Mature Chickens Sudden death in sleep - 3 dead so far - what are common causes of this?

[keeperofthechickens]

Start with my question, the rest of the details below


[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Are their any common disease that will suddenly kill healthy mature chickens in their sleep? What normally kills mature chickens quickly out of the blue?[/FONT]


Been keeping chickens for over 20 years and never has seen this before, any ideas are welcome

Had a 2 yr old standard cochin hen die in her sleep tuesday, was not acting sick, and had no signs of trauma. Then Saturday I went into the coop and found another cochin hen and rooster dead, right where they slept, one was still on top of her nest box. No signs of trauma, there combs were blueish/black. Now I am worried I may have some bug in my coop

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Have 10x16 garden shed with windows with a 16x24 covered run. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Have 2 dozen chickens mostly Standard Cochins and banty polish, along with some homing pigeons and 1 turkey.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Feed always out for the birds, a mix of Corn and layer Pellet with Grit available. Change water every other day add a splash of Apple Cider Vinegar, and there is a tank heater in there also[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Live in MN and cold started coming[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Shed had windows for venilation and 1 250 heat red heat lamp. Woodshavings from TSC as litter[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]As it stands now no other birds are acting sick, although my other Cochin Roo does had some darkening in the comb, not sure it its frost bite or from a fight. (the other cochin rooster that died had no signs of fighting on him)[/FONT]

Only possivle cause I can think so far...
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]- My heat lamp bulb did shatter 2 weeks ago, tried to clean up as much as a can but still find a shard of glass once in a while when in the coop. Thinking perhaps they ate glass and it slowly killed them. Anybody heard of this before? Started to cut open the Roo to see but did not go too far in the disection, he did have a full crop[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Thanks[/FONT]

 

[Judy]

Perhaps some kind of poison, intentional or otherwise? I wouldn't think the broken glass would do it, though if it did you should find it.

Here are a couple of links that might help. Scroll down to page 8 of the first one.

http://www.poultry.msstate.edu/extension/pdf/diseases_poultry_diagnosis_symptoms.pdf

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 

[keeperofthechickens]

Thanks for the links. No other birds have died so far and they all look healthy so I hope it was the broken bulb.

 

[casportpony]

Is your water tank metal or plastic? I thought I read that if one is using ACV, it needs to be in a plastic container, or you run the risk of metal poisoning.

 

[keeperofthechickens]

Good catch casportponey! it is plastic but the tank heater has some metal in it. Perhaps that was the cause. Will keep the ACV out of it for now. Although you would think the banty's or pigeons would die before the big cochins. Either way will have to do no ACV until it gets warm. Appreciate the info!

 

[casportpony]

CA has a free necropsy service that I have started using, maybe MN has something similar? If they do, ask them if you can use their FedEx account number, it really helps on shipping costs.

 

[cchardwick]

Make sure you don't have any teflon coated light bulbs in the area. I just read about that in a chicken magazine and I found one in my spare light bulbs. I threw it out just in case. A 'tough light' bulb can kill all your chickens as it makes toxic fumes when used.

 

[keeperofthechickens]

Good point, thanks for the info.