Lethargic chickens, and now dead! Help!

I will start from the beginning so every thing is out in the open. I started off with 10 chickens last spring. All seemed healthy from the get go. Then in the fall I picked up 4 more, 2 roosters and 2 laying hens. after a few weeks they seemed healthy so I introduced them to my flock. After a few days they all got along just fine, by early November none of the original 10 were laying but the 2 new hens started laying. After a month I ran out of feed and fed them table scraps for a week until could get more feed. A week later (eating plenty of table scraps mean while) I picked up more feed but after 1 month Only got 2 more eggs and then nothing.

Well around mid January I went out to feed the chickens and found one of my roosters dead. It was decently warm out but the days before he had been acting lethargic and not to good. So when I found him dead I wasnt to worried because he was an older chicken and chopped it up to being old age. Well last month My goose also died, this concerned me as it was sudden and out of no where. Well day before yesterday I went out to feed my chickens and AGAIN one of my chickens was acting lethargic! I took her inside and put her in a dog kennel with food and water where it was warm. Yesterday she was bright and happy so I placed her back out in the coop and seems to be doing ok, how ever she does have a slight limp but is not lethargic at all. Well I filled the feeder, and the water and decided to check for eggs just in case. I went inside to find one of my younger birds who showed no signs dead in one of the laying boxes.

Im kinda of panicked now because I dont want to loose any more of my birds! My mom told me a trick of putting cayenne pepper in the water the other day when the first hen started to act lethargic because in the past it has helped her birds get over a illness.

I was planning on building a new coop and run this spring but now im afraid to put my birds in it and cause it to be contaminated and not usable for future birds. And at the same time I do not want to loose any of my current birds.


One thing I did notice on the sick one I brought in the other day was that she did have a small black spot on her come if that could be of concern to this situation.

Any advise or imput is greatly appreciated, I really dont want to loose any more of my birds and spread what ever they may have.

Have your wormed them or checked for lice/mites?

I'm sorry about your birds.
I can't say what it could be but what is coming to mind is:
Have you check for lice/mites? When is the last time you wormed them? Do they have access to grit, possible crop impaction? How does their poo look, anything unusual? http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0 Here is the poop chart just in case.

Are they getting enough natural light? They need it not only to stimulate laying, but also to process vitamin D and effectively utilize calcium. Birds that do not get enough light or vitamin d supplementation can develop rickets (young birds) or hypocalcemia (mature birds), which in its worst form can contribute to death.

Lice/mites or worms, or all three.

They have not been wormed. And I just got off the phone with my mom and she mentioned the mites too so Im going to go out and look and see if they have any mites. As far as looking for mites, is there any where specific to look? Like under the wing (pits)? Thats where my mom mentioned to look but is thee any where else that is known for mites to gather at?

Also for worming them are there any home remadies? Or is there specific medication for chickens to use?

And Atm the sun comes up at 8:30am and goes down around 7:30pm. I also have a white light in there coop that comes on at 4am and turns off at 9am. Then turns back on at 5pm and stays on till 8:30pm. They have a 14x14ft (I think could be a foot or two off) dog run im using for the chicken run atm that is half covered with clear visqueen to keep the snow and water off half of the run.

I just read on another site to check around the vents so Im going to go out and check them now and see if I can tell if they have mites.

Also I have access to piperime-17 for worms, how would I go about using it? Put in water? Inject in mouth? ANd how much and which way is best?

The vent is the best spot but they kind of cling to the bottom of the feather shafts if they have body mites, check for scaly leg mites as well. They will have raised scales and if really bad case, chunky looking toes or abnormal nail growth. A mite infestation is generally more likely during the winter months when they spend more time in the coop and can't dust themselves in the run.

Quote:
If they have lice or mites, dust them with Sevin dust. Dust their coop, roosts and nests as well. Redust them and their coop again in 10 days to kill any nits that have hatched since the first dusting.
For worming, I recommend you purchase Valbazen. It's a liquid cattle/sheep wormer. Dosage is 1/2cc given orally to standard size chickens and 1/4cc orally for smaller chickens. Valbazen (albendazole) kills all known worms that chickens can get. It can be purchased online from Jefferslivestock.com or you can call them. There is an egg withdrawal period of 14 days after using the wormer.

They have mites. I just checked. I will check back in a few mins, im ganna take a shower real quick. Got the creepy crawly feeling.

EDIT: Ok, I checked em they all have mites I read that you can also use flee and tick shampoo and wash the birds really well to get rid of mites, also A neighbor of mine (nice native lady who has been raising chickens for years) told me to take my ash from my fire place (cold of course not hot) and put that in a big litter box or something and let them use that to dust bath in. As far as the coop, I have a shed that was used for housing our old oil tank for our heater that is now no longer used so for now Im going to bathe them then put down a bunch of FRESH new hay in the shed (8x10) for them as a temp home for now. As for the trailer coop, I have been planning on building a new coop so I may not even put them back in there because even if I dust I think it would be to easy for them to be in the walls and come back later on so I think im just going to keep them int he temp shed for now and in a few weeks build a new coop and run and have the trailer hauled off.


I dont have the money to buy seven dust atm also, so im hoping that I can get the mites off with the shampoo, I get payed on the 5th so then I will pickup some seven dust but have to make it till then. (long story short, had a baby missed some work and short on money)

If you have any more advise please let me know. Thanks for the info you all have given me so far this is a great forum!