Chicken aliments

[LeelanauChickens]

Hello all, new to the group so I'm following the guidlines and introducing myself. My family and I live in Leelanau County MI and are on our 2nd flock of chickens. We started our backyard flock in August of 21 with 14 chickens, 10 chicks from Tractor Supply ans 4 that were about 4 months old from a local keeper. Since then all have died either from disease or predators. We started fresh after cleaning our coup and reorganizing our run area but have began to run into disease once more. One by one we have lost 4 chickens since September and the disease seems to be making its way through the flock as currently there is a 5th bird with symptoms. This is the same disease from the looks of it that we dealt with last time around and my guess then is the same as now either marek's or Coccidiosis but I'm not quite sure. The birds start to get runny fecal matter sticking to their vent feathers, we then notice a drooped tail, retracted neck, lethargic behavior, slower movent, puffed feathers, droped wings, isolation, siting around, then what seems to be paralysis. Once they reach this state I have had a few live for several days while still eating and drinking in the isolation hutch but they all eventually die. If ts Marek's I know there's not much that can be done other than order them pre vaxed. We did try Corid in the water with the previous flock but still had loss. This time around I thought it might be botulism when it first started because the first sick bird definatly displayed botulism symptoms and after treating with activated charcoal it got better almost immediately and is sill living but that did not work on the other 4 that ended up dying. Sorry to likly post this outside of a long thread that relates to either Marek's or Coccidiosis but I could use some insight as at this rate our new flock that started out at 21 birds will likely be zero by spring if the last flock circumstances is any indication. I have attached a few picks, kind of hard to see the fecal matter sticking to her vent feathers but its there along with bad smelling feces. Havent noticed any blood in stools.

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
I would get a mixed fecal sample pulled and get it to your vet for a fecal float to see what they find in the GI tract. And I would keep the body of the next bird that dies and get it out for a necropsy.

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello and welcome to BYC!

I am going to move your thread to our Emergency forums for more help. I hope you can get this sorted out soon.

@azygous

 

[azygous]

How soon after getting the chicks and the older chickens did the symptoms begin? This is very important as diseases follow a chronology. Marek's produces symptoms in chicks at around eight weeks to three months. Lymphoid leucosis hits at around four to five months. Coccidiosis produces symptoms around one week after chickens are put on new soil. They will die without a coccidiostat being administered, especially baby chicks.

Botulism toxin is only a problem if the chickens were exposed to deep anaerobic soil. Chicks wouldn't dig that deep. Older chickens would need to find decaying vegetation, usually found by digging deep into a compost pile.

Another possibility is mold toxin. This is found in deep litter that never dries out and that isn't turned. This toxin produces symptoms similar to botulism toxin - paralysis and death. Both usually kill within 24 hours of exposure. Mold can also grow in feed that has become exposed to moisture. It would have a very awful smell.

I don't have time to ask you a lot of questions. Try to think which of those possibilities may match your circumstances.

I agree with @DobieLover that getting a fecal float test on some random poop samples can help rule out some things. And a necropsy on the next dead chicken will probably be the best thing to nail down what is going on. Your vet can run the fecal test. You would just need to talk them into doing it. It's not expensive at all.

 

[LeelanauChickens]

Thank you for your insights, I will reach out to our local vet about a fecal float test for sure. In both cases, our first flock (August 21 - Jan 22) and this current flock, (April 23 through current date) the disease didnt begin to hit the birds until they were 3 to 5 months of age. This year in September and from the original flock it was at the end of August through Nov. I did make the mistake of keeping a compost pile in the yard where the birds could get into and my original thought was it was due to that expose to rotten compost. Since the first flocks passing I have taken down the compost pile and spread what was left into the soild but they certainly could be digging down and reaching old compost material. We did have an instance where we had a lot of rain and the feed hopper began to get some mold growing in wet feed. I have since covered the run with a visqueen tarp to keep the food dry.

This curren batch of birds was raised on medicated feed until they layer stage and they were all very healthy until we found one daed in the run in September and since then 3 others have passed as I described.

 

[azygous]

It might be a good idea to store the feed indoors and feed only what the chickens will consume in one day. Also. block off your compost pile for the next year until sunlight and oxygen have dried up the substrate. Many of us have learned it's best not to have an active compost pile as long as we keep chickens.

I've lost my share of chickens to things I only learned the hard way not to keep in proximity to my flock. Heart breaking lessons, indeed.