new adopted flock not doing well.

Hello BYC fam!!! ( I apologise in advance for the lengthy post. I feel that the background is important in helping figure out what could be wrong)

So we have three chickens (Buffy, Mo, and Hennie) they are perfect, beautiful, happy, and friendly!!! We were planning on getting more and someone my uncle works with wanted to get rid of his little coop and three chickens (1 year old) We gladly took them and their house in. I cant imagine someone not loving / wanting to keep their babies and knew I could give them a new home / spoil them / love them. (we named them Reggie, Tori, and Marsala) Marsala is a barred rock big and beautiful. Reggie is a brown leghorn large and beautiful. Tori is the runt of the group very small brown leghorn (?) with long spurs. The gentleman we got them from said he never feeds them any treats just feed and water. (Rusty old little waterer gross! threw that out right away!!!)

We got them a week ago... we noticed they were very scared (naturally we uprooted their home) We noticed that they almost NEVER leave the house part of the coop. It is very rare that we catch them in the run (HOW SAD!!! Buffy Mo and Hennie wouldnt be caught dead in their house during the day! There are so man little bugs and worms and pebbles to eat and play with on the ground!) So they have been inside their little house, never leave, never forage. We coaxed them out this weekend with scratch and a head of lettuce (they really liked both!!!!!) The became a bit more friendly ( I think they started to associate me with food and water ) Ill take it!) I noticed that they dont eat nearly as much as Buffy Mo and Hennie... so I started giving them a little extra scratch / lettuce / treats. They drink lots of water!

On Sunday morning I let them free range again... this time it took much less coaxing! I think they are starting to act like real chickens! I noticed Marsala (the adopted barred rock) looked like she had pasty but!!! (shes a grown chicken I didnt think this was possible! I thought it just happened with fuzzy but babies.) So we caught her, and I dissolved the poop with a wet paper towel. It seemed to be around her vent (? nicer way of saying vagina?) but didnt obstruct it. Either way, I made sure she was good and free of any poops & she bocked in thanks. Ran over to the scratch / lettuce gobbled some down and went on her merry way foraging in the yard.

Yesterday (my husbands day to tend chickens) he said Marsala was laying in the coop and didnt come out to forage with the other two. We decided they maybe are not eating enough so we though about giving them a little of the grower food (which Buffy, Mo, and Hennie are still on) in the morning to see if they liked that better / had more interest in it (picky chickens maybe????) But when Joe went to check on them this morning Marsala died. he checked her butt, and body for any visible injuries / problems and couldnt see any issues.

I am worried about Tori and Reggie... (and so glad we didnt introduce them to our other three babies!!!) Do you think Marsala was sick? Possibly backed up with poop? Could Tori and Reggie also be sick? Is this why their appetite is not like the other chickens? Will they be okay just the two of them in their coop / run? Will they be sad without their "Momma Hen" ?

Hope and Help please! <3

Whenever you move chickens to a new property, especially with other chickens already in residence, the risk of coccidiosis is very high. They can come into contact with strains of cocci that are new to them that they do not have resistance to. So that would be my first suspicion and I would run a course of Corid for all of the new birds. You need to at least rule that out and it will help protect the other new birds while they build up their own resistance to the cocci in your environment. It can also work the other way around, the new birds can bring along a strain that is new to your existing birds. So a close eye must be kept on all, or just treat everybody with a round of Corid. It never does any harm to treat and then at least that base is covered.

I would also deworm them with a good, effective wormer like Valbazen or liquid Safeguard for goats.

Will do!!! I originally ruled that out because our babies and the new flock have two separate houses on opposite ends of the yard! I was reading a bit today that just from filling the waters at the same time this could happen! Ordering medicine now! Thanks for the advice!!! I was dying to hear back from someone! Your words are appreciated!

Your welcome, hope it solves the problem. And yes, easy to track it around on shoes etc. and it's just in the soil anyway.

I just spoke with someone at mypetchicken.com (they are so darn helpful!) He suggested taking a poop sample to the vet for analysis that it sounds like it could be worms. We will see what happens!

They certainly could have worms and it would be a good idea to deworm them. Worms usually don't cause a sudden onset of symptoms and quick death however. Birds usually decline, become unthrifty looking and thin, pale in the face/comb etc.

cafarmgirl said:

They certainly could have worms and it would be a good idea to deworm them.  Worms usually don't cause a sudden onset of symptoms and quick death however.  Birds usually decline, become unthrifty looking and thin, pale in the face/comb etc.

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Hummm... yeah I am definitely trying both for the other two girls. Its safe to assume they all have the same germs / issues since they live together. I feel so bad for them I hope they dont die too / thank you again! Ill let you know what happens.