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The Poultry Doc Welcome to The Poultry Doc, your trusted source for board-certified poultry health.
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From telemedicine, education and veterinary expertise, we are here to cut through the internet clutter and bring you the science-backed, data-driven answers to best keep y

Join The Poultry Doc THIS WEEKEND at the Cackle Hatchery LLC Annual Chicken Festival! Dr. Blayne will be doing live Q&As...
09/28/2026

Join The Poultry Doc THIS WEEKEND at the Cackle Hatchery LLC Annual Chicken Festival!

Dr. Blayne will be doing live Q&As and answering all your burning poultry questions.

Friday October 2nd at 3pm

Saturday October 3rd at 1:30 pm

Plus we may have a surprise or two in store for you!
šŸ“ šŸ’©

Let us know if youā€™ll be entering any of the Egg Eating, Costume or Crowing contests so we can come cheer you on. šŸŽ‰

Check out Cackleā€™s site for more information about this FREE family event.

See you soon!

https://www.cacklehatchery.com/annual-chicken-festival/

09/19/2026

Water belly is one of the most common and most misunderstood conditions in backyard chickens.

In this information-packed episode of the Poultry Doc Podcast, Dr. Blayne Mozisek makes a house call to examine Clementine, a hen whose owner noticed lethargy and a hunched posture.

On palpation, Clementine is confirmed to have significant abdominal fluid. Dr. Blayne walks through how to tell the difference between the two main causes of water belly, what the color and consistency of the fluid tells you, and how to perform an abdominal drain at home.

The episode also covers why labored breathing develops as fluid builds up, how egg yolk in the abdomen becomes a problem only when bacteria are introduced, and why treating infectious peritonitis often requires longer courses of antibiotics than most people expect.

Whether you are dealing with a water belly hen right now or just want to understand what is happening inside your bird, this episode gives you the clearest picture available outside of a clinic visit.

Thank you again Dan and Kat for having us out to look at Clementine.

Visit thepoultrydoc.com to order draining needles, access telehealth consultations, and find the Copper Feather membership tools to track your flock's health over time.

0:00 Intro
0:10 Clementine: A Hen with Water Belly
1:11 What Is Water Belly and What Causes It
3:22 Cystic Right Oviduct vs Infectious Peritonitis
5:51 How Egg Yolk Peritonitis Develops and Why It Is Hard to Treat
9:58 How Water Belly Affects Breathing and Mobility
11:35 Palpating the Abdomen and Assessing Body Condition
13:17 Supplies Needed and How to Prep the Skin for Draining
15:26 The Draining Procedure Step by Step
19:27 Reading the Fluid Color and Deciding Next Steps
20:14 Antibiotics, Follow-Up Plan, and Closing

09/18/2026

So you didnā€™t vaccinate your chicks for Marekā€™s. Now what?
Honestly, itā€™s the same protocol we recommend for every flock: keep stress low and practice good biosecurity. The best way to keep your flock healthy is by keeping disease and other pathogens out. Board-certified Poultry Vet, Dr. Blayne, explains more in episode 6 of Marekā€™s in Minutes.

Missouri, Here we come! The Poultry Doc will be at The Cackle Hatchery Annual Chicken Festival October 2nd and 3rd! Dr. ...
09/18/2026

Missouri, Here we come! The Poultry Doc will be at The Cackle Hatchery Annual Chicken Festival October 2nd and 3rd! Dr. Blayne will be doing a live Q+A each day and we'd love to meet you at this free event. Check out the schedule to see all the great things Cackle has in store for this year's fest.

09/11/2026

In episode 49 of the Poultry Doc Podcast, board-certified poultry veterinarian Dr. Blayne Mozisek demonstrates how to perform a f***l flotation exam on a backyard chicken flock.

Topics covered include how to collect a pooled flock f***l sample, how to use a McMaster slide to calculate eggs per gram (EPG) and oocysts per gram (OPG), microscope magnification for parasite identification, how to distinguish gapeworm eggs (operculated) from roundworm eggs and coccidial oocysts under the microscope, and how Eimeria maxima compares in size to other Eimeria species.

If doing it yourself is not an option, Dr. Blayne also walks through how to send a sample to ThePoultryDoc.com and let the lab handle it.

Visit ThePoultryDoc.com to access testing kits, tele-health consultations, and the new Copper Feather membership with access to our Flock Dashboard and Vet Your Flock troubleshooting agent. https://thepoultrydoc.com/join-the-flock/

Gapeworm Egg photo courtesy of: Fig. 4 from Meister et al. (2022), Int. J. Parasitol. Parasites Wildl. 18:76ā€“81, doi.org/10.1016/j.ijppaw.2022.04.007, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

00:00:00 Intro
00:00:10 How to Collect a F***l Sample from Your Flock
00:01:41 What You Need to Do a F***l Flotation at Home
00:04:13 McMaster Slides Explained: How the Counting System Works
00:05:10 Microscope Basics: What Magnification You Actually Need
00:05:34 Step by Step: Mixing the Sample and Loading the Slide
00:07:43 What to Look for Under the Microscope
00:09:52 Calculating Your EPG Count
00:11:30 Gapeworm Eggs vs Roundworm Eggs vs Cocci
00:12:27 Wrap Up and How to Send Samples to ThePoultryDoc.com

09/05/2026

Molting, Feather Loss, and Flock Health: The Poultry Doc & Purely Chickens Answer Questions Live

Molting is one of the most misunderstood times in a backyard flock.

In this episode 9 of Purely Vetted, Nikki Husted, and Dr. Blayne Mozisek, , walk through what molting actually is, why it happens, and how to tell it apart from feather picking, parasite damage, or nutritional deficiency.

They cover what to expect during a molt, other reasons for feather loss in backyard chickens, how feed and treats play a bigger role in feather quality than most people realize, and what to do for birds that are struggling to regrow feathers.

The episode also gets into supplemental heat, lighting, and flock management during molt, including what to do if you have a rooster or a bird that is being picked on while regrowing feathers.

Whether your flock is mid-molt right now or you are just trying to get ahead of it, this episode covers the practical side of getting your birds through it and ready for the colder months.

Visit ThePoultryDoc.com to access testing kits, tele-health consultations, and the new Copper Feather membership with access to our Flock Dashboard and Vet Your Flock troubleshooting agent. https://thepoultrydoc.com/join-the-flock/

Pre-Order Nikkiā€™s new book: A Healthy Home Flock: Complete Guide to Keeping Backyard Chickens and Chicks Happy and Healthy https://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Home-Flock-Complete-Backyard/dp/1577157575/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?tag=

00:00:00 Intro
00:01:01 Updates
00:04:10 What is molting?
00:06:58 Stress-induced molts and when young birds first molt
00:08:22 Hard vs. soft molts
00:13:43 Feed quality, treats, and a feathering case study
00:21:00 Molting vs. feather picking vs. parasites
00:23:49 Pin feathers, blood feathers, and protecting birds mid-molt
00:27:43 Peepers, rooster management, and space during molt
00:32:01 Timing, mite damage, and molt length by breed
00:37:39 Supplemental heat during molt and winter management
00:44:01 Supplemental lighting and its effect on molt and egg production
00:49:04 Corn-free and soy-free diets: nutritional tradeoffs
00:55:26 Wrap-up and closing

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