Diagnosis Found • Lab Testing Birds • New Developments

[HidingInTheHenHouse]

Very interesting thread. I recently had a chicken with canker. Almost exact symptoms you describe, but no mass was apparent in the mouth or throat that I could see. Peter Brown with First State Vet Supply helped me find the metronidazole locally so I could treat her right away. He also taught me how to do tube feedings so she wouldn't die since she wasn't eating and drinking and had become very weak. Within three days of treatment with the metronidazole, she was almost completely better.

Remember, you can't always see the lesions of canker. They can be inside the crop, in the esophagus, even into the skull. My chicken was having a very hard time breathing, so I think her lesion was in the esophagus and pressing on the trachea.

I hope you find your answers soon.

 

[Barrett Farm]

I have had this set up with this chicken coop and straw floor for 15 years. I think it is suspicious that all of a sudden I have 6 birds die a slow death from eating straw. The vet could not identify the fiber. He asked about the environment. I told him about the straw and it did not help him identify the material.

One other thing that makes me suspicious, that this is a contagious illness, is the lady I bought my last pullets from had an area for sick birds and she insisted I buy a product called Oxine. She raved of it wonders. She had an attack in the coop that morning from a weasel and I thought that was the sick bird. But I bet she had something else and that is what I have.
I am going back over what I have done different this year because 20 years with chickens, I have never had an ounce of trouble with contagious diseases.

UPDATE: I have more tests due from the lab. I have more tests in virus isolation and they will be ready in three weeks.

 

[pine top]

dear barrett farm
unless i am misstaken i have dealt with this same thing in my flock some years ago my vet gave me liqied albon one table spoon per gal water and it worked for me the symptoms are extermly close to my brids i gave this for one week i lost 3 brids but no more hope this helps.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

There seem to be alot of posts lately on very ill birds. Fowl Pox and other mystery illnesses.
I wonder what is going on. Did you isolate the pullets you bought from this woman and if so for how long?

 

[Barrett Farm]

My chicken coop has three sides. Two walls are fences and the third is open with chicken wire and doors. The area is 20x20x27 with a convex roof that is very high on the open wall and comes to a point at the corner where the two fences meet. I can close off one third of the coop for the young birds and that nursery has it own door. The chicks are always kept in the nursery. It is part of the coop segregated by poultry wire. When the chicks are young, without full body feathers, they are in a box with a light at night to keep them warm in that area. When they get older I cut an opening in the box so they can go out if they are brave. Then I remove the box and I add a small roosting bar between two bales of hay with two 1x12 boards over them to save their body heat. We they out grow that space and can hold their own with the other birds, I add them to the group. When all the lights go off at about 10pm, I put them up on the big girls' roosting bar and I roll up the wire. When they wake that morning I have a new flock.

Right now the babies I have are in a kennel in the garage. I don't want them anywhere near the other birds until I know what I have.

There are many posts with sick birds and not much discussion about how the eradicate or fix the problem.

 

[Big C]

Very informative thread. Thank you to everyone for responses and Barrett Farm for the very descriptive information all thru the thread. We hope that you find the answer.
What kind of straw hay do you use?
Like you our coops are dirt floor and hay (bermuda). We buy from a local farmer who grows and bales without chemicals.
Our farm, garden and coops are organic and have been. We always use feed grade DE liberally every where.
God Bless.

 

[Barrett Farm]

It depends on the season. If I buy straw in the winter or fall it is a Rice straw that construction sites use for erosion control and we don't like it. It is real course and not comfortable in the laying boxes. (The girls pull it out of the laying boxes and I find it scratches my arms because it is so course)

But if I buy in the summer, I can get a straw that is fine and soft. They leave it in the boxes and make comfortable little nests. I think the finer draws out the moisture of their droppings better. I am not sure what it is. Both straws are yellow. But this variety has more seeds they enjoy.

 

[Barrett Farm]

I have good news and bad news.

First the good news. It is really good news. The Blue cochin I culled and sent in for a necropsy was found to have a clear bill of health. The only signs of sickness were from the culling. There was no sign of infectious illnesses. The vet thinks it could have been a Vit. A deficiency.

The bad news. Really bad news. I culled five birds and I still don't know what was going through my flock. i am down 11 birds with no answers.

Update. The EE that was twitching her head has stopped twitching. Her tail feathers are growing in. She no longer hangs out behind the door. My buff has been blowing her coat. There are feather floating everywhere with the all the wind we are having. Tonight the Buff had an empty crop and the remaining four older ones have very small crops, the size of a quarter. The black Australorp stays away from the older birds and has a larger crop almost 2" in diameter, like an older silver dollar, every night. All birds are eating. I have added Emergency C every three or four days. ACV every night to the water dish. Added one scoop (looks like 1 TBSP) of Rooster Booster Vitamin to their feed tray once a week. I have five hens and yesterday I got four eggs, today I got three.

The wild flock of doves has been increasing. The last count on the wire is 17. Still haven't seen any falcons. All wild bird baths are dry and empty. Wild birds are no longer welcome.

Baby chicks are out in the nursery portion of the coop. They look fine. Growing, bright eyed, healthy and active.

No answers can be given until one dies from the illness and I send it in for testing.