3rd one bites the dust.. i have NO IDEA what to do..

[Mixed Pen]

Hi all
So I had a Hen sick for close to a week she had running fluid and crusty eyes she died (even though she had antibiotics we had no luck) she also was isolated from the day i found her with the crusty eyes, waterer cleaned etc
5 days later i found a hen dead out in the chook yard, she had been broody for 15days, had been getting out of the nest regularly for food and water etc, no signs or symptoms just dead out in the pen. I since cleaned out the brooder box etc.
9 days later my rooster was pretty much in exactly the same spot the hen was found dead, and was sitting gasping, i was a little worried but i had seen him do this a few weeks prior and it seemed more like he was (excuse the term) shagged out, after sitting for a short time he was up and being his normal self. anyway this morning i find him dead on the floor of the hen house, the only thing is, he has spent the last week in the nesting box with 2 of my broody hens, i did think it was strange to start with, but the lady i got him from said he had a habit of sitting with broody hens and raising the chicks with him, and i had googled that some roosters show their favourite hen where to lay and help them to brood the eggs..

ANYWAY.. what the hell is going on?? the last two to die had NO symptoms except for the fact they had both spent a deal of time in the nesting box prior to death...

 

[ChickenCanoe]

With 3 dead in short order, it's time for a necropsy of a recently dead or a symptomatic live sacrificial bird.
The problem with antibiotics is they will only treat a small fraction of illnesses chickens can get. They can be affected by bacterial, viral, fungal, nutritional and parasitic issues. Even with the serious bacterial issues, only a small percentage can actually be cured by antibiotics.

 

[Mixed Pen]

so you think i take a live one to the vet for testing??
i just find it odd the first one was obviously sick, like really really sick, and these last two had no signs what so ever, i check them daily for any symptoms..
could there be a toxic plant in the yard?? definately not nutritional the pen is full of lush green grasses including a clucka tucker mix, they have all day access to layer pellets and receive all the fruit and vege scraps from the ktichen.

Oh i just re read, you want me to take a bird to the vet to be put down and tested.. might take the fresh dead for autopsy, i wonder how fresh it needs to be?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

The fresher the better. In the states, each state has at least one lab for poultry necropsy. You should have the same there. I recently took a bird I though was sick but rather than prophylactically treating with antibiotics I wanted to know what was up. Turned out she had cancer. I would have prolonged her misery and unnecessarily treated the rest of the flock.
It is a rare vet that can do that. I'd wait to see if you have any more symptomatic birds but get the lab info in advance.

 

[Mixed Pen]

So I took the dead roo to the vet this am, not a single symptom apart from minor lice and we saw 1 worm in stomach, so she suspects stress of some sort...

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Like I alluded to, good avian vets with poultry experience are as rare as hen's teeth. I'm not saying yours doesn't know their stuff but around here we have hundreds if not thousands of vets but I have to drive at least an hour to find one that knows what they're doing with chickens. A vet's office also isn't equipped to find many of the diseases that could kill a bird. Even a good vet school necropsy lab may not find something if the bird has been dead any length of time.

Another important thing to consider is that if a bird had been on antibiotics it will skew the necropsy results.

 

[casportpony]

With 3 dead in short order, it's time for a necropsy of a recently dead or a symptomatic live sacrificial bird.
The problem with antibiotics is they will only treat a small fraction of illnesses chickens can get. They can be affected by bacterial, viral, fungal, nutritional and parasitic issues. Even with the serious bacterial issues, only a small percentage can actually be cured by antibiotics.

The right combo of drugs can be very effective, but those drugs are not available at feed stores, which is what most people try first. Hydration is also usually overlooked, which is why I am a firm believer in supportive care.

-Kathy

 

[Mixed Pen]

yeah its tricky, my thoughts are, the first bird was sick, clearly sick and had drugs from a vet, but maybe too late by the time i got them to her, the second bird, i have no idea why it died, could have been the heat, she was broody, maybe that caused enough stress, and the rooster was the 2nd birds mate, they came together, lived together etc, i suspect he was stressed after her death, he spent the last week of his life in the box she was broody in (maybe he thought he was helping hatch their own eggs) either way he was quite watsted when he died, like condition score 0, he did have small ammounts of food in his stomach,
anwway i am confident i wont loose any more birds (for now)

 

[Mixed Pen]

oh an i am in a rural area, so my vet is an hour drive anyway, let alone trying to find a bird vet