HELP with chickens dying

[iamamy]

I posted pictures a while back of my sons Ag. project which was building a coop. He got his pullets in March, and we have gotten along great...until now. Three weeks ago, he lost one of his RIR. Last week, one of his While Leghorns died, and this morning, another Leghorn was dead. They are showing no respiratory troubles or signs of being sick. We did add 10 hens to the flock a two weeks ago, but all seemed healthy. We had a friend, that has a poultry science degree look at the one that died last week. He commented that her gizzard was full of shavings, and she had some bleeding in her intestines. We feed Southern States laying mash. He is going to be heartbroke to know that he lost another chicken. Any suggestions of what we should try? We don't have any vets in the area that have experience with chickens.

Thanks

 

[bustermommy]

This may be a stupid question, but are they getting grit?

 

[Duramaxgirl]

I'm sorry for your loss. How devastating.
Bleeding intestines makes me think cocci. I've never known any of my chickens to eat shavings. How offten do you feed them?

 

[iamamy]

They are eating twice a day, and there always plenty of food and feeders. I can't understand why she would have eaten the shavings.... I don't know what grit is?

 

[Johnn]

grit is crushed up oyster shells for calcium

 

[elmo]

Quote:
Sorry, no, that's wrong. Many people confuse grit and oystershell.

Poultry grit is usually granite chips. Grit is used in the chicken's gizzard to help grind up food.

Oystershell is a calcium supplement. Oystershell is digested by the chicken so that its body can use the calcium in it.

 

[Johnn]

Quote:
Sorry, no, that's wrong. Many people confuse grit and oystershell.

Poultry grit is usually granite chips. Grit is used in the chicken's gizzard to help grind up food.

Oystershell is a calcium supplement. Oystershell is digested by the chicken so that its body can use the calcium in it.

kk

 

[elmo]

Quote:
The new chickens could be bullying some of the existing flock and keeping them away from the feed. Sometimes if you sit and watch the flock for a while, you can see this kind of behavior happening. One solution is to add multiple feed stations.

I would check over all of your original flock carefully to see if you can spot any that seem thinner than usual or show any other symptoms. Any birds that seem thin or off in any way, isolate them with access to warmth, food and water. Sometimes that's all that's needed for a bird to rebound, away from the stress of being in the flock.

Of course, when you add new birds to a flock without a quarantine period, you're taking the risk that they could be bringing any manner of sicknesses into your flock. That could be what's going on here, too.

 

[iamamy]

Does any one have a good way of tagging your chickens. All of his leghorns look just alike. I know he is feeding them oyster shells, but I haven't heard him mention anything about grit. I will ask him. Thank you all for your suggestions and we welcome any other suggestions. We will sit with them awhile tonight and see if we can see any issues. The leghorns are so nervous and flighty, they will not be too happy about us being in there.

 

[keith_johnson1967]

tagging your chickens have a look for these POULTRY LEG RINGS, they avaible all over net and on ebay