Urgent: Birds dying

[SarahInAlaska]

Yesterday I had a younger bird (one of my Marans) keeled over almost dead. It was hardly moving and was breathing so little I thought it was actually dead when I first saw it. The only reason I knew it was alive was because its leg moved ever so slightly after one of the other chickens bumped it. It was in a pen in my garage with three other birds that were just too small and getting picked on by the rest of the flock. The other three still seem to be fine. Then tonight I went out to the coop to collect eggs (its pointless to try before 8pm because nobody lays before 1pm.) To my horror when I opened the door there was one of my adult layers (about 1.5-2 years old, not entirely sure of age) that was dead and stiff. One leg was pulled in while the other was slightly outstretched but not all the way. Both chickens eyes were closed. I burned the first in the burn barrel because I didn't know what made it die but the burn barrel is only 30 feet away from the run. Could I have made it spread? Do I have a coincidence or an epidemic. What do I do with the eggs? Do I toss them all? I'm so stressed. Everything bad is happening right now and losing two chickens in as many days is just compounding the stress. I don't know what to do and I'm so afraid of losing my whole flock.

 

[Nutcase]

Yesterday I had a younger bird (one of my Marans) keeled over almost dead. It was hardly moving and was breathing so little I thought it was actually dead when I first saw it. The only reason I knew it was alive was because its leg moved ever so slightly after one of the other chickens bumped it. It was in a pen in my garage with three other birds that were just too small and getting picked on by the rest of the flock. The other three still seem to be fine. Then tonight I went out to the coop to collect eggs (its pointless to try before 8pm because nobody lays before 1pm.) To my horror when I opened the door there was one of my adult layers (about 1.5-2 years old, not entirely sure of age) that was dead and stiff. One leg was pulled in while the other was slightly outstretched but not all the way. Both chickens eyes were closed. I burned the first in the burn barrel because I didn't know what made it die but the burn barrel is only 30 feet away from the run. Could I have made it spread? Do I have a coincidence or an epidemic. What do I do with the eggs? Do I toss them all? I'm so stressed. Everything bad is happening right now and losing two chickens in as many days is just compounding the stress. I don't know what to do and I'm so afraid of losing my whole flock.

I would say coincidence. I'm sure that if it was some sort of epidemic, you would have noticed something before the deaths occurred. You didn't actually say that the young Maran died, but I'm assuming it did? Did you see any symptoms on the bodies, like wounds or swelling?

Sorry for your loss.

 

[ten chicks]

Yesterday I had a younger bird (one of my Marans) keeled over almost dead. It was hardly moving and was breathing so little I thought it was actually dead when I first saw it. The only reason I knew it was alive was because its leg moved ever so slightly after one of the other chickens bumped it. It was in a pen in my garage with three other birds that were just too small and getting picked on by the rest of the flock. The other three still seem to be fine. Then tonight I went out to the coop to collect eggs (its pointless to try before 8pm because nobody lays before 1pm.) To my horror when I opened the door there was one of my adult layers (about 1.5-2 years old, not entirely sure of age) that was dead and stiff. One leg was pulled in while the other was slightly outstretched but not all the way. Both chickens eyes were closed. I burned the first in the burn barrel because I didn't know what made it die but the burn barrel is only 30 feet away from the run. Could I have made it spread? Do I have a coincidence or an epidemic. What do I do with the eggs? Do I toss them all? I'm so stressed. Everything bad is happening right now and losing two chickens in as many days is just compounding the stress. I don't know what to do and I'm so afraid of losing my whole flock.

We need symptoms. Any discharge from eyes/nostrils,vent issues(discharge,red)runny/watery poop. Has feed been changed,any algae in water,dead mice/frogs in area What is the temperature in pen?

 

[SarahInAlaska]

The young bird did die. I thought she was sleeping the other night when I looked in on her but in retrospect she was a bit fluffed up. She's about 10 weeks old so I wasn't monitoring the temp in their pen. Other than that, nothing from either of them. No runny nose, no cough, no weird poop, fresh, clean water.