12 of 36 chicks dead, 25 catfish floating, update from DEC...

[Camelot Farms]

Yesterday all were fine. Today have lost 33% of chicks.

Have treated with Aurymiacin (poor spelling). Removed all shavings and replaced. Anything else to do?

On a side note...while I was cleaning up mess, sent son with dead chicks to dispose. He comes back and says that ALL 25 of our catfish are floating on the pond.

I would suspect bioterrorism but that would be paranoid....right?

 

[cassie0980]

Do you have a well? Perhaps you should get your well tested in case something has made it into the ground water. Just a guess.

 

[Karrie13]

Is anyone crop dusting nearby? Just wondering if maybe some accidently "landed" at your place.

 

[calicokat]

OMG! How terrible. You don't have a cranky neighbor who would poison your pets do you?

 

[LesGan]

Any insecticide spraying around your place and then rain that would have washed into pond? I am so sorry, Leslie

 

[chickbea]

Oh, you have something strange going on. I'd be on the phone to my local university to get a necropsy done on a chicken and one of the fish.

 

[Kitsap Cluckers]

This sounds like crop dusting to me. Do you live near farm land? Years ago I lived near farmland, and after a crop dusting treatment gone awry, my neighbors bass and catfish went belly up in his large pond. I had some adult birds become ill, too.

 

[Camelot Farms]

I've called the VA Dept of Game and Inland Fisheries. They tried to be helpful but I am not buying their idea. I am sure that when I said 'pond', they immediately thought murky muddy slimy nasty.

My pond is so clean that the kids swim in it quite often...not recently thankfully.
You can see out to the bottom over 10 feet from the shore.

So the idea that my pond is not a healthy pond is not working for me.

They also dont believe that there is a correlation between the chicks and the fish.
Again, not buying it completely.

So, I am off to figure out how to remove 25-30 5 lb catfish from the pond before it draws every coyote, fox and turkey vulture for 50 miles. Sweet jesus, this is gonna be one of those days....

The chicks are drinking the water with the Aurymiacin in it so maybe I can save a few. Please keep the good vibes coming...and the tissue...I've cried til my eyes are swollen...

 

[Renee]

I'd send a catfish and a chick to the State Vet for a necropsy. Something's not right.

 

[The Chicken People]

I am so sorry for your losses! I hope you figure out what caused this! I cried when a few years ago we found every large bass in our pond floating belly up! It had been very hot with no wind for three days straight! They suffocated!