and you can not identify the cause, you can try offering these remedies:

Probiotics- help restore healthy gut flora
Whole Oats- supply fiber to push things through the digestive system
Raw Honey- soothes the digestive system

A lot of water can also make chicken poop runny, so try to distinguish between watered down poop and diarrhea. Bile (green flecks) in the poop is definitely a sign of a more serious ailment and excess urates could mean the presence of worms. Bloody poops are also an indication of something serious. Learn all bout diagnosing your flock’s health based on their droppings by reading Poop Problems with Backyard Chickens!

a wooden bowl full of white eggs and brown eggs with a vase of wild flowers

Other Ailments

Intestinal Issues- There are many ailments that can effect a chicken’s intestinal tract including worms, coccidia, e. coli, and salmonella. Holistic remedies that help aid in intestinal problems include oregano, sage, probiotics, kelp, and garlic.

Eye Problems- Sometimes chickens will develop bubbles in their eyes, especially during extreme weather changes or if they get something in their eye. Use 1-2 drops of saline eye drops to help take care of the issue. A persistence in eye issues could mean other serious problems. Eye drops of silver colloidal can also help with eye infections.

Bruises, Swellings, Limping- Epsom salts help reduce swellings and soothe muscles. I have used them to treat mysterious limps in some of my birds.

a Svart Hona cockerel free-ranging with an old tractor in the background

Hopefully these holistic remedies will leave you more prepared for when you suspect that one of your chickens is ill. Treating them with natural remedies is not only healthier, it can also save money and help your chickens build a healthy immune system. For more information on using herbs and natural supplements on your chickens, check out these three posts:

Raising your homestead flock holistically is every homesteader’s dream! I love it every time I get to use a natural remedy to better the health of my flock!

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by Alexa Lehr