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The 'fool' I'm talking
about is me. And a better title would have been 'How to
Keep Your Birds Cool'.
HEAT PROSTRATION is a
serious problem this time of year in most states. It can
also be a problem any time in certain areas of the
country where warmer climate, inadequate ventilation, or
an enclosed building where the sun beats on a
non-reflective roof all day blend to create a deadly
environment for your birds.
High temperatures alone can
cause heat prostration, but the combination of high heat
and humidity are particularly dangerous. Young birds and
those in production usually succumb first, but I've seen
one-year-old cockerels take heat and humidity
particularly hard.
Birds have no sweat glands.
They cool themselves by rapid respiration with their
mouths open and by holding their wings just slightly out
to the sides of their bodies to cool the inside of their
wing web. If you pick up a bird that is suffering from
the heat, feel under their wing where there are no
feathers and the main wing artery lies. Those who have
their birds tested for NPIP will know the location. This
area will be very hot to the touch - as if the bird is
running a fever. He probably is; but more importantly,
he's suffering from heat prostration and needs immediate
help.
The first thing you need to
do is to make sure the bird's skin under the wing is
clean and healthy. This is an area of the skin that
enables a bird to cool itself, so you want to make sure
it can do its job and be able to 'breathe'. Dirt,
hardened debris, scabs, oily products, etc. will prevent
your bird from being able to cool down. Wash the area
clean with a little baby shampoo and cool water if
necessary.
If the area under the wing
is clean and healthy, then proceed right to a bucket of
cool water. Dunking the bird can be 'shocking' to an
already stressed bird, so I recommend that you begin by
taking a clean rag, dipping into the bucket of water, and
squeezing the cool water onto the skin under each wing.
Do this several times on each side and let the cool cloth
sit there for a few minutes between fresh rinses. When
the bird has stopped fussing and has decided that this
isn't a bad thing after all, then hold him securely and
dip the bottom half of his body - belly, vent area, some
of his chest, and his feet - into the bucket of cool
water. Don't 'wring' him out - leave him dripping.
The next thing to do is to
make sure that his housing has adequate ventilation. You
need air flow during hot weather. It helps the birds get
their body temperatures down when they open their wings
to get themselves cool. If they free-range, let them free
after their 'dip'. If they're in a coop, you may have to
use a fan to move the air around if you don't already
have a ventilating system. Once I've cooled the birds off
with the water, I usually stand them in front of the fan
for a few minutes with their wings up for the evaporating
effect. This creates a rapid cooling.
For those with very large
flocks, I recommend the use of a fogger. You can mist the
entire coop and the birds with clear water for a very
effective cooling effect. If you have Oxine at home, you
can kill two birds with one stone (I know, cruel saying
for bird owners), and eliminate all molds, bacteria, and
viruses at the same time. Large commercial growers use
misters in the poultry houses to keep the birds cool -
similar to fogging.
If you don't own a fogger,
and you're willing to make the mess, hosing down the
floors and walls of the coop is effective in cooling down
the whole building.
Sometimes during heat
prostration, an electrolyte imbalance can occur. If you
have Gatorade, give it to them. Electrolytes are
essentially minerals and most good water-soluble vitamin
and mineral supplements for poultry will do the trick. If
they've stopped drinking though, you may have to drench
the fluid into them.
I can't stress enough the
need for clean, fresh water to be available to your birds
at all times, especially on hot, humid days. If the
weather is particularly hot, cool water is best because
if the water is allowed to stand even for a short period
of time and get warm, sometimes the birds won't drink it.
I own and have been around horses for many years and a
lot of the things we do to cool them down are the same
for poultry. We usually hose them off and leave them
drenched. If possible, we then turn them out onto
pasture, as opposed to keeping them in a stall with no
ventilation. One of the most important things we do
though is to make sure that the drinking water doesn't
become warm. They won't drink it if it does.
For those of you who read
this far, you get a reward. You get to find out how I was
a 'fool'. I'm always trying out new products so I can
recommend them if they're safe and effective. I recently
had the opportunity to try out a different poultry spray
for the control of parasites (not that my birds have any,
mind you), and I made the mistake of applying a spritz of
it under each wing. I did this because this is what the
manufacturers of poultry dust recommend you do. I almost
lost a good bird because I did that. There was a bad
reaction between the product and the skin under the wing.
The skin hardened and turned yellow and was no longer
'breathing'. Because of this, the bird could not cool
himself down when he opened his wing. Once I gently
removed the peeling skin to uncover his new skin
underneath, I was able to cool him down with the cool
water. If I had assumed that his skin was healthy under
his wing without looking and just dunked him in water, it
would have had a limited effect. I realize this is a
different subject, but don't use liquid parasite sprays
under the bird's wings. In fact, don't use it anywhere on
the skin itself, only on the feather. Even the
pyrethrum-based insecticides, which are relatively safe
to use on poultry, should only be used on the feathers
themselves. If you need something for the vent area, then
I recommend you use the poultry dust in that location,
and the liquids for feather mite - if you prefer the
liquids.
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