When you become a chicken tender, you learn that having a backyard flock is a lot like having feathered kids who poop in the grass: they get hurt, they get sick, and you are their caregiver so it’s on you to take care of them. In the three years of having chickens, I’ve started to build an arsenal of what to have in your chicken medical kit. Here’s what I have, how I use it, and how you can be prepared!

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Why You Need to Have a Chicken Medical Kit

A chicken medical kit is one of those “just in case” situations. Hopefully you have the supplies that you need, before you ever need them. My goal is to help you decide which of these items you should keep on hand, and what you’d use them for.

There are two main scenarios that I’ll be talking about here: illness, and injury.

Illness in chickens is no joke. You want to clear up any disease as quickly as possible, as it can wipe out an entire flock in a week. I will note that I have not had to deal with illness much in my birds so I can’t recommend products for fowl or wet pox, for example. But I’ll give you the recommendations I have based on my knowledge and research.

Injury in chickens is also something to take seriously. Chickens are flock animals and prey for many animals; their behavior mirrors this. For example, a chicken who is hurt will often hide injury until they’re half-dead because they don’t want to attract predators to their flock, nor do they want the flock to kick them out.

Most of the materials I will suggest can take care of more than one issue, whether it’s most types of parasitic worms, or mites and lice, or any injury. But always do your own research and reading.

Finally, I recommend that you have a chicken group (either local, or online, or both!) where you can pick the brains of other chicken tenders; and have an avian vet who can see your chicken or prescribe medications like antibiotics if necessary.

I also recommend that you have a dedicated chicken medical kit – in other words, don’t use your good office scissors or family Neosporin for your chickens. If possible, let the chickens have their own set of things so you don’t worry about cross-contamination.

General Tools to Have in a Chicken Medical Kit

This is a quick list of cheap basic supplies that will help if you need to hold a chicken, check on them in the dark (you can see my “Medical Check” video on my YouTube channel), sterilize a tub or sink where you’d need to bathe or soak a chicken who’s wounded, etc.

  • Microfiber hand towels are the best for your chicken medical kit as they won’t leave lint in an open wound and they have great absorbency.
  • A headlamp is a priceless tool when it comes to doing nighttime medical checks, or if you want to keep the lights down low and calm your bird. I use mine all the time and love it! Bonus: You look suuuuuper cool when you wear one.
  • Get a nice sharp pair of scissors for cutting gauze and athletic bandage wrap.
  • I use these dog nail clippers for my pups and for my chickens – you normally don’t have to trim a chicken’s nails but occasionally they’re not ground down naturally from scratching in the dirt. (Not sure if you need to trim them? Check out my video about it here.)
  • I recommend that you have a dedicated bin/tub for the chicken medical kit to live in. Sterilize it and keep the lid on when not in use. I would keep everything in the house at room temperature, not in the coop or outside.
  • Bleach or chlorhexidine are the best supplies to use when you need to sterilize a surface. Whether it’s your bathroom sink or a big bin, completely sterilize the location before you bring your chicken in, and once they’re out.

Where are you going to treat your chickens should the need arise? Would you keep them in the chicken run with a big plastic bin, carry them into your kitchen, maybe a bathtub or a utility room? Think about where you’d bring your chicken if you need to clean and wrap a wound, or administer medication.

Medications to Have in a Chicken Medical Kit

For illnesses you’re usually dealing with something respiratory in chickens. Remember that these can be highly contagious and go through the entire flock quickly.

Denagard 12.5% liquid is an amazing medication because it can be used as a preventative approximately 2 days/month, or used once your chickens have a confirmed respiratory illness. It’s a water additive so you measure out and put in the flock’s water for 3-5 days. Find it where you purchase chicken food and farm animal supplies.

  • To prevent respiratory illness: 1.5 teaspoon/gallon for 3-5 days.
  • To treat respiratory illness: 3 teaspoon/gallon for 3-5 days.

A medication I have recently ordered, but never tried, is VetRx. It is comparable to an oily Vicks vapor rub for people. It can be administered in the nose of the bird, or put in their water. This is also used for respiratory illness like runny nose, coughing, and sneezing in your birds.

I use Ivermectin, or Ivermax, to treat worms and internal parasites. You can either dose this twice a year as a preventative, or when you see worms in your chickens’ droppings. If you need to dose them remember to do the whole flock, and read the instructions carefully as you have to dose twice. That way you hit all life cycles of the parasite in all stages. I have a video about this medication specifically which you can see here.

If you suspect that you have mites or poultry lice, you can use Poultry Dust and/or food grade diatomaceous earth to dust your birds and the coop. You also need to completely clean out the coop with fresh new materials and ideally some diluted bleach spray. To learn more, you can check out my video here.

Finally, I recommend that you clean out your coop and do a “deep clean” at least twice a year. You can see more of what I use and how I do it with this video!

Wound Treatment to Have in a Chicken Medical Kit

By wound, I mean that your chicken has some kind of injury that’s broken the skin. Whether bleeding or not, you need to clean it and keep infection out! This is what I use to clean everything from bumblefoot to open wounds, in this order.

Also, don’t forget to have a sanitized workspace and sanitized hands (gloves optional).

Finally, it may be necessary for you to cut some feathers really short around the wound to keep them out of the bandage (and so you can see).

First, clean the wound as best you can with warm water and a gentle soap. You can also soak the area with warm water and Epsom salt, like I do with my girls’ bumblefoot. Pat dry with a microfiber towel.

Vetericyn is used like a hydrogen peroxide to topically kill germs. You can spray the wound liberally and let air dry if possible.

Neosporin with no pain relief additive then goes on to keep the wound from getting infected, and to help it heal. Never ever use the Neosporin that has the pain relief! It has ingredients that are harmful to chickens. It’s a big gooey and thick but be liberal in putting it on! And it won’t get cleaned off until the next time you clean and dress the wound.

Prid can be used instead of Neosporin, if you’re dealing with bumblefoot specifically. Prid is a salve which will draw out gunk like pus and infected matter to the surface so that you can clean it out. Do not use this on an open wound from an injury or attack!

Want to hear all about bumblefoot and how I treat minor cases? Check out my video here!

Non stick gauze or pads are great. Open them with clean hands and cut to size if necessary. Fold up if necessary and place on the wound.

Vetwrap or athletic bandage is the final step in wrapping up a wound. You need it to be firm so no one messes with it and it doesn’t fall off, but don’t cut off circulation. These types of bandage wraps stick to themselves, so wrap a bit and then squeeze it onto itself gently. Bright colors like mine help me to see at a glance if the bandage is still in place, and the 1″ (one inch) size is the easiest to maneuver. Make a habit of having a little fold at the end (where you finish wrapping) so you can easily find the end and take it off the next day, when you’ll do this all again until the wound is healed!

And if you’d like the video tour of these tools and how to use them, you can watch this content as my YouTube video!