2 chickens died, emaciated, green poop, help please for cause

[madornato]

I am trying to find out why 2 of my chickens died. I have had chickens for only 1 year, so there is still so much I haven't experienced with them and need to learn. I had one 5-month old pullet die on Monday (it was actually my daughter's) and another 1 which is 1 year old which died just an hour or so ago. I called our 4H poultry chain leader, and he didn't know what they might have had. His guess was maybe worms? I looked on this website for a little while and even added some questions to a post on here, but couldn't come up with an answer. That's why I decided to start a new post. My daughter's pullet and my chicken were in different pens but exhibited the same symptoms. It's like they were wasting away. It is like they starved to death---no food in the crop, very little weight on the body. When I found each one of them, she was very weak, could not really move (but the day before each one of them acted fine). Neither one was interested in food or water and had light, very bright green liquidy poop. Before they died, they had labored breathing, with their bodies quivering all over like they were cold. The 1-yr-old chicken had rattley-sounding breathing before she died as well. After reading some stuff online, I fed my 1-year old chicken some scrambled egg yesterday after finding her. She acted ravenously hungry, so I figured that maybe the other chickens were keeping her away from the food. But, this morning I found her to be in as bad of a condition as I found her yesterday morning--maybe worse. She did not eat any of the crumbles or scratch I left out for her overnight, and when I held her over the food or water, she acted disinterested and wouldn't try to eat or drink even when I stuck her beak in it. By the way, I isolated each one after finding them. Could this be worms or coccidiosis or cholera? I am at a real loss, and I want to find out what this is so that the others don't come down with it. Here is an overview of the symptoms:

wasting away, emaciated
no energy to move, extremely exhausted
bright, light green liquidy poop--awfully smelly
5-month old pullet drooled a little while I was walking around with her
quivering body and labored breathing before death

Anybody with any ideas, please help. I don't want to lose any more of my chickens.


Thanks so much.

 

[LuvMyPeeps7]

I'm a newbie so I'm bumping this for you!

 

[madornato]

Someone e-mailed me about West Nile virus. Do you think that's what my chickens had?

 

[valsey]

Why don't you take it to the poultry lab and get real answers?

http://www.gapoultrylab.org/index.html
http://www.gapoultrylab.org/forsyth.html

 

[carrlr]

If it was coccidiosis I think you'd see a little blood in the poop. Are their pens on the ground or are they in a cage? Do you have your chickens on any type of worm prevention, like apple cider vinegar (ACV). Some of the symptoms sound like the possibility of worms. IMO worms is a drawn out process where they seem to eat normally, at least at first, but still loose weight. I think West Nile is a big stretch.

 

[birdsNbeesNseeds]

Quote:
If you want a definitive answer, this is the way to go.

Depending on the wait for an answer from them, you may want to also look your birds over for lice, mites, or other parasites that weaken them. If they haven't been wormed, that may also be a possibility. They may have several things going on that are causing this problem.

Chickens do not normally come down with clinical West Nile illnesses: pubs.cas.psu.edu/freepubs/pdfs/un192.pdf

 

[spook]

Green droppings would come to my mind as something ingested such as a bacterial illness. Were their heads dropped right down, not talking about wry neck either. I would recommend that you contact your local Extension Office, they will usually take the carcass immediately to the lab and generally test free for you. If you have another bird like that, ship it and do as they reccomend as this may be viral, you don't want it to go any further. I doubt that it is viral, but a true answer is best (not saying anyone is giving bad advice).

 

[madornato]

I checked for mites--no mites (at least not visible). I have my chickens in pens on the ground--I don't free range because of predators. I have not wormed my chickens. I am concerned about using medicines for worming as I try to go as natural as possible. How do you administer, and how often, the apple cider vinegar? Does it affect the taste of the eggs? I contacted the poultry lab--they need a live chicken to test, if possible. They said it would be much cheaper and easier to test. They would pull bloodwork and such, then euthenize the chicken for further testing. I'll contact my local extension service to see what they say. Thanks.

As far as the head thing goes--they couldn't seem to hold up their heads--didn't have the energy or whatever. They just laid/sat on their legs as if nesting with their heads flopped forward resting on the ground.

 

[carrlr]

ACV can be administered at a rate of 1-2 tablespoons per gallon in NON-metal containers as it will corrode those. It does not affect the taste of the eggs and can be given regularly. It's better to use a higher quality ACV from a health food store like the brand name Bragg which can be bought at GNC.

Diatomaceous Earth (DE) is a natural way to keep mites and lice away. Search for Deep Litter Method on this site and you'll find info about it.

....and BTW so sorry for your losses.

 

[valsey]

Quote:
Not sure who you contacted, but the poultry lab has done several free necropsies for me. Refrigerate the bird asap (double-bag) and bring it in. They will get you the details and diagnosis in two weeks. Very nice folks, and helpful. Who did you call?

Or are you saying you want to test for worms? You can bring in a fecal sample to your vet for that...and not kill a chicken.