13 week old chickens dying left & right... cant walk *THEY ARENT BROILERS*

[chevgrl]

I have about about 150 roosters from Mcmurray and another hatchery. They are different breeds. But the last 4 days weve lost chickens and they start the day with being unable to walk. From the knee down their legs lay on the ground( and you can tell who is going to be dead the next day cause it all starts with a limp) but Then by afternoon they are dead.

 

[hurricane]

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/ you can try looking here, goodluck

 

[centrarchid]

Could you provide a description of setup? Pictures real nice. Environment may be contributing factor. I have all kinds of extra fun with health issues when rearing more critters at high densities.

 

[chevgrl]

Yes let me upload them sorry it took me awhile to respond

 

[chevgrl]

these pics are taking forever to get onto my computer! says 2minutes left

 

[chevgrl]

okay here are the pics i took I believe this is about 3000 square ft outside. and its pretty dark inside for my camera phone to get a picture (no flash) but the inside is 48x24 so 1152sqft inside. they are let out everyday

 

[chevgrl]

My biggest issue its that we are planning on butchering them in 2-3weeks and i obviously dont want to waste time/money on butchering chickens that are diseased and we cant eat

Moved this guy outside to get a picture of him... as you can see he can still stand up slightly but not long at all and when he walks he stumbbles all over himself

 

[centrarchid]

Condtions and most importantly birds look OK from distance.

Feed: Is it a new batch or been exposed to water / high humidity. Get a new bag of another brand or another lot / run from same supplier and feed that out to see if losses stop. If bad feed, losses should stop within a day following switch. I have killed with bad feed, multiple times. With mine is was usually water soluble vitamin related and birds would die rapidly once clinical signs evident. Feed could also be moldy.

What does feces look like? How is do others act?

 

[chevgrl]

The fence is all those cattle panels over old wood fencing,except in one area where it is chicken fence over old wood fencing lol. the other thing is I think a few of them were hens and i removed them thinking maybe they were fighting over those hens and I didnt want the hens to be killed from all the mounting. but with this many roosters @ this age (and believe I will never do these again, all though there is a big market here for them) they are all crowing and constantly fight.... or threaten anyways.

 

[centrarchid]

This looking like a vitamin issue big time. If practical, then quickly get a some of the vitamin and electrolyte powder solution. Get some down your effected birds and if need be force it using a syringe. Assuming I am correct, condition will immediately stabilize and improvement will be evident within just a couple hours. Also if this works, throw out the old feed.