Botulism: Causes and Treatment

 Clostridium botulinum is a terrible neurotoxin that causes Botulism. This poisoning infects people and animals, including chickens and most other birds. Lets go over what causes Clostridium botulinum to get inside chickens.
 

Causes

Clostridium botulinum enters a hen after she has consumed infected food or water. The way chickens usually get it, though, is sometimes through pecking at a rotting matter of a dead chicken, that might have died suddenly or was left dead in the run by a predator. Clostridium botulinum lives in soil, rotting or spoiled food, and is sometimes found, only little quantities, in a chickens intestines, were it stays harmlessly and doesn't cause any problems. When the chicken that has it in their intestines dies, the bacteria flourishes and multiplies from just a few into millions. This is why it is very important to remove spoiling food and any rotting carcasses, even of many other birds.

Symptoms

- trouble breathing

- weakness

-may find maggots in a hens crop

-paralysis from feet up

-eventually death 

Treatment

If your chicken isn't to far gone, you have the option of taking it to the vet, though antibiotics are very pricey. There is a few tricks you can try to help rid the bacteria from the hen. One trick is to feed the hen dairy. This gives a hen diarrhea, flushing her body of the bacteria. The same thing works with molasses, it works by flushing out the hens body.
Sometimes, though, its to late. A hen will die in a few hours if not noticed or treated.

Prevention

-make sure feed and water are not MOLDY or WET

-CLEAN COOP 1-2 times a week if using wood shavings as beddings, as they can get wet and moldy in rainy season

 

 

-NEVER leave spoiling or rotting treats in the run

-always REMOVE dead carcasses in run

-keep water source CLEAN and FRESH

With these preventions it helps a lot towards making your flock healthier and happier!