sudden death; 3 chickens; weeks apart....are the rest soon to follow?

[my4ladies]

I'm so worried for my chickens!!! I'm scared I might lose my flock and I have no idea where to start to try and prevent another death! I hope someone knows what's going on and can give me some advice.

3 have died.
....The first one died when she was about 2 months old (this was a little over a month ago).
....The second died about 1 week ago.
....I found the third one dead today.

Some "clues":
-One of them was making a weird sound...I suspect this was the 2nd one to die, long after making this sound:
-The ones that died happened to be bought from the same lady (as hatching eggs)
-They were all sudden deaths (noticed odd behavior day before or of death
-No diarrhea
-Lethargic
-1st chicken to die seemed to be getting progressively weaker/slower walking
-2nd chicken to die had balance issues...stumbled when trying to walk
-3rd chicken to die...I wasn't home yesterday or today to notice signs (hubby took care of them and wouldn't notice if anything was off)

My husband put fertilizer down over the grass a few weeks ago. We kept the chickens in for a while until it dissolved (we had a bunch of rain which helped). Even if they managed to find some would it kill them?

Any thoughts would be very much appreciated. Or a good website on "diagnosing" chicken illnesses.

 

[Eggcessive]

It could have been the lawn fertilizer, but the sound your pullet makes is a bit like a chicken sneeze. You can see in the video that she is arching her neck as she sneezes. As for hatching eggs MG can be passed along through the egg. Here is a list of common poultry diseases, and pay special attention to infectious bronchitis and larygotracheitis: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 

[my4ladies]

Thank you for posting that link. I don't think it's either of those that you mentioned...there has never been discharge of any kind from any of them. I looked at they symptoms of MG as well and I don't think its that either. So far Avian encephalitis seems to match the symptoms. I'm going to look more into it.

Thanks again.